jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

NIK software are plugins for Photoshop, Lightroom, Paint Shop Pro or other similar editors. You can run the NIK Collection as standalone program but to do it you have to drag the picture that you want to work on and drop it onto the actual ".exe" file. For example if I want to work on a picture in Color Efex Pro 4 I would click on the picture and drag it to:

C:/Program Files/Google/Nik Collection/Color Efex Pro 4/Color Efex Pro 4.exe

Then it will open in Color Efex Pro 4 without using it as a plugin. It works for the other programs in the collection too. To use them as standalone it is easier to create shortcuts to each of the ".exe" progarm files and put them into a folder on your desktop for quick access.

DrFilGd

thank you,good info

DrFilGd

thanks for the help

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You should probably join a photo club in your area - you will need a lot of hand-holding through the beginner stage with both running a PC and operating software, and there will likely be members that can help. Trying to get this online on a forum like UHH will be frustrating, filled with seemingly or genuinely conflicting advice, and let's not forget the flame wars (where one member personally attacks another), that will distract and derail a conversation.

Another alternative is to find someone who will mentor you. That will cost you some money, but if you get a good mentor, you will be up to speed in no time.

The last alternative is to continue to figure things out on your own, with questions posed in forums - pretty much how you are doing it now.

Lastly, you can look around for a college that offers a continuing ed course in the basics of both photo editing and computer use.

Now to your question.

Each individual module has an executable file (with the extension .exe) that will allow it to run without using any other program. But it is not designed to work this way. It is best used as a plugin to another program like Photoshop and/or Lightroom.

Read the response to the same question posted in this forum:

https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/75907/can-the-nik-collection-be-used-without-photoshop-or-lightroom

So you can see, you have already gotten conflicting information, yes it can be used as a standalone, no it can't and "maybe"

When you respond to a specific post, click on "quote reply" so we know who you are responding to.