They’re powerful, intuitive to use and well worth sacrificing a bit of space on your hard drive. You can try the whole Nik Collection by Google for FREE for 15 days, so you really have nothing to lose. For those who are upgrading from Nik Collection 2, the special launch. I’m a huge fan of this software and have been using it for years now. For those simply interested in the cost of Nik Collection 3 by DxO, it has a special launch price of 86.99 instead of 125. If you’re looking to do amazing black and white, HDR, or straight up digital editing on your photos, then this is the time to buy. Only time will tell but, for now, download the plug-ins and enjoy them. Google just dropped the price of the NIK Software Collection by 70. While free access to these outstanding plug-ins is great news, one has to wonder about the future of the Nik Collection and whether Google will continue supporting the software with updates. Nik Collection 4 is available to purchase at US99.99 until 30 June, after which the price reverts to US149. Although Google has updated the plug-ins in the past, albeit not recently. Google acquired Nik Software in September, 2012 and users were concerned about whether Google would continue Nik’s legacy of innovation. (Check out my Workflow column in the May/June issue of Digital Photo Pro for a deep dive into some of the plug-in’s features.) According to the Google blog post below, anyone who purchased the Nik Collection in 2016 will get a refund. In addition to Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine, you’ll also be able to download one of the best black and white conversion software on the market today, Silver Efex Pro. The Collection includes a half-dozen plugins-, all compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Apple Aperture. As of March 24, Google has made its Nik Collection of plug-ins free–a huge price drop from its recent $149 price.