Product Description

Dfx Essentials software allows you to apply the most popular creative photographic filters after you've taken the shot and is available for both Windows or Macintosh users. This software is a selective version of Tiffen's professional award-winning Dfx Creative Digital Effects software. This latest edition to the Tiffen award-winning software line, gives digital camera owners the ability to explore their creative options with an easy to use application that includes a step-by-step on-screen tutorial with audio. Dfx Essentials compliments any digital camera and features a definitive selection of 37 specialized filters and effects with hundreds of built-in presets and the ability to create and save custom versions and custom setups to repeat favorite looks. Dfx Essentials offers the ability to easily create multiple filter and effect layers, color, clone and red-eye removal tools, with non-destructive crop, rotate and scaling. The intuitive filter palette with thumbnail previews makes it simple to evaluate effects before applying the filter to an image. Dfx Essentials is compatible with a wide range of file types including camera raw and final images can be saved in either tif or jpg formats.

Product Details

• Brand: Tiffen
• Model: DFXESS
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X
• Format: CD-ROM
• Dimensions: 2.00" h x 6.00" w x 8.00" l, 2.00 pounds

Features

• 37 filters with hundreds of presets
• On-screen tutorial with audio
• Preview allows you to see the effect before applying the filter
• Easy-to-use interface
• Works with Windows and Macintosh

Customer Reviews

Finally A Program That Works Like a Photographer
I have looked high and low for a program like this, one that can manipulate digital photographs the same way a photographer would use filters over the lens, and function exactly as we think. Only Tiffen, one of the better photographic filter manufacturers, could come up with a piece of software like this.

The broad brushstroke overview. The software reviewed is called Essentials (Version 1) as described on the Tiffen website. This is a fairly simple standalone photo editing and enhancing program. You load a digital image into the program (there is no organizer or chooser, you have to know where your files are), then apply filter effects one at a time. It's incredibly intuitive after the second or third try, you sort of screw on a new filter for each effect. The central image view can show either the end product preview, or side by side comparison to the original. I've posted a screen shot for clarity. Once you've applied all the filters you want, save the file out to your hard drive and you are finished. It's all pretty darn simple and intuitive.

There are around 40 different filter types to choose from - ganged in general effect categories: Film Lab, HFX Diffusion, HFX Grad/Tints, Image, Lens, Light, and Special Effects. Each category has their own set of presets, like the HFX series has a number range up to 6 for more intense effects. There is also the possibility to adjust the parameters for each filter. The split filters are a great example, you can change the rotation of the split field and tons of other things.

The software is also a fairly decent photo editor. Crop, rotate (90 and precise degrees), etc. It does significantly lack much ability to control printed output. The software isn't exactly as fully featured as other photoediting software, like Adobe Photoshop Elements (any version from 1 to 7 are all much fuller programs). However, there are some tools very deeply buried - not at all intuitive to find (a tech support call pointed me in this direction). There is the ability to PAINT, like other photo programs - paint a color, paint to fix red eye, and clone brush to clear up blemishes on a face or lint on a suit coat. The menu happens to be buried in the "Image" filter, and then you click on the "Paint" filter. Voila, up above brushes, selections and the like all appear at the top of the screen. This is counterintuitive in this software - all filters are adjusted in the right panel with presets or parameters. Paint works totally differently, you adjust in the toolbar at the top.

In use, I started by cleaning up my photographs in Photoshop Elements 7. Remove blemishes, custom rotate to make verticals vertical, adjust contrast, crop, clean up the backgrounds, etc. This is all pretty easy to do, straightforward. In principle, I could do all the same things in Dfx Essentials. What Photoshop doesn't do well and requires a ton of flick this switch, apply this thing, do that, etc. is what traditional photographers have done for years - add filters to the lens to adapt the photograph to the circumstances. For example, HFX filters to soften skin, use differnt ASA film for that particular grain and color balance effect, use warming or cooling filters, and a whole host of other simple techniques; that are just so darn complicated in Photoshop. Yes many will argue you can do all these things in Elements - but you have to first master Layers, then master how much to tweak which effect, etc. All this is in non-photographic terms. In the Tiffen product, want to soften a picture for glamour effect - click on HFX, select 1, 2, 3, 4 up to 6 for intensity of the effect. This is exactly like a bag full of add on filters.

