Nik Software, now part of the DxO family, has existed for an impressive 25 years. To celebrate this major milestone, DxO has announced Nik Collection 3 by DxO version 3.3, which adds a fitting 25 new presets for Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro.
The update adds Classic Portraiture, Light and Bright, Wildlife Photography and Street Photography preset collections. Classic Portraiture is the largest of the bunch, adding 10 presets for Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro. New presets include High Key Bright (seen below), Hint of Color, Hollywood Glamour, and Warm and Soft.
 |
| The Nik Collection by DxO version 3.3 update adds 25 new presets, including 10 specifically for portraiture. You can see High Key Bright here, with the effect applied to the right portion of the image. Image credit: Andrey Zvyagintsev. As seen on the Nik Collection by DxO website. |
The Light and Bright collection includes five presets for Color Efex Pro. Wildlife Photography also includes five new presets for Color Efex Pro, such as Cool Evening, which is seen below. Unlike Light and Bright and Wildlife Photography, the five new Street Photography presets are all available in Silver Efex Pro.
 |
| Cool Evening, before (left) and after (right) comparison. Image credit: Casey Allen. As seen on Nik Collection by DxO’s website. The Cool Evening preset is available as part of the new Wildlife Photography collection in Nik Collection by DxO version 3.3. |
The Nik Collection by DxO includes eight plugins. In addition to the expanded Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro plugins, the plugin suite also includes Analog Efex Pro, Dfine, HDR Efex Pro, Viveza, Sharpener Pro and Perspective Flex. You can see an overview of the collection below. If you’d like to read about the new features introduced when Nik Collection 3 launched in June, you can refer to our original coverage.
For any users who purchased the Nik Collection 3 after June of this year, the new version is available as a free upgrade. The Nik Collection by DxO is compatible with Windows and macOS (including the latest macOS release, Big Sur) and can be used with Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Customers ineligible for the free upgrade can upgrade for $79. New users can purchase the Nik Collection by DxO for $149. To purchase the software or download the available free trial.
 |
| Overview of Nik’s first 25 years. Image credit: Nik by DxO. Click to enlarge. |
Looking back at Nik’s 25 years, the company was founded as Nik Multimedia in 1995. Five years later, Nik Color Efex Pro, Nik Sharpener Pro and Dfine were released. The company’s iconic U Point technology was first released in 2005. The next year, Nik Multimedia became Nik Software. In 2007, Nik’s Viveza plugin gained Control Points and Silver Efex Pro and HDR Efex Pro were released. In 2012, Google purchased Nik Software and rebranded the plugin collection. In 2017, DxO purchased the Google Nik Collection and Nik Software’s proprietary U Point technology. As we know, earlier this year, Nik Collection 3 by DxO was launched with a new geometric correction plugin, Perspective Flex.
