Pixiq

As a Pixiq contributor, you get asked to review things from time to time. Recently I was asked to take a look at Tiffen Dfx 3, a software filter offering from this great hardware filter manufacturer. While I'd seen ads for the product, I wouldn't say that I was familiar with it. As their hardware fitlers are excellent, I figured their software should be the same.

Where does it fit in with current market offerings? I would say it's aimed firmly into the onOne, Nik, and Alien Skin market. The basis is to create new looks for you images quickly, without needing extensive editing knowledge. As with the other prodcuts mentioned, it can be used as a standalone product, or as a plugin for Lightroom, Aperture or Photoshop. 

The first time I ran the product, I only had time for a top down look. The layout is intuitive, but equally so, the amount of options you have for creating looks is vast, so I recommend looking at the tutorials. I did, for reasons that will become obvious. 

What does the product do? At base level Tiffen Dfx allows you to apply looks to your image in single or batch form. It does this via presets for the most part, but all of the parameters for a preset are available and can be modified. As you build up layers of looks using both masks and blend modes, these looks can also be saved as 'Setups' which can be reused, again in single or batch form. 

Dfx is run as an 'Additional External Editor' from Lightroom, which means it's available via an 'Edit In..' preset in Lightroom, so it's quick to get it going. Once in, you have your layer stack on the left, parameters and presets on the right, with tools on the top. Finally you have the filters at the bottom. Using the View menu, you can rearrange these as you like, including using a Dual Monitor setup. 

To begin editing, choose a look from the Filters at the bottom. There's a lot there, so to some extent there can be option paralysis, but by taking time with random photos, you can get familiar with them quickly. It's not something you should do when you've a job to get out in a rush. That said, if you're looking for a quick film like B&W look, you'll find the right one quickly. 

The Filters panel encompasses a range of options: Film Lab for film and film effects (e.g. Cross Process), Diffusion, Grads and Tints, Image effects (DeNoise, Auto Adjust etc), Lens effects (focus, vignette etc), Light effects (adding in lighting etc), Special Effects (including textures) and Favourites, which you set up yourself. According to Tiffen, there's 125 filters that can be mixed and matched to your hearts content. 

Once you've selected a Filter, the options for it appear in the Filter bin at the bottom. The presets for the current Filter are then visible on the right. As you can see from the first screen cap, that means loads of looks! Select the look you want to apply it to the current layer.

One thing that's key with using layers is the masking. Initially I tried playing with the masking tools, and just found them slow and to be honest, not all that accurate. That's where looking at the tutorials became necessary. As well as having gradient masks, paths etc, there's also the EZ mask. Basically you draw foreground and background masks. For the foreground, draw inside the subject, and around them for the background. Use the paint bucket to fill in each section as you go and then click process. EZ mask will generate a mask. You can also use 'paint unknown' for the mask generator to pay more attention. It was pretty impressive looking. Finally, you can also stack masks on a layer, so you can add a gradient mask to an EZ mask for example. Again watching the videos is essential, because I found myself with a generated mask, and it wasn't working. I hadn't noticed that the mask icon wasn't ticked on the layer. A rookie mistake, but an easy one to make.

I have to say that overall, I was impressed with the product. I did mention you could get option paralysis, but the tutorials do help get an understanding of the product quickly and to me they're essential to any user. It's not the same as Photoshop by any stretch in operation, so there is a learning curve if that is what you're used to. I will likely continue to work with this as there are a lot of depths to it, more than a few hours of working with it can show. 

There is a 15 day trial, and this covers all versions of the product, including video use. The plugin version is $199