Nik Collection 9.0 — macOS

You've got a landscape shot that needs more depth, or a portrait where the skin tones are close but not quite right. You open it in Photoshop, then call up Color Efex Pro from the Nik Collection 9 suite. The Selective tool lets you paint an effect onto just the sky, leaving the foreground alone. A couple of slider moves and the image has the mood you were after, without masking in the host app. The suite runs as a set of plugins, so you stay inside your usual editor. Color Efex Pro alone holds 52 filters and 250 effects. Silver Efex Pro handles black-and-white conversions with presets that actually look like classic films. Analog Efex Pro gives you over 80 tools for adding grain, light leaks, and lens distortion that doesn't feel like a gimmick. Version 9 adds Depth Masks and AI Masks, which build selections based on depth information or subject recognition. There's also a new Color Grading tool inside Color Efex, plus Chromatic Shift, Glass Effect, and Halation for more deliberate control over the final look. U Point technology is still there for local adjustments without layer masks. The plugins work with Photoshop, Affinity Photo, and DxO PhotoLab. If you're running macOS 13.3 or later, the whole suite installs and activates from one bundle. No need to hunt down individual installers.

Set output format to match your working file

When you first open a Nik Collection plugin, the defaults are safe but not always practical. The first thing I do is set the output format to match my working file. If you're editing a 16-bit TIFF in Photoshop, make sure the plugin returns a 16-bit result. The default is usually 8-bit, and once you lose those extra levels of tone, you can't get them back.

In Sharpener Pro, turn on the preview of the image area before you start. The default view can be too zoomed in to judge the overall sharpening effect. I also recommend turning off the "Apply to all" checkbox in the plugin settings until you know how each filter behaves with your specific image. That checkbox can be a time-saver later, but it's a headache when you're learning.

For Silver Efex Pro, set your default preset to something neutral. The suite ships with strong black-and-white presets that look great on the first shot but can mislead you into thinking you don't need to tweak the sliders. Start from a neutral preset and build the tonality yourself.

Stacking too many Color Efex filters turns photos muddy

The most common mistake is treating the Nik plugins as one-click fixes. Color Efex Pro's 52 filters are tempting to stack, but piling on effects turns a photo muddy fast. Begin with one or two adjustments, and use the Selective tool to limit where they apply.

Another one is forgetting to work on a copy. The plugins modify the image directly by default, so if you apply a strong HDR effect in HDR Efex Pro and save, you lose the original. Always duplicate the layer in Photoshop before launching a plugin. In Lightroom, use a virtual copy.

Beginners also tend to ignore U Point control points after placing them. You click a point to define an area, then adjust the sliders. But if you don't come back and fine-tune the point's size and opacity, the adjustment looks blotchy. Give yourself a few extra seconds to dial in the control point radius.

And the last one: not using the Mask Overlay in version 9. When you apply a Depth Mask or AI Mask, the overlay shows you exactly what is selected. If you skip that check, you can end up with a mask that's too tight or too loose. Toggle the overlay on, adjust the mask edges, then proceed.

One photographer's raw-to-Nik wedding workflow

A wedding photographer I know shoots in raw with two bodies, one prime and one zoom. She brings the selects into Lightroom, makes basic exposure corrections, then sends the images to the Nik Collection as TIFFs. Her most-used workflow is for the reception photos, where the lighting is mixed—stage lights on the dance floor, candles on the tables, open windows behind the caterers.

She opens the reception shots in Color Efex Pro, applies the Cross Balance filter to cool the warm tungsten lights, then uses the Selective tool to paint that adjustment onto only the faces. The background stays warm, which preserves the mood. Then she sends the same file to Sharpener Pro for a light pass on the eyes and jewelry. The whole process takes maybe two minutes per image, and she keeps the original raw untouched. That kind of targeted control is why she keeps the suite in her workflow after years of trying other plugins.

Punch up a portrait: global edits first, then Nik plugins

Here's how a session might go if you're working on a portrait that needs a bit of punch.

1. Open the raw file in Photoshop or Lightroom. Make your global exposure and white balance adjustments first. The Nik plugins work best on a well-prepared file.
2. Duplicate the background layer in Photoshop. This gives you a fallback if you go too far.
3. Launch Color Efex Pro from the Filter menu. The plugin opens with the full image in its own window.
4. Choose the Pro Contrast filter from the list. Adjust the sliders until the midtones gain some separation. Use the Selective tool to paint the effect away from the subject's face, so the filter only affects the background and clothing.
5. Click OK to apply the filter back to Photoshop. The layer you duplicated now has the Color Efex adjustment baked in.
6. Duplicate that layer again, then launch Sharpener Pro. Zoom into the eyes and the hairline using the preview. Adjust the sharpening strength until it looks crisp on screen but not crunchy. Click OK.
7. If the image needs a final mood change, duplicate once more and open Silver Efex Pro. Apply the Neutral preset, then tweak the red and yellow channels to lighten the skin tone slightly. The before-and-after split preview helps you see the change side by side.
8. Back in Photoshop, you now have three layers: the original, the color-adjusted layer, and the sharpened layer. You can lower the opacity of any layer or add a layer mask for further refinement.

That sequence covers the core of the suite in about ten minutes per image. Once you settle into the rhythm, it becomes a natural extension of your editor rather than a separate tool you have to think about.

- Depth Masks and AI Masks for smarter selections - New Color Grading tool in Nik Color Efex - Chromatic Shift, Glass Effect, and Halation added - Build label: Nik Collection 9 by DxO 9.1.0

• macOS 13.3 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon processor
• Compatible host: Photoshop, Affinity Photo, or DxO PhotoLab