The internet’s all-powerful overlord, Google, recently bestowed a gift upon photographers and videographers, dropping the price of its Nik photo-editing software from $149 to absolutely nothing. Download any or all of Google Nik’s collection of seven desktop plugins for free here. If you purchased the programs in 2016, Google should have already refunded your purchase.
The seven Nik plugins work with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as Apple Aperture. They cover a range of filters, color alteration and other still-photography modifiers.
Nik Software was purchased by Google back in 2012, when its plugins were priced at $100 each or $500 for the set. Google quickly dropped the price and began focusing on increasing the program’s popularity on mobile devices.
Although the Google Nik software still requires an existing platform to operate, it offers photographers already using a compatible program access to a whole new range of tools to modify and improve their work. Nik now gives them the opportunity to work with this once-pricey editing software without the added investment.
Not all have taken kindly to Google’s announcement, however. Many have pointed out that this marks the end of the road for Nik, given that Google now has no incentive to continue updating and improving the programs.
“For longtime Nik Collection users, the giveaway is bad news, as it means the software they paid for has almost certainly reached the end of the line in terms of updates,” wrote PC World’s Jared Newman.
Others have noted that the move represents a larger trend of software developers abandoning computer-based photo-editing programs aimed at professional photographers, opting instead to focus on mobile-editing apps friendlier to the masses in the age of Instagram. Google says it will now focus on Google Photos and Nik’s Snapseed smartphone app.
