DxO describe Nik Collection 7 as being “the essential plugin suite for Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and more.”
And I won’t argue with that. But have you ever wondered how to install Nik Collection 7 as plugins to On1 Photo RAW?
There seems to be a dearth of information on how to install it to the “and more” side of things.
In fact I could unearth no information at all on how to do it.
I seem to recall a few years, and versions ago, that all you had to do was move copies of the Nik apps into On1’s plugins folder…but times have changed and that no longer works.
After a bit of digging around and experimenting I worked out how to install Nik Collection 7 as plugins to On1 Photo RAW on my MacBook Air M3, and made a short video on how I did it.
But before you watch the video let me tell you why I wanted to have the Nik Collection 7 and On1 Photo RAW playing together nicely.
My go-to processing package is still DxO Photolab 7, but my reasons for using On1 Photo RAW lay in its effects module, rather than the develop module.
- Reason number 1 is that I love the wide variety and number of borders that On1 offers compared with Nik. Yes – most of the Nik modules have the ability to add borders, but the same limited range of borders – 14 in all I think – is used across all modules. So, for me. On1 is a winner here.
- Reason number 2 relates to textures. On1 offers a greater range of textures (65+) that you can use to add some off-beat finishing touches to your photos. Nik doesn’t offer textures as such but has dust and scratches, lights leaks and so on.
- And reason number 3 is LUTs…not available in the Nik Collection itself, but available in Photolab 7. On1 has 44 natively.
So – moving on – here’s my video on how to install Nik Collection 7 as plugins to On1 Photo RAW 2024.
HOW TO INSTALL NIK COLLECTION 7 AS PLUGINS TO ON1 PHOTO RAW
There are a few caveats to using Nik Collection 7 with On1 Photo RAW 2024.
- You can have Nik and On1 play happily together by using the Send To Other Application option in On1’s Browse module. This is pretty snappy, and once another application is used, On1 remembers it in the menu selection. The Nik processed image is returned as a copy to On1 as a TIFF file.
- When Nik apps are used as plugins with On1 you cannot switch between Nik apps using the new Switch to button. The image you are working on will be processed by the first Nik app used, then returned to On1 as a new layer.
- If you send an image to a Nik application using the Layer / Filters menu in On1, then subsequently cancel the Nik processing, a blank/black layer is returned to On1, and sits on top of the original image. This confused me for a while as I thought I had lost my photos. I just delete that layer.
I haven’t got the bottom of what the message “Plugin running out of process” means when sending a photo to a Nik module – but as long as it is working I’m happy!
So there you have it – how to install Nik Collection 7 as plugins to On1 Photo RAW – or at least the way I ended up doing it.
I hope it works for you.
