Another image, another tool. This time it’s not DxO, this time it is Viveza, the probably most interesting part of the Nik suite recently released by Google.
If you don’t know Viveza, but have a Nikon background, then you probably remember Nikon Capture NX2. It was a relatively slow but very good proprietary RAW converter with an unusual user interface designed by Nik Software. It circled around the concept of “Control Points”. You set a point and it was immediately decorated with a vertical bar and a set of sliders. One of them could be used to change the diameter of the affected area, the other changed things like luminosity, saturation, contrast, color temperature, etc. The usual things.
This concept proved very successful. It was immediatly accessible, easily understandable, and you could do a lot of things that would have needed painting and layers in other tools. All in all I would consider the user interface great. A minimum learning curve, maximum effect.
For one reason or the other the relationship between Nikon and Nik Software broke, Nik was bought by Google, and now Google has given everything away for free. Viveza is basically Capture NX, but not restricted to Nikon.
You can use the tools stand-alone or as plugins for the usual hosts, most notably Lightroom and Photoshop.
Do I need it? Let’s say that took this image early March, and so far I have not processed any other image with Viveza. Well, I have Photoshop available as part of my Lightroom subscription and I hardly use that either. Your mileage may vary though, and if you’ve never tried it, you should definitely give it a shot. You may well like it.