Nik Software

Are you sure, you are having the latest versions of the Nik-plug-ins?

Older versions of plug-ins may no longer be compatible, if they are not sandboxed, see this link:

Aperture 3.4 and later: Some third-party plug-ins are no longer compatible

If you have the most current versions, and Nik says the plug-ins are compatible, post a crash log.

Regards

Léonie

Thanks Pabli, I too contacted Nik and they sent me the following instructions, which failed to work

Maybe you will have better luck.

Thank you for contacting Nik Software. HDR Efex Pro 2 and Color Efex Pro 4 take advantage of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) of the computer system. The GPU is also sometimes referred to as the Display Adapter or Video Card, in any case they are all the same. Sometimes certain video cards will not handle this additional processing.

In order to resolve this, the first measure would be to update the Display Adapters or GPU driver. Generally the video card that comes with your Mac will be updated automatically. The exception may be when there has been an additional video card added. In that case the user may need to go to the video card manufacturer's website to download an updated driver for their secondary GPU. If you are using Mac OS Snow Leopard (10.6) ensure to update to 10.6.6 or higher as this can affect performance. If this does not apply to you, please go to the next section below.

If after following the above steps you are still experiencing the same issue, the next step will be to either disable the GPU (if possible) or force the plug-ins to not use the GPU (safe-mode). In order to disable the GPU in the plug-ins, please do the following in each one:

1. If you are able to open the program and can see part of the interface, see if you can click on the"Settings" button in the lower left.
2. In Settings locate the section "GPU" and expand it, in this section you will see a check box "Enable GPU Processing", uncheck this so the GPU will be disabled, then close the settings window.
3. Close out of the program (click Cancel), quit out of any and all host applications (Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture), and then relaunch HDR Efex Pro 2 or Color Efex Pro 4 to see if this corrects this issue.

If you are unable to disable the GPU via Settings or if the issue has not been resolved (e.g. HDR Efex Pro 2 or Color Efex Pro 4 crashes or the buttons are not displaying correctly), please try the following steps below after quitting out of all host applications (Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture):

1. Open a finder window (or double click on the Macintosh HD on the desktop) and navigate to:
   Macintosh HD : Users : <user name> : Library :Preferences : Nik Software : HDR Efex Pro 2
2. Locate the file, HDREfexPro2.cfg and right-click and choose "open with..." and then click "Choose" and then locate the applications, "TextEdit" to open this file.
3. At the very beginning (before all the text) of the configuration file, paste the following code below verbatim:
   <configuration>
4. <group name="INTERN">
5. <key name="UseSafeMode" type="bool" value="1"/>
6. </group>
7. </configuration>
8. Now save the file, close it and relaunch HDR Efex Pro 2 and see if the issue has been resolved.

Then, for Color Efex Pro 4:

1. Open a finder window (or double click on the Macintosh HD on the desktop) and navigate to:
   Macintosh HD : Users : <user name> : Library :Preferences : Nik Software : Color Efex Pro 4
2. Locate the file, ColorEfexPro4.cfg and right-click and choose "open with..." and then click "Choose" and then locate the applications, "Text Edit" to open this file.
3. At the very beginning (before all the text) of the configuration file, paste the following code below verbatim:
   <configuration>
4. <group name="INTERN">
5. <key name="UseSafeMode" type="bool" value="1"/>
6. </group>
7. </configuration>
8. Now save the file, close it and relaunch Color Efex Pro 4 and see if the issue has been resolved.

I'm also having the same problem and also have installed the latest updates. The only plugins that cause Aperture 3.4.3 to crash are HDR Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro 4. Dfine, Sharpener Pro and Viveza all work fine.

Arnie

Pabli wrote:

I can't edit photos with Nik's Color Efex Pro 4 and HD Pro 2. Aperture 3.4.3 crashes!!!!

I use Aperture 3.4.3, Color Efex Pro 4 and HDR Efex Pro. No crashes here.

When you installed the Nik software did you uninstall the previous version(s) first before installing the new version(s)? The installer should give you that option.

Hope this helps.

Jerry

Just wanted to add that Aperture crashes whenever I use Nik's Color Efex Pro 4 and HDR Efex Pro, also. It will be fine for one image, but if I try to do too much, I either get a weird looking image or just a black image. I then have to close Aperture and restart. I assume, it's to clear the ram. I have 8GB of ram. On my next computer (within the next 6 mos), I'm going to have 16 GB of ram and an updated Graphics card. My computer is 2 years old and was the top of the line MB Pro at that time, but I'm thinking that it just can't handle the Nik Software now.

