Google made news this week when it dropped the price of its Nik Collection substantially — in this case, it went from $149 to absolutely free. Nik is a suite of seven desktop plug-ins that are typically purchased by advanced photographers. When Google first bought the Nik Collection, it dropped the price from where it originally stood at $500. The plug-ins include Sharpener Pro, Vivenza, Analog Efex Pro, and more. These plug-in works in Aperture, Lightroom, and Photoshop.

You may be wondering how photographers feel about this — if you paid $150 for software that was later released as totally free, you might not be too happy! Google, though, is also planning to automatically refund anyone who paid $149 for the software in 2016. The only downside to this move, of course, is that it implies that Google is pretty much done with doing anything with Nik?s software, so for anyone who enjoys the plug-ins — eventually they may need to find something new to fit their needs.

As someone interested or employed in the photography industry, you may be wondering just how worth photo editing services for photographers are. In most cases, they are an essential tool for people serious about the craft.

Although there is a lot of flack over the practice of ?photoshopping? ads, in all reality, photo editing helps to take photos from amateur to professional. If a customer, for example, pays good money for a portrait photo, they?re not going to want to see fly away hairs, blemishes, or that their shirt is accidentally showing a bra strap. This is where photographers can come in and smooth away small issues while also artistically improving things like contrast and hue with color correction services so that a photo is truly eye catching.

Although most people think immediately of the wedding industry, photography for the housing market is especially lucrative these days, and can provide important padding for photographers who may be pursuing less consistent work in their spare time. Research has shown that homes shot with professional photography and color correction services sell more quickly, and also sell for more money on average. And considering this can result in thousands of dollars more for a listing, it?s not an unimportant service.

In short: yes, professional editing for photography does matter, and it does help!