Google Releases $149 Nik Software Plug-in Bundle for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture

MacRumors · Mar 25, 2013

Back in September, Google purchased Nik Software of Snapseed fame. In addition to being the team behind the iOS photo editing app that was named Apple's 2011 iPad App of the Year, Nik Software also produces several plug-ins for professional image editing applications like Aperture, Lightroom, and Photoshop.

As of today, Nik's plug-ins are available as a single bundle, which is priced at $149, a significant discount from the original $499 price tag. Rebranded the "Nik Collection by Google," the bundle includes HDR Efex Pro 2, Silver Efex Pro 2, Sharpener Pro 3, Color Efex Pro 4, Viveza 2, and Dfine 2.

The collection, which is offered for all three popular photo editing platforms, includes tools for creating HDR images, reducing photo noise, producing black and white photos, and making minute color adjustments.

New users can purchase the bundle via the Nik Software website, or access a free 15-day trial. Existing Nik users will be upgraded to the entire Nik collection for free, through an email that will be sent out in the next few days.

Article Link: Google Releases $149 Nik Software Plug-in Bundle for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture

rageguy · Mar 25, 2013

Use coupon code DZISER to drop the price further down to $126.

madbard · Mar 25, 2013

Why does Google want to get into the selling software business?

Born Again · Mar 25, 2013

This is great news for the community .

Thank you Google.

ChrisA · Mar 25, 2013

madbard said:
Why does Google want to get into the selling software business?

So that all the software engineers at NIK can get a paycheck.

e-coli · Mar 25, 2013

Didn't most everybody switch to VSCO a long time ago?

DesterWallaboo · Mar 25, 2013

I used to use NIK software for much of my workflow... since Google acquired it, I've shifted over to VSCO and other tools.

Just say no to supporting datamining companies that sell your personal information to whoever wants it.

HiRez · Mar 25, 2013

The only reasonable way to read this is that they're killing this software, which is a shame. I'm sure they will use the technology elsewhere, but I think this spells the end of the Nik packages as we know them. I can't see Google being in the business of maintaining and selling this software, it's not what they do.

Too bad Adobe didn't buy them and integrate Nik's tools directly into Lightroom, that would have been amazing.

r.harris1 · Mar 25, 2013

HiRez said:
The only reasonable way to read this is that they're killing this software, which is a shame. I'm sure they will use the technology elsewhere, but I think this spells the end of the Nik packages as we know them. I can't see Google being in the business of maintaining and selling this software, it's not what they do.

Too bad Adobe didn't buy them and integrate Nik's tools directly into Lightroom, that would have been amazing.

I'm not really sure I agree, only because they put some non trivial work into this release by packaging up the suite into one installer and unified licenses, which wasn't true when I originally bought it. I think they're also responding to onOne's recent promotion, which was essentially "we'll always be here, when others won't" (no names, of course

) and responding to other criticism. Now, that said, google will drop software at the drop of a hat so we'll have to see, but I guess I view this as more positive than negative.

ijohn.8.80 · Mar 25, 2013

Looks like Google could go two ways with this:

Rip the guts out of the Nik Bundle and use it for themselves only on the X Phone as their version of the instagram thingy, stopping sales and support of the bundle along the way
Do the aforementioned and keep the bundle package selling also

Mike Oxard · Mar 25, 2013

Bugger, bought it about six weeks ago for the full price minus the usual discount

audio_inside · Mar 25, 2013

HiRez said:
Too bad Adobe didn't buy them and integrate Nik's tools directly into Lightroom, that would have been amazing.

Too bad Apple didn't buy them and integrate Nik's tools directly into Aperture and release it as 4.0.

Saladinos · Mar 25, 2013

Google are having a bit of a trust problem at the moment, aren't they?

Ever since Reader, people seem less willing to invest time learning how to use their products and depending on them, since they feel Google is far too willing to let popular and needed products die.

You expect that with paid software (such as this); nobody's going to pay cash money for a product with no future. The sharp discount could be interpreted either as a push for growth, or a fire-sale for a suite that will stagnate.

What's more interesting is that we're starting to see it with Google's "free" services. I've always wondered what would happen long-term to the ad-supported, zero-cost software model Google pushes. I'm not convinced that you can totally finance the entire world with advertisements, and I think it's far more restrictive in terms of competition.

Now it seems Google might have started the rot themselves. I've seen a lot of bashing of the new 'Google Ideas' app because people feel Evernote more reliable in the long-term, for example.

Google need to defuse the feeling of medium/long-term uncertainty around their products. It's suddenly emerged to become the biggest threat to their business. If it continues, there's a risk that people won't listen to them or worse, won't believe them.

fsck-y dingo · Mar 25, 2013

Mike Oxard said:
Bugger, bought it about six weeks ago for the full price minus the usual discount

Double check to be sure that it was six weeks ago. If it was on or after Feb 22nd you're able to get some money back.

http://connect.dpreview.com/post/4452357456/google-nik-software-plugins

From the link above:

"If you previously bought any of these plugins, Google isnt going to leave you in the cold for already having dropped a lot of money. If you purchased any individual plugin within the last five years, you get the entire collection for free. If you spent more than $149 on plugins since February 22nd of this year, youll be refunded the difference."

