Mac Nik Lightroom plugin reset

[Mircula]

Hey,

I started using the Nik software plugins sharpener and dfine for mac lightroom.

I noticed that if I do general adjustments in Lightroom like Exposure, Clarity etc. etc. and then use the plugin, it sets all the bars of exposure, clarity etc. to 0 after I save the image in the plugin.

Do you have the same? Is there a way around that?

It it really annoying if you cannot see what settings you applied to the photo before editing in the plugin.


Thanks,

Mirc

[Mircula]

Hello,

I have the feeling nobody knows what I am talking about :)

I think the problem is that the image is converted to a .tiff file and then saved back into the Lightroom Library after using the plug in. Then of course all the bars for adjustments are back on 0 because they are saved in the photo....This kind of makes it hard for me though to integrate Sharpener pro or dfine in my workflow

I really often want to do little adjustments in color etc. just before exporting it.


How do you implement these add ins into your workflow? Especially noise reduction and pre sharpening i would like to do before I do other adjustments.


I am not entirely sure but isn't it "bad" to do adjustments in Lightroom on .tif files instead of raw?

Cheers,

Mirc

[maccaroneski]

I would be interested to hear how plugins fit in the workflow as well - I'm in the process of trialling Lightroom and this is one of the things that I have been thinking about.

[JazzXP]

Hello,

I have the feeling nobody knows what I am talking about :)

I think the problem is that the image is converted to a .tiff file and then saved back into the Lightroom Library after using the plug in. Then of course all the bars for adjustments are back on 0 because they are saved in the photo....This kind of makes it hard for me though to integrate Sharpener pro or dfine in my workflow

I really often want to do little adjustments in color etc. just before exporting it.


How do you implement these add ins into your workflow? Especially noise reduction and pre sharpening i would like to do before I do other adjustments.


I am not entirely sure but isn't it "bad" to do adjustments in Lightroom on .tif files instead of raw?

Cheers,

Mirc
I don't use the Nik plugins myself, but the tif answer is the one I was going to give. The only problem with working on adjustments in the tif file at the end is that you don't have the old settings to tweak, it's all offsets from the current file. Apart from that no issue as the tif files that lightroom use are lossless (unlike jpg) and 16bit colour, so you shouldn't get posterisation.

[junqbox]

I tend to make the changes I want in Lightroom and then add the Nik adjustments in Photoshop on the TIF file.

[Mircula]

Thank you for the answers guys.

What about all the other people who use these plugins especially for Lightroom?

How do you implement them in your workflow?


Cheers,

Mirc

[soulman]

I collected the full set, but don't use them much. Like the effects, but they're very poorly implemented relative to how Lr works I reckon. Having to create a huge TIFF - mine are 150MB - whenever you use one is rubbish & it is hard to repeat your settings. I wish they fitted into Lr better. The reason your settings appear to be zeroed is because you're looking at the re-imported TIFF, not the original image.

I use them by trying to make all the adjustments I think I will need in Lr, then export to filter. Very inflexible. I've mainly used SilverFX. Would us the others but I just find the interface to be very clumsy. Glad I didn't pay $AU750 for the set. I would have been extremely disappointed. I got the Lr specific versions (don't work in Ps) from B&H for about $250.

[Mircula]

i agree that the integration is not very nice and i do not like the layout of the plugins either....

Who else is using them and where in their workflow?


Cheers,
Mirc

[Mircula]

Would still be interested to hear some comments about workflow and these plugins... :)

[ricktas]

I use them in PS, not lightroom, for me they work well in PS. I tend to use lightroom as my DAM software and 'whole of image' editing only, before moving the RAW file to PS to do my main editing.

[Mircula]

Thanks Rick.

Some really silly question. If I Move the photo to lightroom, I have to transform it to TIFF or something.

Can I then still do basic adjustments and tone curve adjustments on the tiff file, or is this already a compressed image then like a jpg, where I loose detail and things when editing these settings?

I would really love to use the plugins more in lightroom but it buggers as mentioned above that all the adjustments in all the panels are reset to 0 after I adjusted the image in one of the plugins.

I really wonder how all the other people handle this in lightroom, as I thought these plugins are really popular. Or am I just doing something wrong?

[maccaroneski]

Well I've now spent a little time playing with it. I have found that my workflow looks like first, do the "global" edits such as white balance, recovery etc. Then move into the Viveza / Colour Efex for any localised edits or effects, then back into Lightroom for cropping / noise reduction / sharpening. I might do a little noise reduction in the earlier "global" stage if the image is particularly noisy, but I tend to leave this to when I come back into Lightroom as sometimes manipulation with Viveza / Color Efex can introduce some noise.

One of the confusing things I think is that there are now even more ways to do the same thing. For example, you could use fill light, noise reduction and sharpening in Lightroom, or alternatively use Viveza to add a control point and and then use Dfine and Sharpener for noise reduction and sharpening.

I haven't yet had the time to determine whether or not the Nik tools are better at noise / sharpening globally than Lightroom (if they are, then its not by much although they are handy to use if you want to apply those edits locally and not globally using the control point functionality).

[Mircula]

Thanks for that.

I basically like exactly these local adjustmets. But then I have a 25mb file to work with which makes it again very hard to export for web etc. ...

I am as well not sure if the plugins are worth it....Lightroom 3 does a pretty good job...