Why now is the right time to adopt Macphun
It's official - the Nik Collection is dead. What are you going to do about it?
This image is from the PetaPixel article about this topic, referenced below.
Over a year ago - right after Google announced that the Nik Collection would be given away for free - I wrote an article here on the blog (go on, give it a read first, then come back here) about why I wouldn’t get too dependent on it. Having been down the primrose path with other companies in the past, I felt strongly that this would not end well. Now it’s official - the Nik Collection will no longer get any updates. In other words, it’s dead.
This hit the photography news sites the other day and made it into my social media streams countless times. I’m not exactly sure that it is “new” news, but at least now we know for sure - the product is dead. If you have depended on it for editing your photos, it’s time to face the truth and move on. This product is headed for the trash can.
You can read about it here: https://petapixel.com/2017/05/30/google-abandons-nik-collection-popular-photo-editing-software/
Google announced this via the banner on the top of the Nik Collection page.
Yep, that sucks. I have barely used their products for the last 2 years - having made the move to Macphun a while back - but prior to that I used them for 4+ years nearly exclusively and I loved them, especially Color Efex Pro and Analog Efex Pro. I have fond memories of Color Efex Pro and using Control Points to apply selective adjustments to my shots. It was cool, innovative and effective. But no business can sustain a product for free forever, even Google. Why would they want to? It's a waste of their time.
So before your OS or host application gets updated and your Nik Collection becomes incompatible, start doing your homework. Figure out what you need to do next. Download some trials (you can get Macphun trials here), and get busy experimenting. This might sound like a huge pain in the ass - and frankly, it may be - but you will come out on the other side of this thankful. You will learn a new product suite that you can count on being around for years to come, you will gain new capability and you will learn new skills. You might actually reinvigorate your photography. That's exactly what happened to me.
I made the switch to Macphun and it’s awesome
When I wrote that article last year, I was just getting into Macphun. I had been using the Nik Collection for ages and frankly felt a bit stale in my processing. It was the same thing on each photo, day in and day out. I wasn't challenging myself to experiment and grow my skills. I was on autopilot. I felt like I needed some "new stuff" but I didn't know what it was. I tried several product suites in hopes of finding some inspiration.
That's when Macphun entered the picture. At the time Aurora HDR was pretty new, and their other excellent products were useful too. It was a whole bunch of stuff to learn and experiment with, and I loved it. Since that time, Macphun has unleashed Luminar on the world and it is simply the best product I have ever used. I know my decision to go in this direction was the right one. I'm reminded of that each time I open a photo and begin editing it.
These days, I edit nearly every photo in Luminar (and sometimes Aurora HDR) and I am very confident that this product will be around for a very long time. It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s innovative, and their user base is growing. The only knock I ever heard from people is that it is Mac-only.
Well now Macphun is adopting both Luminar and Aurora HDR for Windows. So think about that. Not just innovating and adding new features and capabilities, but expanding their products to another platform and growing their user base. This is good news for photographers. This is a company that is growing, investing and planning for the future. More good things are ahead.
If you are interested in learning more about Luminar, take a look at my Luminar Tips page, where I share tips, tricks and videos showing how to use the product. If you have questions, feel free to use my contact form. I’ll do my best to help.
If you want to download a free trial of Luminar, you can do that here.
Note that I’m not saying that adopting Macphun is the right move for everyone. I'm just sharing my experiences and recommending that you add it to your list of things to try. It was the best move for me, so I am just speaking from experience. There are other very solid product suites out there - maybe test those out too and see for yourself. Give each of them a test drive. But do something, because being stuck sucks, and you need to figure this out sooner rather than later. You’ll be glad that you did.
So, what are you going to do?
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Macphun, so if you click on my links and purchase something I receive a small commission which I reinvest in this site. If you are interested in purchasing, use the coupon code JIMNIX to save a few more $.
However, this is not why I recommend Macphun. I recommend their products because I use them every day and feel that they are the best out there, and I tried everything when I realized I had to move to another product suite. My experience with them has been excellent.
