Saving images processed by Nik Software plug ins

[Richard Dargan]

I have recently installed Nik Software plug ins on Affinity.  

 

I have tried to use Silver Efex to turn a color image to B+W, and the tweaks I have made on Silver Efex have worked perfectly well - exactly the same as they did on Aperture, and on Photoshop Elements when the edited image in all its b+w glory appeared in each of these programs.  

 

However, when I try and leave Silver Efex to go back to Affinity when i have finished doing my alterations, the image on Affinity is exactly the same as when I started.  There is no B+W image.  So where is it, and how do i save it.  I assume I should do this from Affinity as there is no way I can do so from the base at the top of the page with the Nik Software.

 

Its probably something very simple,  but HELP please!

[MEB]

Hello Richard Dargan,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Assuming you are runing the plug-in from within Affinity Photo (Filters menu), after you have made all changes, just click on the OK button on the bottom right of the plug-in Window.

All changes will be applied to Affinity Photo's image.

 

 

 

[Richard Dargan]

Thanks, but I have done what you suggest already. To re-iterate, I have pressed OK on the Nik screen as I always do when I am using Silver Efex Pro and the other Nik programs as plug-ins with Aperture and Photoshop.  With them, i find that I end up with an image on them that i have got by using the Nik software.  Here I do not, but get the color image that I started with.  So how do I get what i should be getting?  Any suggestions?

[MEB]

That's weird. I'm not having issues here. If you are launching the plug-in from within Affinity Photo i assume it's correctly installed. Can you post a screenshot of Affinity Photo with the layers structure visible and with the layer you are trying to apply the filter highlighted please? Does it happen only with this specific document or with other file types/documents too?

[Richard Dargan]

Thanks for your reply.

 

The plug in is launched from within Affinity.  I use the drop down filter menu, and then go to the Nik plug in I want to use - Silver Efex as I mostly want to convert color to B+W.  I have tried it with several different images - they are all .jpg files as I drag them off the screen. When I have dragged them off the screen and processed them 'in the usual way' with Affinity and no plug in, there's been no problem and the image at the end is exactly what I want.

 

I attach screen shots 

 

 

1. the starting point - unmodified image on Affinity.

 

file:///Users/richarddargan/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202016-07-28%20at%2011.30.00.png

 

 

2. the Silver Efex window

 

 

file:///Users/richarddargan/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202016-07-28%20at%2011.30.58.png

 

3. the end point - the Affinity window after I have clicked OK on the Silver Efex window.

 

file:///Users/richarddargan/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202016-07-28%20at%2011.31.18.png

 

I hope this is OK, because I have not been able to give you the images, but their URLs.  

 

Best wishes

 

Richard D

[MEB]

Hi Richard Dargan,

You have to upload the images to the forum. Linking directly to the files on your system will not work. Here's how to attach image/files to a forum post.

Here's what i'm doing.

[Richard Dargan]

Image 1

 

 

Image 2

 

 

Image 3

 

[MEB]

Can you please upload one of your images (the original JPG) using this link so i can check this out?

I don't believe this is related with the images themselves but want to rule that out.

[R C-R]

Richard,

 

Is it possible your JPEGs have multiple layers & you have selected one below another layer to apply Silver Effects to, & the layer(s) above it are preventing you from seeing the layer with the effect?

[MEB]

The document has only one layer R C-R. See the image 3 screenshot.

I'm not able to see the Image 2 and Image 1 here.

[R C-R]

The document has only one layer R C-R. See the image 3 screenshot.

I'm not able to see the Image 2 and Image 1 here.

 

Sorry, I composed my reply before I saw the post with the screen shots.

 

But this brings up something else a bit off-topic I hope you don't mind my mentioning here. I have a very fast ISP connection (300 Mb/s nominal, 130 to 350 Mb/s actual) & sometimes, sort of like for the attachments in this post, some of them load very quickly & others either glacially slowly or not at all. This seems to have little to do with file size, only with display (pixel dimension) size.

 

Do you have any insights about why that is?

[MEB]

I was wondering about that too. I'm having trouble seeing the first two images and i also have a decent connection.

[Richard Dargan]

Sorry i sent the wrong picture, but the processing of the one I sent in error and the one I should have sent, was the same using Aperture at the start. 

 

You said "The document has only one layer R C-R. See the image 3 screenshot."  I am not well up on the technicalities - all I really want to do is to be able to process the images and to know that at the end of the process be able to save the 'new' image in the form that I have created with the plug in.

 

As it is I have steered well clear of layers.  One of the great things about the Nik plug ins with Aperture was that I didn't need to worry about layers.

 

More generally, from my experience of Affinity, there does need to be some more serious work given to the operation of plug ins, so that idiots like me can use Affinity without any hassle. 

[Richard Dargan]

Correct image now sent 5329.jpg

[MEB]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the image. It's not related with it as i suspected. It works fine here.

Can you please take a screenshot of your current Photoshop Plug-ins config in Affinity Photo preferences and attach it here?

Sorry all those requests. Just trying to check what's going wrong here.

[Richard Dargan]

 

Screen shot of the prefs screen attached.  I am grateful to you for all the help.

