DxO Nik Collection 9

Take your favorite photos to a whole new level

- IAN EVENDEN

$179.99/$99.99 upgrade from 7 or 8 From https://nikcollection.dxo.com

Needs Needs macOS 15.7 or later

DXO'S NIK COLLECTION 9 arrives on the Mac as the most forward-looking version of the image-editing suite. Appearing as eight standalone apps as well as plugins for Photoshop (including Elements 2025 and 2026), Lightroom Classic, Affinity, or DxO PhotoLab, there’s a lot to dig into, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) options, too.

At the center of the new release are AI Masks and Depth Masks, both of which dramatically speed up the process of making precise selection and local adjustments — some of the most time-consuming parts of digital photo editing. AI Masks can isolate subjects with a click or a quick bounding box, delivering accurate selections in seconds. Depth Masks go even further, analyzing the image so you can target adjustments based on objects’ distance from the camera, with feathering to blend these into the background.

The names remain the same as in previous releases. There’s Silver Efex for converting images to black and white, Dfine for noise reduction, HDR Efex for creating high dynamic range compositions, and the slightly unusual Viveza, which does away with the masking and layering and sets you loose with sliders and curves adjustments to nail color balance.