NIK BUNDLE NOW 4 FREE

 
direct DL link WINDOWS - https://dl.google.com/edgedl/photos/nikcollection-full-1.2.11.exe

direct DL link MAC - https://dl.google.com/edgedl/photos/nikcollection-full-1.2.11.dmg

 
For anyone interested my experience is that Dfine is all around an excellent denoiser, newest topaz DN6 probably the best (also more time consuming) close followed by noiseware. Silvereffex is nice too, silkier than almighty tonality street dog. Sharpener Pro is also alright, mix (lighten and darken layers) to lessen effect, good clarity, you can configure it (well all of them) to go into new layer with mask (plink!) quick stuff. Color Effex has a ton of options and the legendary U-points (glub glub), useful if you invest some time, explore the myriad effects and combinations and end up creating some recipes, like sardines stuffed with mozzarella and heroin; used to be my post digi-darkroom, today's alien. Analog effex's also fun, for crazier moods. Skip Vivezza and specially HDR Effex, very bad. This suite used to be hundreds of petrodolars, probably google decided on dumping it (not cost effective) and thus the grandiloquence gest (prrrfff), enjoy =)
 

https://www.google.com/nikcollection/

 
Some good introductions by Northlight Images

Silver Efex Pro
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/silver_efex_2.html

Sharpener
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/sharpening_nik3.html

Viveza
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/viveza-2.html

Color Efex filters
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/color-efex-pro4.html

Noise
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/dfine_2.html

 
 

 
Mind you some things: when you save the image in standalone mode it will overwrite the original, so better make a copy beforehand. In Dfine the more manual noise's patches you select the better the results, BIG difference, it's also worth tweaking the advanced controls. Whenever I say u-point I mean control points, I'm used that way; these points behave a bit like add or/and subtract circular gradients' masks (with selectable ratio/size and transparency/power) but they also are very sensitive to where they're placed, a bit like a spot light (mimicking a 3D behaviour) within the confinement of a 2 space. When you save a recipe, U-points are not saved with it... basically there's no way of creating a U-point "memory". You can export your recipes and backed them up, shared them, etc. Also U-points behave differently depending on filter, e.g. in Pro-contrast the effect is not activated unless you create either "+" or "-" u-points. I found to be useful to mark the favourite effects (yellow star) so they're easier to locate. If there is something you'd like to apply to a video, you can save a recipe (as long as there are no vignetes, sharpening, etc. only luma and chroma tweaks without masks), convert Davinci's base trim_lut0.dpx to png or tif, apply your recipe and then create an timeline with the file and extract the grade's LUT in Resolve =)
 

41 free presets for PVs

Finally, attached are 41 presets - the ones managed to find - I created on CE long time ago; plus a couple charts for testing. You've got to understand that many of them were developed working on some specific look/batch/context/experience, plenty of times directly with unrefined (no time to cut baby's nails man?!!) base image, sometimes darker, sometimes brighter, more constrasty, more bland, etc. etc. Most if not all are meant to be used together with U-points, otherwise pretty useless; for instance I recurred a lot to the glow effect, but the reality was that more often than not with just u-points to very specific areas, as I mentioned before it's silly but there's no way to save those u-points. Hierarchy of effects' stack can also be changed and thus plenty more variations are possible.

To import the presets, see here - http://flypapertextures.com/installing-nik-presets/ - they'll live in /Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/Google/Color\ Efex\ Pro\ 4/ImportedPresets folder on a mac. CE has a semi-hidden history tab too.

 
List of package contents:

CH_01_test_zega_chart_sRGB.jpg
CH_02_Pixl_Cmnet_Pro_Ver9_04.jpg
README.txt
m__07_V&T.np
m__BREAD_01.np
m__CHUCHO.np
m__CHUCHO_02.np
m__CHUCHO_BAN.np
m__CHUCHO_BAN_night.np
m__EXTRACTOR_01.np
m__EXTRACTOR_02.np
m__FSWL.np
m__Fuji-400H_Bernard.np
m__GRAIN_obscur.np
m__HDR_meltiness_01.np
m__JJ-01.np
m__LMV - 01.np
m__LMV - 02.np
m__LMV - 03.np
m__LMV - 04.np
m__PORTA_grain.np
m__PORTRA-VC_sweetness.np
m__PORTRA_grain-desat.np
m__P_nightkiss.np
m__P_oldemoc.np
m__P_oldemoc_02.np
m__P_sunbath.np
m__beby_softness_01.np
m__child_portrait_01.np
m__crakeleur.np
m__doble-ass.np
m__doggy-madness.np
m__escuelita_01.np
m__escuelita_truck.np
m__faded_01.np
m__faded_02.np
m__galerio_01.np
m__galerio_02.np
m__horizon_pan.np
m__naked-red.np
m__portraiture_SOFT.np
m__possibleHDAR.np
m__sunarice.np

 
       Enjoy