DxO’s Nik Collection 6.3 completes rebuild

It is a big day for Nik Collection. The release of the latest photo-editing plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom Classic marks the culmination of a six-year project to entirely rebuild the software inherited from Google in 2017. Available now, Nik Collection 6.3 is faster and more reliable than ever before and features comprehensive updates to Nik Sharpener and Nik HDR Efex.

Completely redesigned

In May 2017, Google announced it would no longer support or develop the collection of plugins acquired from Nik Software in 2012. Justifiably, the world of photography was troubled; photographers expressed their dismay, and more than 15,000 people from around the globe signed a petition calling on Google to keep Nik Collection alive.

Google decided to entrust the Nik Collection to DxO Labs in October 2017. Consequently, DxO faced a significant challenge: making sense of millions of lines of code without clear documentation. Nonetheless, having committed to the photographic community to ensure the future of Nik Collection, the hard work began!

Six years later, the release of Nik Collection 6.3 marks the end of that journey. The massive task of reauthoring is complete, with every line of code rewritten for the latest technology. The suite is now fully compatible with Windows, MacOS, and Apple Silicon, works harmoniously with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic and Affinity Photo, and is faster and more reliable than ever.

New for Nik Collection 6.3

The new editions of Nik Sharpener and Nik HDR Efex include many updates, making them more powerful and easier to use. Both feature a new interface with a cleaner look that matches the other Nik Collection plugins. Also, you can now choose where sliders for local adjustments appear on-screen: controls can be kept in a sidebar to tidy the image area or overlaid in the traditional style.

The new editions of Nik Sharpener and Nik HDR Efex include many updates, making them more powerful and easier to use. Both feature a new interface with a clearer, cleaner look that matches the other Nik Collection plugins. Also, you can now choose where sliders for local adjustments appear on-screen: controls can be kept in a sidebar to tidy the image area or overlaid in the traditional style.

And as with Nik Collection 6.3’s other plugins, the U Point™ technology now features:

• Control Lines add flexibility when making broad adjustments, letting you harness the power of Control Points when sharpening across linear gradients
• Control Point diffusion lets you regulate the strength and style of sharpening adjustments more easily
• Control Points and Control Lines can now be inverted, giving you immense flexibility when sharpening specific areas of an image.
• New colour Selectivity sliders allow Control Point and Control Line editing to be tied to specific colours and tones in an image.
• Renamable Local Adjustments let you stay on top of complex edits, and local adjustments can now be saved as Presets, giving you quick access to frequently used sharpening recipes.

Nik Collection 6.3 makes editing easy

Nik Collection 6.3 is easier to use thanks to its new and improved features. It plugs straight into Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom Classic, DxO PhotoLab, and Affinity Photo, providing unprecedented creative control without affecting your preferred workflow.

• Several new workflow features make editing even easier:
• Turn your edits into a Smart Object at any stage from within the plugin, giving you fully non-destructive editing in Photoshop.
• Call on any of your last 15 Nik Collection edits and apply them with a single click.
• Presets can now be searched for by name, so you can instantly find your favourite edits.
• HiDPI & Multiscreen support lets you work with all screen configurations.
• Affinity Photo is now automatically detected as part of the installation.

All about Nik Collection 6.3

Nik Collection 6.3 includes eight powerful plugins that can function as standalone applications. They cover everything you need as a photographer to improve your images, both creatively and technically.

Nik Collection 6.3: Price and availability

Nik Collection 6.3 is available now as a free upgrade for existing Nik Collection 6 users. New customers can download Windows and macOS versions exclusively from the DxO website (https://shop.dxo.com/en) at £135, while a 30-day free trial is also available. Nik Collection 4 or 5 owners can take advantage of a special upgrade price of £65. To upgrade, customers should log into their customer account at https://shop.dxo.com/login_upgrade.php/en. Nik Collection 6 does not require a subscription and can be installed on up to three computers.

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About the author

As well as running Edinburgh Photography Workshop, Rich Dyson is a professional photographer. His photographs are regularly used in newspapers such as The Times, Guardian and Daily Telegraph. He also had two solo exhibitions and was featured in a members-sponsored exhibition in the Scottish Parliament. You can see and buy his photography at richdysonphotography.com.