Nik Collection 7 Review – Powerful Plugins

Read on to find out how the Nik Collection tools perform to enhance your creativity through powerful color and black and white Nik filters.

What is Nik Collection 7?

The Nik Collection plugin suite has a long and respectable track record among professional photographers looking to enhance their creative options.

Compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, DxO PhotoLab, and Serif Affinity Photo, the Nik Collection installer is available for Windows and macOS systems.

The latest DxO Nik Collection incorporates a series of plugins covering everything from global and local adjustments to refining images with precise masks.

These plugins are categorized as follows:

1. Nik 7 Analog Efex
2. Nik 7 Color Efex
3. Nik 7 Dfine
4. Nik 7 HDR Efex
5. Nik 7 Silver Efex
6. Nik 7 Presharpener and Nik 7 Sharpener Output
7. Nik 7 Viveza

Depending on the photography style and desired results, each plugin can be used independently or in conjunction with one another.

While most photographers may find the selection of plugins they regularly use is limited, the impact they deliver is potentially game-changing.

There’s also a free version that allows users to try out the various tools and features for 30 days before committing to the full version.

Features of Nik Collection 7

The new Nik Collection 7 release includes a wealth of editing options and filters that are suitable for all types of photography.

Whether you’re focused on creating dramatic black-and-white landscapes or portraits with rich, vivid colors, there’s a filter here that can deliver outstanding results.

While some of the plugins are unlikely to get as much use as the others, the breadth of combined functions they offer makes them a versatile addition to Adobe Photoshop workflows.

The omission of the Nik Perspective tool, available in the previous version, is disappointing, but the new features make up for this shortcoming.

DxO tells us that this was done to speed up the performance of the Nik Collection Plugins, which was not currently possible with the Perspective plugin.

Let’s break down the core filters and tools the new version of the Nik Collection has to offer, from the HDR Efex and Color Efex to the iconic Silver Efex for monochromatic photography.

Color Adjustments and Tonality

The simple yet intuitive user interface and ability to switch between plugins make it a pleasure to work with.

Nik Collection 7 features several plugins that offer a wealth of creative potential and precise local adjustments.

Thanks to the ability to quickly switch between plugins, their appeal is enhanced through the ability to combine these features into a smooth workflow.

If you’re looking for a good mix of filters and other creative effects that you can quickly apply to photographs, fire up the Nik Viveza plugin and explore the categories.

There are filters replicating golden hour and other sky conditions, as well as skin softening and tonal adjustments.

Select a preset, and its full range of settings – from global adjustments to selective tones and white balance – becomes editable in the right-hand column.

Nik Viveza also updates the brand’s iconic U Point technology and polygonal tool to help create more precise masks around irregular shapes.

Using the U Point system, creating masks based on tones and hues is easy, with a separate Brightness mask to target brightness levels.

Color Filters and Creative Effects

Nik Collection 7’s impressive range of manual adjustments gives it an outstanding level of depth for creative photography editing.

Color Efex is where most of the fine-tuning takes place, with an extensive selection of settings and modes to explore.

It’s also where many of this version’s most impressive updates can be found, such as the improved HSL controls with a vibrancy slider and a new color picker tool.

Some impressive new grain effects are available, and DxO’s ClearView effect is a powerful new tool for dynamically enhancing contrast.

The Color Efex plugin’s extensive list of dynamic filters, combined with its ease of saving and managing presets, makes it exceptionally well-rounded.

Categories are likewise varied, ranging from basic adjustments and lens types to architecture, portraits, and wildlife photography.

As with most of the plugins featured in Nik Collection 7, the selection of editable parameters for Color Efex filters is expansive and nuanced.

In addition to covering the core tools, there’s everything from film grain and vignetting to emulating Polaroids and other vintage aesthetics.

Classic Camera and Film Effects

If you’re looking for a warm visual style that emulates traditional film, the Analog Efex plugin delivers.

Fujifilm photographers will be well aware of how a wide range of camera and film effects can open up stylistic options.

With Nik Collection 7, the Nik Analog Efex plugin contains a large selection of camera effects for creating a classic film aesthetic and vintage look.

Bokeh and double exposure settings expand the list of options with a Camera Kit category for additional adjustments to lenses, focus, and blur.

Simply choose the filter from the left-hand menu, and the edit options are listed on the opposite side of the screen for adjustment.

This makes it easy to pull back the excesses of some of the presets for a more neutral tone when desired or spend time fully adjusting values to your taste.

It’s an impressive combination of old film looks combined with nice touches such as grain, lighting effects, and attractive frames.

Black and White Photography Tools

One of the standout plugins featured in Nik Collection 7 is Silver Efex, which comes loaded with vintage film modes.

Nik Collection 7 has long been regarded by black-and-white photographers as the go-to platform for the medium.

The Nik 7 Silver Efex plugin is where the magic happens, allowing for expressive images with rich contrast that capture the visual appeal of old photographs.

As with the Analog Efex plugin, the Nik Silver Efex plugin comes loaded with presets from which to begin your editing pipeline.

