Boris FX Optics: Feature film style effects within Photoshop and Lightroom

BorisFX has gone into partnership with Marco Paolini’s Digital Film Tools in the update and rebranding of DFT for Photos as Boris FX Optics.

Boris FX Optics. Image Boris FX.

Digital Film Tools has long been a player in the VFX plug-in industry and the partnership with Boris extends Boris’ reach into the VFX market to still photography. 

Boris FX optics is a Windows or Mac suite of 160 filters and functions either as a standalone application or, as most users would deploy it, plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

Optics unifies the Boris interface of filters and customizable pre-sets. In fact, there are over 1000 total presets which can then be adjusted and saved as user presets. Moreover, once the user has created a preset (either from a single filter or a composite from multiple layers), that resulting preset can be batch applied to any collection of stills.

All Boris products whether acquired and enhanced by Boris or developed by Boris from scratch share features and technologies across the product lines. Optics is no exception with the inclusion of 75 Boris FX Sapphire filters within those 160 total filters. This is of particular value when matching stills to video sequences in which Sapphire effects will be employed. Among the most common broadcast and cinema applications for Sapphire are its lighting, flare and glow effects and these can then be applied now to still shots as well as videos.

There are over 85 color grading presets which Boris says are “based upon Academy Award nominated films.” Again, these presets are also found in the BorisFX video suites so once again, matching stills to video is simplified. 

One of the more useful libraries within Optics is its Gobo library containing 750 lighting effects.

It works within Photoshop as a filter and within Lightroom as an external editor. If the installer detects these applications, the plug in is automatically installed. At that point it is only a matter of applying the plug-in which then opens the Optics application. Individual effects can then be applied and parameters adjusted, presets applied or new presets created.

Just as with any grading tool, effects are non destructive.

Boris FX Optics is available at the Boris FX website..

It is priced at $9 per month or $99 per year as a subscription or perpetual license with one year of updates for $149. A 25% introductory offer is available until August 4, 2020.