 

Best wishes

 

RD

 

 

[MEB]

Thanks. The error is in the config. Point the Plug-in Search Folders path to the Adobe Photoshop plug-ins folder (assuming you already have this plug-in installed in Photoshop). See attached screenshot. Then close the Preferences and restart the application. The plug-in should work correctly.

 

[R C-R]

One of the great things about the Nik plug ins with Aperture was that I didn't need to worry about layers.

The reason for that is Aperture cannot use the Nik collection Photoshop plugins, so the Nik installer automatically installs a set of Aperture-compatible plugins in another location created specifically to support that app. (It seems to do this whether or Aperture is installed on a Mac, but that is not important here.) The installer also looks for a Photoshop plug-ins folder & if found will automatically install the Photoshop plugins there. (That's why MEB said this folder is the correct Plug-in Search Folders path if you already had the plugins installed for Photoshop.)

 

The Nik installer also installs a set of stand-alone application files (they run without having to open a "host" app like Photoshop or Aperture) in the Applications folder at path /Applications/Nik Collection. Since they are not plug-ins, Affinity can't use them & if its search path preference is set to that folder, they won't work correctly (if at all) from the Filter menu.

 

But believe it or not, it can get even more complicated than that. The Nik installer also gives you the option of installing the Photoshop plug-ins in a custom folder which will be named "Google," which would be necessary if you don't already have Photoshop installed on your Mac, or if for some reason you have installed that app's Photoshop plug-ins folder in some location the Nik installer can't find automatically. (See MEB's post here for more about all of this.)

 

Even if you have Photoshop installed & the installer lists it in the Compatible Host Applications installer window, you can use the custom folder to install an additional set of the Photoshop plugins somewhere else, including in the /Applications/Nik Collection folder. If you do that, you can use /Applications/Nik Collection as the Plug-in Search Folders path in Affinity preferences. Most users would not do that (because the folder is quite large, about 700 MB) but it is useful if you have the disk space for it & you want to keep the plugin configuration files for PhotoShop & Affinity plug-ins separate.

More generally, from my experience of Affinity, there does need to be some more serious work given to the operation of plug ins, so that idiots like me can use Affinity without any hassle.

 

As I hope you can see from the above, the hassle factor of installing the Nik Collection correctly is the result of the Nik installer only automatically installing the plugins into the appropriate folders for Aperture & for apps that use the Photoshop plug-ins folder. It doesn't know anything about Affinity (or even which plugins are compatible with it) so, since Affinity users may or may not want to keep all the Photoshop plug-ins in the same place, there isn't much Affinity can do to "idiot-proof" the process.

[Richard Dargan]

Thanks.

 

I'll have a crack at this tomorrow, and report back.

 

RD

[Richard Dargan]

Thanks.  I am not sure how I do what you suggest in ' Point the Plug-in Search Folders path to the Adobe Photoshop plug-ins folder'.  What is the 'Plug-in Search Folders path to the Adobe Photoshop plug-ins folder' and where do I find it?  I suppose it is in the Affinity Preferences page, but I can't see anything explicit about it there.

 

Best wishes

 

RD

[Richard Dargan]

To RC-R 

 

Thanks for the explanation.

 

I appreciate the complexities of the situation, but for someone like me who just wants to use the plug-ins, the ins and the outs and the whys and wherefores are of little interest.  I want to have something which I can use from 'opening the box' rather than something where I have to fiddle around with folders for this and that as seems to be the case here.  

 

The great point about adding the Nik Software to Aperture (which, as far as I was concerned was the best photo-processing software for me) was that I could use it straight away.

[R C-R]

Richard,

 

I understand your desire for this to work with as few configuration hassles as possible, but please keep in mind that the Nik Collection installer was written to automatically install the plug-ins only for two specific applications, Photoshop & Aperture, and the Aperture plugins use a different format that will not work with any other application. Affinity can't do anything about that, just like they cannot do anything about incompatible plug-ins without the cooperation of the developer of those plug-ins.

 

Regarding your last question about finding the Plug-in Search Folders path to the Adobe Photoshop plug-ins folder, it is whatever folder you designated for plugins in Photoshop. If you did not change anything from the defaults, see this Photoshop plugins troubleshooting page for its location (which will vary slightly depending on the version of Photoshop installed).

 

If you are still having problems finding it, you can do a Finder search for folders named "Google."

[Richard Dargan]

Hi 

 

Thanks for you help with this, but it doesn't seem to do the job!  

 

I have done what you suggest and have gone to my Hard disk and found the folder labelled 'Google' relating to plug ins with Adobe Photoshop 13.  I have put it on the preferences panel of Affinity, clicked the other buttons, and restarted, and guess what?  I am no nearer getting these plug ins to work with Affinity.  I did a trial and put one of my color shots on Affinity, and opened the plug in and fiddled with it.  When the time came to put it back to Affinity, i clicked the bottom RH button, and it was the same color image.

 

So what do I do?  I am getting some what fed up with this as I am sure you will understand! 

 

Here is a screen shot of the Pref panel.

[Richard Dargan]

Here's the screen shot from pre message

[MEB]

Hi Richard Dargan,

I will get Photoshop Elements to check this out. I don't know which path it is using for the plug-ins. In my previous post i was originally referring to Adobe Photoshop (not Elements).

Do you have bought Elements directly from Adobe or from the Mac App Store?