The same interface is used, with presets on the left of the photograph and manual editing selections on the right, for an overall intuitive user experience.

It’s in the fine-tuning that Silver Efex really stands out, with some impressive tools such as Dynamic Brightness and Fine Structure that deliver impressive subtle results.

Meanwhile, paper toning options, branded film grain, and adjustable image borders help create stunning photographs ready for print.

HDR Merge and Tone Mapping

For photographers who are less interested in classic film looks, Nik Collection 7 includes a pair of tools for high-dynamic-range image processing.

HDR Efex continues on from previous versions of the Nik Collection with a tool for merging bracketed images into composites.

There’s a good selection of adjustment tools, as well as preset effects to use as a starting point.

Tone mapping presets are also eclectic, from graduated maps to ones centered around mood, seasons, and various artistic styles.

Noise Reduction & Sharpener Tools

Sharpening and performing noise reduction tasks are also easy to accomplish.

Nik Dfine 7 and Nik Sharpener might not get as much praise as other plugins in the collection, but they produce reliable results.

Denoising of contrast and color noise through Nik Dfine works fine, with enough adjustments to take a granular approach to the process.

Nik Collection 7’s sharpening tools are also handy additions to the collection that will help photographers optimize images for various devices.

While there are AI-powered dedicated tools for sharpening and noise reduction on the market, Nik Dfine and Nik Sharpener are ample for more casual and ad hoc use.

Overall Performance

The Nik Collection series has a long and illustrious history among photographers that feels entirely justified based on the new version’s performance.

It starts with a solid user interface foundation, which, while not a radical departure from alternatives, remains robust and responsive at all times.

Applying presets, making global and local adjustments, and switching between plugins is swift and free from unwanted lag.

Whether working with the Color Efex and Silver Efex or more pedestrian tasks for output sharpening and noise reduction, results are uniformly excellent.

The inclusion of a quick search tool also helps speed up workflow and allows you to make adjustments to your Raw files without hassle.

It’s a robust, accurate, and, most importantly, aesthetically versatile selection of plugins in which most photographers will find plenty of compelling tools to use.

How I Tested Nik Collection 7

Nik Collection 7 performs exceptionally well across all its included plugins.

For this review, I ran the plugins on a Windows 10 PC running an AMD Ryzen 5 3400G graphics card with 32GB of RAM.

Images were displayed through a Samsung 4K monitor, which has been calibrated using the Spyder X Pro calibration device.

Photographs were shot in Raw mode using a Sony A7III with a 35mm native prime lens, with test images ranging from landscape and wildlife to family portraits.

Each plugin in the collection was fully tested, using presets and their subcategories as starting points, as well as related tools.

Additional adjustments were made using the platform’s brush tool, and bracketed images were used to assess its HDR and tone mapping capabilities.

Alternatives to Nik Collection 7

Nik Collection 7 brings together an impressive selection of plugins for photographers, but not everyone will use everything.

Luminar Neo, which includes a selection of AI-powered tools, is a popular alternative for HDR photography and tone mapping tasks.

Likewise, the Topaz Labs plugins utilize artificial intelligence and a simpler workflow for fine-tuning details and sharpening and denoising images.

Of course, many of the results delivered by Nik Collection 7 are achievable in Lightroom and Photoshop for those prepared to put in the time and effort.

With that said, these plugins, particularly the Nik Color Efex, Analog Efex, and Silver Efex, are capable of spectacular results in a fraction of the time.

When it comes to comprehensive tools, Nik Collection 7 stands head and shoulders above much of the competition.

Value for Money

Given its far-reaching approach to plugins and user applications, a fair assessment of this product’s value will vary depending on the user’s intentions.

Fortunately, Nik Collection 7 has near-universal appeal because it combines dedicated tools for specific types of photography with features with broader applications.

DxO offers a free thirty-day trial period for new users and a discounted retail price for anyone upgrading from one of the previous versions.

Thankfully, given the growing controversy concerning subscription-only models, it can be purchased with a one-time payment of around US$160.

While there’s no option to hand-pick which plugins you purchase, the value offered by the ones you’re likely to end up using will more than justify the price tag.

Nik Collection 7 Review | Conclusion

Nik Collection has long been a firm favorite among photographers who enjoy recapturing traditional film’s rich, textured imagery in their post-processing workflow.

With its impressive selection of plugins ranging from Analog Efex and Color Efex to the powerful HDR Efex, the latest iteration offers plenty to recommend.

The Silver Efex plugin’s reputation is well deserved, and I’ll be incorporating it into my black-and-white landscape photography in the future.

Its fun and intuitive user experience, flexibility, and quick switching between modes make it a pleasure to work with.

If you’re looking for a photography plugin designed for exploring creative opportunities or bored of Lightroom’s presents, Nik Collection 7 has plenty to offer.

Highly Recommended

Nik Collection 7

Create stunning photographs in less time with intuitive and powerful plugins compatible with Photoshop, Lightroom and more.

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