Post by BuckSkin on Oct 26, 2021 7:20:04 GMT
I have had and extensively used NIK, the Good FREE version, for years.
I squished down the size of the Selective Tool (that small white extra window/pallet that shows up in Elements window once NIK gets installed) to exhibit only the Noise tools and positioned it in an unobtrusive corner of the Elements window.
I use the Selective Tool frequently to apply the various Noise remedies.
That being said, I had never used the Selective Tool for any of the other NIK features, always calling them up via the Filter menu.
I use a certain recipe of NIK Color Efex Pro > Pro Contrast on many of my images and have always called it up via the Filter menu.
If I have used any other filter since the last application of NIK, it takes seemingly forever for NIK to appear; then, once it opens, it has to go through all the motions of bringing my image onto the window; then, after I click Okay (or Apply or whatever), it takes another seemingly long time to finish the process of applying NIK to my image layer.
If no other filters have been applied since the last application of NIK (and Elements has not been closed), I can speed things up to about half as long by choosing NIK from the very top of the Filter menu (last filter applied).
A few days ago, just out of curiosity to see what would be different in the way things worked, instead of calling up NIK via the Filter menu, instead, I clicked the "Color Efex Pro" button in the Selective Tool menu (not the BOLD print, but the fine print button).
WHAMMM! ! ! Color Efex Pro > Pro Contrast, with my favorite recipe already loaded, jumped on the screen so quick as to vibrate the desk and knock some items onto the floor; I wasn't quite ready for the shock and almost strangled myself.
Without me touching another thing, it rapidly ran through the motions, created a new layer, and applied the effect to the new layer, all within seconds.
I wish I had of figured this out ages ago.
For what it's worth, I also have the NIK package in DxO Photolab 2; I guess it is handy for some people; but, there are other things I want to do to my images in other programs before applying the NIK; and, unless I do my other edits and then load a saved jpeg of that work back in DxO, do the NIK thing, and then drag that work back on top of my layer stack in Elements, there is really no easy way around this.
I squished down the size of the Selective Tool (that small white extra window/pallet that shows up in Elements window once NIK gets installed) to exhibit only the Noise tools and positioned it in an unobtrusive corner of the Elements window.
I use the Selective Tool frequently to apply the various Noise remedies.
That being said, I had never used the Selective Tool for any of the other NIK features, always calling them up via the Filter menu.
I use a certain recipe of NIK Color Efex Pro > Pro Contrast on many of my images and have always called it up via the Filter menu.
If I have used any other filter since the last application of NIK, it takes seemingly forever for NIK to appear; then, once it opens, it has to go through all the motions of bringing my image onto the window; then, after I click Okay (or Apply or whatever), it takes another seemingly long time to finish the process of applying NIK to my image layer.
If no other filters have been applied since the last application of NIK (and Elements has not been closed), I can speed things up to about half as long by choosing NIK from the very top of the Filter menu (last filter applied).
A few days ago, just out of curiosity to see what would be different in the way things worked, instead of calling up NIK via the Filter menu, instead, I clicked the "Color Efex Pro" button in the Selective Tool menu (not the BOLD print, but the fine print button).
WHAMMM! ! ! Color Efex Pro > Pro Contrast, with my favorite recipe already loaded, jumped on the screen so quick as to vibrate the desk and knock some items onto the floor; I wasn't quite ready for the shock and almost strangled myself.
Without me touching another thing, it rapidly ran through the motions, created a new layer, and applied the effect to the new layer, all within seconds.
I wish I had of figured this out ages ago.
For what it's worth, I also have the NIK package in DxO Photolab 2; I guess it is handy for some people; but, there are other things I want to do to my images in other programs before applying the NIK; and, unless I do my other edits and then load a saved jpeg of that work back in DxO, do the NIK thing, and then drag that work back on top of my layer stack in Elements, there is really no easy way around this.