NIK Software Issue

[Dennis]

Well last night I was looking at a few older images as I found a way to say a few images, good thing that they did not end up in the trash can.

Well I have been using Nik Software for some time now and love their products, and never had a problem at all until last night. It seems that the Selective Tool that is required does not launch in PS any longer? I even went as far as to remove and install PS again, and nothing. Even when you goto file, automate and select it from there it just does nothing, and without it, I'm toast and my whole work process is gone out the window.

Sent off a support email and have not heard back from them since last night and that is not good news. Decided the only way to get this to work is through Lightroom and the problem is that it does the whole image and no access to the brushes is what I really need.

I can use a couple of plugins that I don't have a problem with, but the sharpen does the whold image so that is no good. Good thing for Photokit, but what a pain, and hope there is an easy fix for this and soon.

[Dennis]

Got a hold of Nik support and have tried a few things out, and still no luck with this. Been trying all sorts of things to get this filter to work and tried removing all from the registry and from User AppData and not luck. Waiting for them to get back to me next week about this, but in the mean time I found a way to use Define and Viveaza in PS CS5. Sharpen Pro will work, but the problem is that I cannot use the brushes for what ever reason and good thing for Photokit Sharpen to come to the rescue.

Something like this just has me thinking about one thing, and that is Blow away Windows and start over, oh what a sinking feeling....

[Don B]

One of the frustrating things about computers, an innocent change is made, and the results show up somewhere else. A yearly reload of the computer is a good idea, but in this case I would be waiting for a solution from NIK
Keep us informed.

[Dennis]

One of the frustrating things about computers, an innocent change is made, and the results show up somewhere else. A yearly reload of the computer is a good idea, but in this case I would be waiting for a solution from NIK
Keep us informed.

No kidding Don, it seems that a few scripts are now causing some issues now and I'll have to check those out as well, but the Nik Filters are the one thing I want to get going first and hope that they find a fix, if not I will rebuild the system and make a backup after all the updates have been installed and make it easier for down the road, Ya Right! And you are right about waiting for a solution from them... Funny thing is that Photoshop gave me a problem at start up and it turned out having to do with a bunch of DLL files that went south and I found a fix for it and forgot to record the issue and it had to do with copying some files from another app to fix it.

[Dennis]

The Problem Solved.

Well, I have been trying to get these filters to work and was waiting for Nik to reply back to me next week. So on this rainy day, at boot up I noticed that the monitor profile for the second display had an error and was using another profile, so after doing a few things on the computer I went in and corrected the second display to the right ICC monitor profile. Ran ViewNX2 to make sure that the images are showing up right on the display and sure enough the images are just fine from that software.

Not sure why I did this, but launched PS again, and BINGO the Selective Tool showed up and now back to normal again. Why on earth would a PLUGIN not work becasue a ICC profile was wrong on the second monitor is beyond me, and even more so I was using the other monitor with the correct profile to begin with.... Very strange..... Will contact them and let them know my fix for this and hope that they will correct this in there software. Wow...

[Don B]

Very strange indeed.

[Dennis]

Very strange indeed.

Ni kidding, and I have asked them to explain to me why an ICC profile for a display would cause this to happen. The main thing is that I got it working again.

[Dennis]

Gee your sort out one problem and another one comes along. I have some Photoshops scripts that I use from DigitalOutback Photo, and now they don't work at all now, PS comes up with a general error message so I sent off an email to Uwe from Digital Outback and he called me up on the phone to try to trouble shot this issue. There is no reason why his stuff should not work and asked me to remove the Nik filters and did so and still no luck. Darn why, Oh yes I know it's a computer darn it!

PS on a windows based system installs both the 32/64 bit versions, so thinking about this I decided to play the scripts into the 64 bit folder and run PS in 64bit as well. Guess what, the scripts work, and as to why not in 32 bit is beyond me. I just wished that the software developers would move over to 64 bit as it has been around now for some time. Mac had move way ahead on this and as to why the PC's are behind with this I have now ideas. Oh the life of a computer can keep you awake at night.