The strange alchemy of Analog Efex Filters, what they do and how they combine

Analog Efex is one of the creative plug-ins in the DxO Nik Collection and it’s a bit of an outlier because, first of all, it was developed by Google and not Nik Software (it appeared during Google’s ownership of the Nik Collection) and secondly, because it can produce the most amazing results from filters which individually don’t seem to amount to very much. I’ll explain.

So like the Nik Collection’s other top creative plug-ins Color Efex and Silver Efex, Analog Efex populates its left sidebar with sections for Presets and for Filters. The Presets are custom-made combinations of Filters and settings which are grouped into categories and come with the software. You can also save Presets of your own. Some of these presets are a bit wild, but many are spectacular, and they really do evoke the feeling of old cameras, films and processes like no other software. That’s just my opinion.

Yes, I do know about DxO FilmPack, but if I’m honest, I find it a bit serious and technical by comparison, and it doesn’t have Analog Efex’s local adjustment tools and range of filters. 

Anyway, while Analog Efex’s Presets are both remarkable and varied, if you try to use its Filters invididually, it’s difficult to achieve particularly striking effects. I’ve been using Analog Efex a long time, and it’s become clear to me that understanding how these Filters interact is a lot more important than what they do individually.

It is possible to reverse-engineer your favorite presets by applying them and then checking to see what Filters have been used and what settings have been applied – and then learning from that when creating effects of your own. But where most photo-editing is the carefuly application of science, Analog Efex is more like cooking, or cocktail-making maybe, where the combination of ingredients can produce something very special, where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.

So what I thought I might do is quickly run through these Filters to explain what they do, but also group them together to try to create a little order out of the creative chaos that is Analog Efex.

Analog Efex general adjustments

• Basic Adjustments: This is a standard tool in any Analog Efex effect, and three of its sliders are simple and obvious (Brightness, Contrast, Saturation), one is not. The Detail Extractor is rather remarkable, combining local contrast enhancement with a kind of HDR-style levelling up of highlights and shadows. You might find yourself using it a lot. In practice, you’re unlikely to use the Basic Adjustments on their own, but more likely to tweak or finish off the effects of the other Filters.
• Levels & Curves: This is a useful Filter for anyone who finds the Basic Adjustments too crude. It works just like the curves panel in any other program, with overall RGB curves adjustments together with individual Red, Green and Blue curves if you want to mess with the colour balance. Best of all, it also has a Luminance curve option for when you want to increase contrast without boosting the saturation at the same time.

Analog Efex camera effects

• Lens Vignette: This Filter does what you would expect, applying a darkening or lightening effect to the edges of the picture. You can change the shape of the vignette from circular to rectangular and adjust the amount. You can also use an on-screen gadget to adjust its size and reposition it. It’s surprising how something as simple as a vignette can instantly add to an analog ‘feel’.
• Bokeh: Analog Efex does not have AI subject masking like Lightroom does but it doesn’t need it because with careful positioning and adjustment its Bokeh tool can create convincing and attractive focus fall-off away from the main subject. It has another trick – a tilt-shift mode which can create a miniature diorama effect with scenes that are on an angled plane relative to the camera. This is a very decent and useful Filter.
• Light Leaks: Are you a fan of light leaks? I’m in two minds as a rule, but there are times when they can add a little lightness and emotion to a scene and even change its feel completelyy. The Light Leaks Filter in Analog Efex certainly has plenty of options, and a good deal of control over intensity and positioning too.
• Lens Distortion: This Filter is not for correcting lens distortion but for adding it, to simulate the look of old or cheap lenses. You can add either barrel or pincushion distortion in quite large amounts, and what sets this Filter aside is the ability to add a chromatic fringing effect.

Analog Efex film effects

• Film Type: You might see the Film Type Filter in Analog Efex and think – aha – a film simulation tool. It’s not quite like that. Analog Efex’s Film Types are subtler in their effect. and I generally find it more useful to add them at the end of the editing process not the start. There are three key controls to look out for. The Strength setting starts of at 50  but you can push it right up to 100, and the Fade setting is the same. What this slider does is to pull back the shadow and highlight values for a flattened, faded look. The Grain per pixel slider is a weird one because you reduce the value to make the grain effect more visible – not intuitive at all!
• Frames: The Frames available in Analog Efex can really set off the analog effect very effectively. They might seem like a cheap trick but they really do make a difference. Just one word of advice – don’t add a frame unless you’ve already cropped the photo to the aspect ratio you need for display/printing, because Analog Efex does not have a crop tool.

Analog Efex texture effects

• Dirt & Scratches: You’ll see this Filter used a lot in Analog Efex Presets, and it adds an assortment of specks and scratches to your image that can sometimes be obtrusive if they fall in the wrong place, but do add to a vintage feel. I’ve grouped this with the Photo Plate and Paper Textures Filters as all three apply vintage/distressed/textured overlays.
• Photo Plate: In principle, the Photo Plate filter creates the look of streaky glass plate negatives, but in practice it offers a range of textural effects to help ‘age’ your photos. You can choose from a variety of categories and types, and also adjust the strength.
• Paper Textures: This is a new addition in the latest version of the Nik Collection, and simulates different paper surfaces – so you can make it look as if you’ve printed on canvas even with regular matt or glossy papers. If you do a lot of printing you might find it useful, but I’m not sure it’s for me.

Analog Efex motion effects

• Zoom & Rotate Blur: Now we’re getting into the more esotecric and uncommon effects in Analog Efex. The Zoom & Rotate Blur Filter takes some figuring out because it does two things at once when quite possibly you only wanted one of them. The Zoom feature creates the effect of zooming the lens during the exposure, while the Rotate effect can give a nice swirly bokeh effect a bit like a Petzval lens – as long as the Zoom is set to zero. Used together they creat a zoom/twist effect which is striking in its own way, though I’ve yet to find a use for it.
• Motion Blur: This is a simpler Filter to use, as it just adds a streaked blur effect at whatever angle you choose – and you can also adjust the blur distance. You could use it to simulate or exaggerate panning blur, for example – the on-screen gadget lets you position and adjust a central ‘protected’ area.

Analog Efex special effects

• Double Exposure: I really like this Double Exposure Filter. It superimposes a second version of your photo with the angle, size and blending adjusted. It’s what you might see if you took the same shot twice by mistake without winding on, but with a lot more control over the positioning. You can add a different image as the ‘second’ exposure, but you will need to locate it manually on your computer to load it.
• Multi-Lens: This is an interesting one because it splits the image up into panels, each one showing a cropped part of the original photo. Lots of different layouts are available and you can move and resize the bits of the images in the different panels. Like the Double Exposure Filter, it’s not something you’ll use all the time, but it is strangely fascinating and definitely worth occassional use.

This is just a whistle-stop tour of the Analog Efex filters, not a step-by-step tutorial. I’ll be doing more on the special magic of Analog Efex in future articles, but in the meantime I hope my simplification of the Analog Efex toolset is useful in some way. Happy editing!

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