Welcome to the fourth and final part of this mini-series on Google’s brand new film and camera simulation plug-in, Analog Efex Pro. It joins the existing plug-ins in the Nik Collection, now owned and distributed by DxO.
Note: Following many requests, I’m republishing this article with the download link restored but the content unchanged. This was written for the first version of Analog Efex Pro, but the tools and presets still apply for the latest DxO version.
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Part 1 looked at Analog Efex Pro basics and how to apply preset effects, part 2 explained the Camera Kit and how to create effects of your own and part 3 showed how to create, save and work with your own Analog Efex Pro custom presets.
In this part I’m going to show how to save presets you’ve created as external files you can share with other people – and how to import presets sent to you by others by downloading the free Analog Efex Pro presets I’ve created to go with this mini-series.
01 My custom presets
Here are eight custom presets I’ve created while I’ve been writing this series, displayed in the Custom panel in the left sidebar. You use custom presets just as you use those that come built in – they’re simply stored in a separate panel. The main window shows the ‘Cyanotype’ preset applied to a still life image.
To export my presets for sharing with other people, I need to press the Export All button (circled) at the bottom of the custom presets panel.
02 Export location
When you press this button, Analog Efex Pro prompts you to choose a location on your computer to save the presets to. I’ve created an empty folder already. The export takes just a couple of moments. Each preset file is only around 5 kilobytes in size, and that’s because they’re simply a set of processing instructions.
03 Download the presets
It’s just as easy to import presets, and you can find out for yourself by downloading the presets I’ve exported. Just click on the download link below, unzip the file and then follow the instructions in the next step.
04 Importing presets
To import these presets (or any others), click the ‘+’ button (circled) alongside the Imported panel heading in the left sidebar. It’s at the top of the sidebar here, but that’s because the panel is expanded ready to receive the imported presets – normally, the Imported panel is collapsed and at the bottom of the sidebar.
Now just locate the folder where the presets are stored, select them all (they have an ‘.np’ file extension on my Mac) and click the Open button.
05 Your new presets
Imported presets are all displayed in the Imported panel. There doesn’t seem any way to move presets between the Imported and Custom panels, but that hardly matters since they work in the same way wherever they’re stored.
06 Preset samples
Here’s a quick overview of the eight presets I created for this tutorial. I hope they give you a good idea of the range of effects available with Analog Efex Pro, and how easy it is to create, modify and share custom presets of your own. You’re welcome to use these presets on your own images, and I hope you enjoy using Analog Efex Pro!
