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Saving images processed by Nik Software plug ins


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I bought Elements 13 as a CD in a box from Amazon UK.  There seem to have been no probs with the Nik plug ins there (though it is a little slow).  I suppose I could uninstall it, and then re-install it, and then ad the plug ins as a possible approach to make sure that it was put in correctly?

 

RD

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No, don't uninstall them yet. In principle it should be possible to point Affinity Photo to the same plug-ins folder that Photoshop Elements is using and Affinity should pick them correctly as it already does for Photoshop. I will get Photoshop Elements from Adobe and check this out.

 

In case this doesn't work then you will have to reinstall the Nick Collection to create a custom folder where to install the plug-ins files, then pointing Affinity to it.

An Affinity user already has created a video tutorial describing all the steps to do this. You can check it here in case you are willing to try it.

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I don't know how much this will help, but I have an old version of Photoshop Elements on my Mac. The path to its plug-ins folder is /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 9/Plug-Ins/

 

This is just like the path described in the the Photoshop troubleshooting web page -- it isn't in a Support Files subfolder like in Richard's screenshot; it is of the same Hard Drive/Applications/[Photoshop version]/Plug-ins form as for the non-Elements version.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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HI

 

I have had a go at installing the Nik Software per MEB's last post.  i also wondered whether the probs had arisen because (I didn't realise it at the time) I had checked the English (US etc) bit of the installation screen rather then English (UK).  I still have no luck in getting from what i do via Nik in B+W and an image on the Affinity screen afterwards.  It's all a mystery! 

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richard, i'm not sure this is significant, but in the post where you uploaded the first screenshot of your configuration, the plugin search path is "/Applications/Nik Collection". if you was able to launch the plugins from within affinity photo with that configuration, i assume you have a copy of the plugins in that folder, where the installer should instead put only the standalone applications.

did you install the plugins multiple times in different locations?

could your problem originate from having different version of the plugins in different locations?

take care,

stefano

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Hi Stefano

 

Thanks for your suggestion.

 

As you will probably have seen there has been a long conversation about this!  After the first screen shot of the Affinity prefs, I got rid of them, and as you will see I have tried to reload them as per the other suggestions made.  The fundamental problem remains that although I can call up the loaded plug ins from the 'filter' drop down menu on the Affinity page and then alter the image to what I want, when I click on the button to go back to Affinity, the modified image I have produced doesn't follow me there.  All I see is the unaltered image I started with.  Hence my frustration!

 

When I got the Nik plug ins, I started by installing them in Aperture, as this was the image editing software I was using at the time.  A little later, I got Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 - PSE13 (on a CD-Rom) and added the Nik plug ins to that.  They worked OK in both Aperture and PSE13 (though a little slow in the latter).  Earlier I wondered whether I should uninstall PSE 13 and NIK plug ins, and then re-install them.  Might that be a solution?

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i don't know actually whether a new install could work, but here's my experience:

 

the first time i installed the nik collection was to use it with affinity photo, since i don't have photoshop or aperture. i had read in this forum something about cheating so that the nik installer believed photoshop was installed on the mac, and so i did. i don't remeber what exactly the trick was, but i think it can be found searching the forums. i got an /Applications/Nik collection folder containing the standalone apps; it contains also a "Google" folder, which in turn contains a folder for each plugin. I configured affinity photo to search /Applications/Nik collection/Google for the plugins, with "/" as support directory. Everything worked fine at the first try.

 

yesterday i installed the nik plugins on my daughter's mac and there was no Google subfolder in the /Applications/Nik collection folder. i scratched my head a bit, then i remembered about tricking the installer. as a quick and dirty workaround i brutally copied the Google subfolder from the first mac to the second one, and configured affinity photo on the second mac just as i did on the first one. everything worked.

 

so, the only suggestion i can give you is to have the same setup i have: an /Applications/Nik collection folder, with a Google subfolder; the folder contains the standalone apps and the subfolder the plugin subfolders. as far as i can tell from your screenshot, you already know how to configure the plugins support in affinity photo, pointing to the Google subfolder as plugin search folder and to / as support folder.

 

after setting up things, try with a newly loaded image, with no effects applied or additional layers or masks, then apply the silver pro 2 plugin.

 

now that i write "pro 2"... what version of nik collection did you install? my version is 1.2.11, i downloaded it in the beginning of april, a few days after google released it freely.

take care,

stefano

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Hi Richard Dargan,

I've already installed Photoshop Elements 14 and Nik Collection.

Nick Collection detects Adobe Photoshop Elements automatically and installs the plugin files in /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 14/Support Files/Plug-Ins

So here's how you have to set-up Affinity Photoshop Plug-in Preferences assuming it uses as similar path as Elements 14 :

 

Plugin Search Folders:

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 13/Support Files/Plug-Ins

 

Then below, in Plugin Support Folders it must be pointing to your root folder. Should look similar to this:

/

 

Finally make sure Allow "Unknow" plugins to be used is checked.

Restart Affinity Photo and try the plug-ins

 

 

Affinity Photo is able to use the plug-ins files installed automatically by Nik Collection without any issues.

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For what it's worth, I've been having trouble with Nik, even in Photoshop. Sometimes it hangs up in the processing and appears to do everything except save the image and return me to PS. The only way out is a hard reboot of my computer. I'm sure that there is limited development going on since they made Nik free to everyone, so who knows if they are addressing performance bugs...

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HI Everyone

 

Well, the saga appears to have ended (though my fingers are fairly tightly crossed)  Analog..., Color..., and Silver Efex Pro appear to be working. It's been a long journey, but thanks for there help to someone whose expertise with computers is somewhat limited.

 

Maybe there is an argument for Affinity to liaise with Google/Nik Software to see is there isn't some really simple way for dumbos like me to easily add the plug-ins to what looks like a very good program.

 

Regarding Asha and the hard reboot - thanks for the suggestion, but I would only do this as a very last resort.

 

Thanks to everyone for your patience.

 

Best

 

RD

 

 

 

RD

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Hi Richard,

The installation process can be quite easy if the plug-in developers decide to add support for Affinity Photo.

In those cases you simply have to run the plug-in installer and it should detect Affinity Photo and install the files in the correct places for you automatically.

Since Affinity is quite recent most of them are still evaluating/considering if it's worth the effort. Until then we have to specify the plug-in folders manually.

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Maybe there is an argument for Affinity to liaise with Google/Nik Software to see is there isn't some really simple way for dumbos like me to easily add the plug-ins to what looks like a very good program.

Adding very slightly to what MEB said, the general consensus of opinion in the Affinity user community seems to be that Google likely has no interest in any further development of the Nik Collection, so we probably will always be stuck with manually specifying the folder for it. This doesn't mean this will be true for other plug-ins that are still being developed, particularly as the Affinity user base grows & there is more demand for compatible plug-ins.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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