I’m not sure if this means that Google are abandoning the software (hopefully not, although they mention in their announcement that they are focusing on mobile technology more these days). The software bundle originally sold for $149, but for whatever reason Google has decided to make it completely free. Ordinarily the only way to do something like that in Photoshop was with the use of layers and lots of layer masks, but the Nik Tools make finite adjustments of specific areas of an image very easy. The software works both as a standalone product as well as a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. Probably the coolest thing about the software is the ability to use control points to specify exactly what area of an image you’d like to work on (you can also just have the software apply itself to an entire image). Google has just announced that their entire Nik Collection is now 100% free! I’ve been using this software for years and I can attest to how powerful and unique it really is.
