For those that use both Aperture and at least one Nik application...
If you're not doing any editing in Photoshop, is there any benefit to using Photoshop as a go-between between Aperture and Nik, rather than just sending it straight to Nik?
The only thing I can think of is you might want to add each Nik app edit to a new layer, so you can go back in time a little better.
Does that sound right? Any other considerations?
Thanks.
Great question.
I am not a photoshop user (yet)... but I did buy the Nik complete package for LR and A3. I use it with A3. It is absolutely fantastic!
I did decide to return the Nik software... and repurchase it with the full PS, LR and A3. For the time being... I'll continue to use it with just A3... but I do plan to add PS to my editing suite once I have time to learn it better. It is worth the extra $170 to me to have the option to use Nik with PS in the future.
What I liked best was the ability to add Nik filters in various layers... and then blend them together. I saw this being done in several of the instructional videos on the Nik site. Sometimes one of the artists would apply a very intense Nik affect (too intense on its own)... but then blend it into the final picture with a low blending value within PS. The results seemed better to me than doing it without layers. Another thing was to add Nik filters as a PS layer with at 0% blending... but then painting it into final photo in selected areas only.
BTW: if you watch the instructional videos, they almost all start with a promo code of the guest artist's name for a 15% discount. Hence... the LR+A3 version is $45 off and the PS+LR+A3 version is $75 off.
So far I have been using Define, Color Efex 4, and Viviza 2. I have been having a blast with it... and I now realize why many (if not most) pros use Nik. I still have not used Silver Efex or the sharpening tool. I'll try the sharpening tool next.
One thing that I do not like about using it with just A3, is that once you edit something with Nik, then you are imputing a TIFF file back to A3 and from then forward, you have lost your RAW non-destructive editing. That is not a problem if you do all of your raw processing first in A3, and then use Nik as the final steps. The only snag is that define (or any digital noise reduction) should ideally be performed prior to editing.
What I think I'll be doing is:
- Import Raw+JPeg with JPEG as default
- Do photo organization, tagging, rating, etc
- For those that I wish to edit, switch to Raw as master
- Do initial Raw processing such as exposure, white balance, color correction, etc
- Export to Define for noise reduction (if needed)
- Export to other Nik filters as desired
- Set stack pic to be the newly created Tiff file
Hope this helps.
/Jim
