Since the Photoshop Smart Filters are my only use case for the older version, I did not try to install it in Lightroom. The installation process of this version does not recognize the newest versions of Adobe Photoshop, but it is possible to specify the plug-in folder manually and then the plugin installs properly.

The version 1.2.11 can still be found in the Wayback Archive, with these direct download links: Windows, Mac. However, I was able to find a solution on my own: while the DXO versions of the NIK collection cannot coexist, it is possible to install the older Google NIK Collection and it seems to work fine in parallel with the new version from DXO. According to DXO, only one version of the NIK Collection can be installed at the same time, and a migration of the Smart Filters from Silver Efex Pro 2 to Silver Efex Pro 3 is not possible. I asked DXO for a solution, but they were not able to provide any. This was a significant roadblock for me, since I am just now working on some projects for which I need to re-edit older images for printing. Installing the current DXO NIK Collection 4 forcefully removes all older versions and the included new Silver Efex Pro 3 is not able to open Smart Filters created with Silver Efex Pro 2. So editing older files with such Smart Filters is simply not possible anymore.

Especially Silver Efex is for me the best and most intuitive tool out there for black and white conversions.īeing able to come back to images later and change my editing has always been import to me, so I use non-destructive workflows wherever possible. Before DXO took over and introduced non-destructive editing, the only way to achieve this with the NIK Collection was to apply them as Smart Filters in Photoshop, a technique I used extensively in the past.

Editing Silver Efex 2 Smart Filters after installing Silver Efex 3Īs you may know from reading my previous posts, I am a big fan of the NIK Collection, first released by NIK Software, then for some time taken over by Google and now being owned and further developed by DXO.

Nik collection 3