The article also mentions that this software will continue to be developed further so it's not the end for this plugin package.

jinxedluck84 · Mar 25, 2013

Is there anything out there that is comparable to Nik? I'm a long time user of their plugins but with the Google acquisition and some other little things (like the lack of a Retina update), I find myself back in the market.

I've played around with DxO Optics Pro and Capture One Pro but neither really fit the bill for me (and VSCO looks like its just filters and film replication).

samcraig · Mar 25, 2013

DesterWallaboo said:
Just say no to supporting datamining companies that sell your personal information to whoever wants it.

What personal information do you believe Google sells to whoever wants it. I'd love to hear this...

needfx · Mar 25, 2013

what? no particles?

mdriftmeyer · Mar 25, 2013

madbard said:
Why does Google want to get into the selling software business?

Probably to avoid the inevitable collapse of their smartphone business without suites of software.

----------

audio_inside said:
Too bad Apple didn't buy them and integrate Nik's tools directly into Aperture and release it as 4.0.

Probably because anything Nik can do [and borrow from FOSS] Adobe and Apple can do themselves and not charge and additional $149 for said services, but integrate them and extend a public API for them.

Razeus · Mar 25, 2013

This a boon for me as I only had the LR version. Now I can use it photoshop all at once via layers instead of creating a tiff for each product since LR only let's you work with one app at a time and creates a brand new file each time.

However, giving a $500 software for $150, I fear we may be near the end of closing this product down for good. Get it while you can guys.

charlituna · Mar 25, 2013

fsck-y dingo said:
"If you previously bought any of these plugins, Google isnt going to leave you in the cold for already having dropped a lot of money. If you purchased any individual plugin within the last five years, you get the entire collection for free. If you spent more than $149 on plugins since February 22nd of this year, youll be refunded the difference."

.

Hmm I wonder how they will be tracking this. About a year ago I was given free copies of a couple of the filters by Nik to try out. If they are going by serials I might end up getting the rest of them. Although at that price I don't mind paying if I must

tech4all · Mar 25, 2013

DesterWallaboo said:
I used to use NIK software for much of my workflow... since Google acquired it, I've shifted over to VSCO and other tools.

Just say no to supporting datamining companies that sell your personal information to whoever wants it.

Yup you sure showed Google

Better get rid of your Mac and iPhone...Apples gonna get you to!

tekboi · Mar 25, 2013

DesterWallaboo said:
I used to use NIK software for much of my workflow... since Google acquired it, I've shifted over to VSCO and other tools.

Just say no to supporting datamining companies that sell your personal information to whoever wants it.

Dude, you're not hurting anybody but yourself with that logic. Pretty sure Google is not missing your money.

chris2kari · Mar 25, 2013

Saladinos said:
Google are having a bit of a trust problem at the moment, aren't they?

Ever since Reader, people seem less willing to invest time learning how to use their products and depending on them, since they feel Google is far too willing to let popular and needed products die.

You expect that with paid software (such as this); nobody's going to pay cash money for a product with no future. The sharp discount could be interpreted either as a push for growth, or a fire-sale for a suite that will stagnate.

What's more interesting is that we're starting to see it with Google's "free" services. I've always wondered what would happen long-term to the ad-supported, zero-cost software model Google pushes. I'm not convinced that you can totally finance the entire world with advertisements, and I think it's far more restrictive in terms of competition.

Now it seems Google might have started the rot themselves. I've seen a lot of bashing of the new 'Google Ideas' app because people feel Evernote more reliable in the long-term, for example.

Google need to defuse the feeling of medium/long-term uncertainty around their products. It's suddenly emerged to become the biggest threat to their business. If it continues, there's a risk that people won't listen to them or worse, won't believe them.

Agreed.
I've been an enthusiastic proponent of Google for a long time but find myself weary of the constant churn of products & services together with an increasing feeling of uneasiness about relying on them for my services.
I saw the writing on the wall 6 months ago & switched from Reader to Feedly+Pocket (and happy with the change thank you). I have a free Google apps account, new sign ups have been discontinued. I'm now getting emails from Google 'inviting' me to 'upgrade' to a paid Google apps business account.. The writing is on the wall, obviously the free accounts will canned altogether soon so I'm window shopping another solution. Gotta say Microsoft's Outlook.com is much slicker than Gmail. Google Docs/Drive has been neutered by only editing in their stupid proprietary format and requiring an insane 4 step process to round trip the files to my machine for editing otherwise.. A free Sky drive account allows slick native editing of Microsoft's file formats (which are ubiquitous & unavoidable).
As the value equation changes I'm surprised to find myself migrating off their platform. They need to do a lot better.
Preparing for life after Google..

Battlefield Fan · Mar 25, 2013

audio_inside said:
Too bad Apple didn't buy them and integrate Nik's tools directly into Aperture and release it as 4.0.

Agreed. 4.0 is long overdue.

Zaqfalcon · Mar 26, 2013

This is quite good news, at least it hasn't been swept completely under the carpet, for now. It's a great suite of plugins, much more versatile and than VSCO in my opinion, the only pity is it saves as Tiffs not into a new Raw block. Yes it would've been nicer if Apple had bought them and integrated with Aperture but no need to cry over spilt milk. I hope Google improve the update method, it was rather clunky before. I bought the Collection previously but haven't updated the ColorEfex element to number 4 since that came out, getting it for free would be a nice bonus.

Google Releases $149 Nik Software Plug-in Bundle for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture

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