This software thinks like a photographer, not a person sitting in front of a computer trying to tweak things and learn a whole new language. Don't like an effect, click on a button to remove that filter from the stack. Want to add another effect in addition, click the add button and choose your filters. Don't like the exact effect from a preset, tweak it with parameters. The names and settings are all Tiffen and photographer standards - not Adobe's idea of what we should do.

Do I love this program, you betcha! I've already spent a solid day working up graduation pictures with this lovely program.

Now what do I dislike? Small things:

Installation:
It is not the least bit intuitive. For XP and Vista 32 bit - yes it will install from the fabulous, beautiful flashmedia intro program. So you will be very happy. According to tech support, Vista 64 bit is supposed to install like any other OS. In my case, the installer did not work. I had to work my way through the folders on the CD to find the installer and it worked perfectly. By the way, this was accomplished as a web live support call by an excellent support person at Tiffen. They actually made sure I had properly installed the program.

The Bait and maybe you want to spend more money?:
There are in fact three programs on this disc. You purchase a license for only one of those programs - the version 1 or Essentials program. However, they include the version 2 program that has something like 100 different filters with a vast array of presets and tweaks. You can install this program for a 15 day trial, fairly easy to do. But if you want to keep these additional filters, along with a slightly enhanced version of the editor, you will have to pay more money. Frankly, it's probably well worth the expense, the additional filters are amazing.

The Third program is all these filters as a Plug-In for various photoediting programs, like Adobe Photoshop (officially CS4, and Photoshop Elements). This is actually the best way to go with this software. Use the standard Photoshop base to deliver photo editing, and have this vast array of fabulous Tiffen filters to apply like a photographer would.

The worst part - there are no real live minimum computer requirements listed anywhere. That problem might be resolved once the program becomes officially available. I am reviewing a pre-publication edition of this software.
April 29, 2009 update - There are no PC requirements listed because, well it will run on virtually any computer. I just installed this program on an Acer Aspire One Netbook - this is the lowliest of the low for processor speed, graphics and memory. Guess what, the program works perfectly! It's actually faster to load than Microsoft Paint. All the filters work. Editing works. Preview snap up immediately every time a filter is chosen. Oh this is so wonderful. I've just found the perfect portable photo editor!

My test bed for this software (it worked flawlessly). Quad core Q9550 2.85 GHz processor; Nvidia (EVGA) GTX260 / 219 core 890Mb graphics card; 8 Gb of memory; 22 inch LG monitor; and Vista 64 Bit. This is a very light computer use program - I run folding at home on all four cores (100% usage) and the graphics card simultaneously; had Photoshop Elements 7 running; and Internet Explorer 8 with about 12 tabs open. Dfx ran very quickly, never crashed once, and responded very fast to every single filter choice and command. Remember, I have a fairly heavy duty system.

This is an outstanding program. It responds exactly the way a photographer would want it to work. I love this software. Want more - step up to this program with a ton more filters and more controls within the software: Tiffen DFXCMPV2 Dfx Digital Filter Software V2 Stand-alone Version - Windows XP, VISTA or Macintosh v10.4.6 and higher. The only significant difference between these two - more filters and more control over those filter effects.

April 27 update - I had some difficulties with installation and understanding what the software could really do. An email to tech support yielded a phone call back during business hours. Every single question I had was answered. Tech support seems to be extremely competent.

May 9 update - Tried another computer running Vista 64 bit - the flash installer did not work on that computer either. You will have to dig in the folders to do your install in 64-bit, tech support was flat out wrong about this.
Posted a screenshot of the software. Please take a look, the interface is clean and simple to use.

Decent product, but could use some polish
I'm strongly torn in writing this review. On one hand, this is a pretty neat program and I can add some flair and cool effects to my photos, but I'm not sure if I could justify the cost and yet deal with the program's deficiencies.

The installation under Vista is ok - you have to use a Flash based installer (why?) and it just seemed like that the install would be an afterthought.

