Nik Software Collection from Google Now Free

I'm a bit late with this news, and if you read any photography blogs on the internet, you've probably seen this already, but Google has decided to make the excellent Nik collection available for free. The software, which is a collection of 7 plug-ins for Photoshop, Lightroom or the discontinued Aperture.

I've been using these plug-ins since before they were acquired by Google and they have some excellent capabilities. My favourite two of the suite are Silver Efex Pro and Colour Efex Pro. It's great that Google have decided to give these away, but I suspect that this good news comes at a price. If they're giving them away, I'm guessing that means that they're no longer going to actively develop them.

Anyway, whatever about the future fate of the plug-ins, you should grab them now, because they really are a great set of tools.