Nik software vs alien skin

Here are five Nik Collection alternatives that could fill the void. Once a film simulation plug-in, now a full-blown standalone image-editor with file browsing and non-destructive adjustment layers and masks, Alien Skin is a very interesting Nik Collection alternative. It can work with JPEGs and RAW files, even applying automatic lens corrections, and it has a large collection of effects presets organised into categories.

Exposure X2 is particularly good at analog effects like grain, bokeh, light leaks, vignettes and frames, and its non-destructive approach will be welcome to Nik users who have previously had to commit to baked-in adjustments before saving their work. Actually, it goes a step further than Exposure X2 by offering layered montages made from separate images, complete with sophisticated masking tools. Like Exposure X2, ON1 RAW comes with a raft of preset effects which you can reverse-engineer with your own manual adjustments to produce any look you want.

Even better is the fact that the presets render lightning fast, and you can reset them with just a click. All the other apps output TIFF files. This is just fine; Photoshop does the same when you roundtrip files from Lightroom to it and back. What you lose there is the ability to fine-tune the changes after the plugin is done exporting the finished file back to Lightroom. Any adjustments were made beforehand in Lightroom. Global adjustments were restricted to white balance and exposure, and there are some localized adjustments like dodging, burning, and skin smoothing.

The original image in each case is shown as well. In each of the image comparisons below, the original starting image is shown in the top-left. I chose a film that all four apps had in common, Ilford HP5. Silver Efex, on the other hand, crushed a little of the detail in some midtones and highlights.

It did, however, do a great job of holding detail throughout the frame. The real surprise here was DxO Filmpack. The output is nothing like that of the other three apps; in fact, I re-ran the original file through Filmpack again just to be sure, and the results were replicated exactly.

The grain pattern is weak as well, which is odd considering that HP5 usually has some pretty good contrast with decent grain. The color images showed a similar disparity in final results as well.

Portra was originally available in two flavors, NC and VC, but the two lines were combined into one single Portra emulsion a while back. Portra NC is also one of the films that all four apps had in common, so I went with it over the standard version. DxO managed to disappoint me here again.

Their render is, I think, over-saturated with a strong bias towards red. DxO also reduced contrast in some areas and laid down a heavier grain pattern than any of the other apps. The final product and featureset are the two most important things to me, and in both those categories, I came up with a tie between VSCO and the Nik Collection. Look at the samples here and elsewhere on the interwebs, and decide for yourself. A bit pricey, but the results are absolutely stunning.

Join the posse of amazing humans who get special email access to my content that matters most. Total: 2. Photo by Rachel A. Duncan Evans gets all retro with the latest version of the much-lauded film stock emulation plug-in. With a faster, redesigned interface, new features and lots of new, customisable borders, light effects and textures, getting digital to look analogue has never been so much fun.

This gets its own section in the control panel, so that all the aspects of it can be tweaked and customised. There are three basic mask shapes so that shallow depth-of-field and toy camera type effects can be created. Each of these has areas of focus and feathering that can be adjusted on the image or you can simply go with the new set of presets in the Preset panel on the left.

These combine filter effects as well to offer an entire creative option. Back in the control panel there are also presets for specific lenses, mainly Canon and Nikon but with some Zeiss ones thrown in as well.

The actual effect for the out of focus area can be significantly customised with aperture shapes, motion blur, amount and increasing the highlights and grain. While the Bokeh does need to be used carefully for portraits, it is a handy addition to the Exposure toolset. Example 1 - The new Bokeh function is entirely customisable, from the areas of focus to the lens aperture effect for imposing on the background highlights.

The other major development in this release has been the addition of new light leak effects, borders and textures. These can all be mixed and matched independently — in Exposure 4 they were lumped together — to really add age and retro grunge to an image.

Interestingly there is also the option to load in borders and textures of your own to add to the plug-in. Example 2 - There is a new range of vintage borders and light effects. You can also create and add your own to those supplied. Seeing what effect everything has used to be a case of squinting at the thumbnails and trying to see what the effects were doing.