There are ~40 or so filters to pick from and most have various presets, so on special effects (like converting your photo into a pencil drawing) you have more flexibility than what you'd have with most products. This beats carrying around a lot of (expensive) filters on your camera to get the desired effect. Or if you don't have a camera that supports filters, this is rather handy. The program also worked fine with RAW files from my Canon 5D Mark II and Powershot G10, saving time having to convert them to another file format.

The software is very intuitive. In fact, you might have more fun with the software if you just ditch the tutorial and start playing around. There are a few filter types that will make your photos stand out, and some are just for entertainment.

Downsides:
1) It's not a plugin for Photoshop, but a standalone program. Being able to edit a photo in one program would be helpful without having to edit it and then send it to another program for more editing.
2) There's not even a rudimentary file browser. When you've got hundreds of photos to flip through, it might be helpful to see a thumbnail of them other than what Windows can natively do.
3) Price. It's pretty cool, but is it worth $60? Picasa can do roughly half of these effects for free, and if you're at the point where you're thinking about a program like this, you can probably find how to get the others with some Photoshop work. Odds are you're already a photographer who has bought Photoshop Elements or Lightroom and have sank a good chunk of money into programs but as for this... I'm not sure. It would also depend on how much time you want to spend with your images. If you're the type who snaps photos and ups them to Facebook, then this is not for you. If you've got the time to edit each photo to get the desired effect, consider this.

In a way, the Tiffen DFXCMPV2 Dfx Digital Filter Software V2 Stand-alone Version - Windows XP, VISTA or Macintosh v10.4.6 and higher might be a better value IF you're inclined to spend time with this program to justify the cost. If you're an amateur photographer who likes to clean up photos before posting them online, you'd have a hard time justifying the cost for adding "cuteness" when the money should be better spent on other programs.

Box o Optics and Filters
This is a dual platform application. I am using the Mac version, but I am certain that all functionality is the same for Windows users, save comments about user interface issues.

This application contains a sub-set of Tiffen's more expensive DFX software, which emulates many film processing, optical and special effects. For the most part, the filters do an admirable job of doing just that.

This is not a general purpose image manipulation tool, such as photoshop, iPhoto, etc. It is a stand alone application that you feed single images into, apply effects, and save. There are 7 broad categories of filters (Film Lab, Lens, Light, etc). that contain 4-7 effects each. Inside of each filter, there are several pre-made versions of the settings for each, which you can modify and save as a preset.

As you add effects, you can stack more by adding a layer. Each layer can be adjusted for intensity, so you can dial in that combination of filters that gets you what you want (like a lomo camera effect, for instance). That combination can be saved and reused later. The filter combinations you create can be toggled on and off, dragged and reordered, and previews are all in near real time.

There are certainly issues. The file requester is non-Mac standard, and this is for the worse. No access to shortcuts, no way to visually browse for your images. The UI itself uses a dark gray color scheme that reflects Apple's "Pro" applications. It works well enough, things (such as dragging filters) work as you would expect. Many of the filters have drag points that give you some control over where they operate, but multiple points on them (like a pen tool) would have been great.

If you are using Photoshop right now, you will likely be disappointed with this application. It doesn't integrate into your workflow, there are going to be things that you will find annoying (lack of precision control and flexibility). In all fairness, the effects all have manual controls, and these can be saved as presets. At the end of the day, though, do you really want to quit out of photoshop to run a Star Filter effect? Tiffen would rather you buy their more expensive version that will work as a plugin.

It comes down to utility. For someone who wants a simple tool to apply photographic effects to images, this is as simple as it gets, and some of the effects are of very high quality (almost idiot proof as well). Some of these effects are tweakable enough that it won't have that "I have a NEW PHOTOSHOP PLUGIN" look (ie something out of the can), but other effects are doomed to be cheesy no matter how much you tweak them (Night Vision).

Essentially, those that are used to the power and flexibility of Photoshop should look elsewhere. Understand, though, that to get the Photoshop Plugin set version of the FUll DFX set is $300.00 (look it up on Amazon). This application feels like a host application for Tiffen's plugins, but at a much more affordable price than the plugin set itself. An "Essential" version of the Photoshop plugin set would be nice, and would probably make more sense for many people.