There are a number of people that are having issues with Nik plugins and Aperture. NikGoogle blames all of the problems on Aperture and offers no solutions. I've contacted their support quite a number of times and get the same response.

Nik's original HDR Efex Pro plugin has no problems with Aperture 3. However v2 causes the image to become distorted upon import. Restarting Aperture fixes this. It's my personal opinion that there may be a problem with Aperture, but NikGoogle could easily fix the issue in their plugins, but doesn't want to.

It may be that a new version of Aperture is due out (there are lots of indications to that), and NikGoogle is waiting for its release to issue updates to their plugins.

It could also be that the Google mindset has taken over Nik...read into that what you will.

I'm hoping for the former.

Your explanation makes sense. I didn't have the problem until I installed the latest update for the plugins in September. Very frustrating, so I hope it gets resolved soon. Aperture works fine until I try to use Nik.

I'm really getting frustrated with Aperture crashing whenever I use Nik HDR. It seems that after I save the image in Nik and attempt to open it in Aperture, I get a distorted image and then have to close and open Aperture again.

Does this happen in Lightroom 4? I've already tried Lightroom, but decided to use Aperture since it was more intuitive to me after using iPhoto. However, I am thinking of trying Lightroom again if it works with Nik software better than Aperture. Please tell me of your experience. Thanks

It doesn't happen in LR.

For Aperture, there is a fix that sometimes works - first, in HDR Efex, go to Settings, select GPU and uncheck the box for hardware excelleration. Then, before you send images from Aperture to HDR Efex, once you select your three (or 5, 7, 9) images, hit the V key to go Viewer mode (i.e. just the three images appear. When the priocessed image comes back into Aperture, there isn't any distortion.

I spoke with Nik tech support earlier this week on this issue (again...third time I've called) and got the usual NikGoogle response of "it's all Apple's fault". They claim that they've reported what they think the problem is to Apple several times. From what I can see, if NikGoogle were to put in a bit of time, they could fix the problem Unfortunately, it seems that the Google mentality has taklen over.

I've used LR4. The Develop module does produce excellent results. However, the whole modular approach, the heavy reliance on Collections and Photoshop for any major image editing is a real drawback for me. I'm using both LR and Aperture, and every time I have to use LR, I want to punch something....it's that frustrating.

Pabli wrote:

But still LR works better than Aperture!!!

That, of course, is your opinion to which you are welcome.

I used HDR Efex Pro a couple of hours ago with no problem. (OS X 10.8.2 , Aperture 3.4.3)

I am trying the 30 day trial in Lightroom again, but find it much more complicated than Aperture. I use Photoshop, though, and like that the saved images from Photoshop are automatically transfered back to Lightroom. As you probably know, this doesn't happen in Aperture, where you have to save them to a location on your drive and import them into Aperture. As far as the Nik software goes, I can see the HDR Efex Pro plugin in Lightroom, but not the other Nik plugins. This isn't too much of a problem, though, as I can access them in Photoshop. Hopefully after watching all the tutorials, I'll be able to understand LR better.

Sandylp wrote:

like that the saved images from Photoshop are automatically transfered back to Lightroom. As you probably know, this doesn't happen in Aperture, where you have to save them to a location on your drive and import them into Aperture.

Oh, Not so!!

If you select the image in Aperture you wish to edit then go to Photos -> Edit with Photoshop (or right click on the image and select Edit with Photoshop) your image will be opened in Photoshop. Do your processing in Photoshop and, then, click on File ->Save. A version of your edited image should then appear in Aperture right next to the original image. (FWIW- I have found that using plugins from Nik and/or Topaz will occasionally add layers to the image. Those images will not automatically save to Aperture unless they are "Flattened' first.) (P.S. - If you want the layered version, you must save it to another location.

Others may be able to explain this better than I, but I think this has been a feature of Aperture since version 3.x.x.

Jerry

Thank-you, Jerry, for your reply. I have discovered that you are right! I guess I had just assumed that the image from Photoshop would not automatically show up in Aperture, but I just tried it and it worked. I also discovered that if I use the Nik plugins in Photoshop instead of directly in Aperture, the images are not distorted after I save them. I used three of the Nik plugins in Photoshop CS6 on one image, saved it to Aperture, then opened it in Aperture with no issues. So from now on, I'll just open the image in Photoshop if I want to use any of the Nik plugins.

I've got Aperture 3.4.4 recently installed on my new 27" Desktop

Viveza 2 crashes Aperture everytime, but HDR Efex Pro works just fine. I tried uninstalling and re-installing without resolution.

Any ideas?

David