Yesterday, Nik Collection 3 By DxO was released including many new effects, filters but also a new plugin; Perspective Efex! It’s a plugin I have tested and used during several weeks and in this article, I will introduce you to it and show you some concrete examples on how you can use it.
Perspective Efex
The plugin Perspective Efex was developed to make geometric corrections. You can either use the Auto function or if you feel more confident you can go ahead and use the Control Points to assure you will obtain the result you want.
There are softwares that have similar functions but what makes this plugin unique is that thanks to a special DxO technology it corrects faces and bodies in an image you are working on. The type of photos to use this plugin for simple corrections is endless, from the horizontal line of your seascapes, straighten urban and cityscapes but also portrait, lifestyle and even food photos!
Different functions in Perpective Efex
The interface of Perspective Efex consists of a toolbar that you’ll find in the top left, an image display area, a lower toolbar and a correction palette on the right bar where you’ll find the different effects you can use. To learn more about the interface and the different effects I would advise you to have a look at this page.
There are 6 different main functions in the plugin Perspective Efex: Distortion, Volume deformation, Perspective, Horizon, Crop and Miniature effect.
1. Perspective
When you take photos of architecture you’ll see its impossible to avoid distortion. Thanks to the Perspective function in the plugin Perspective Efex you’ll be able to correct both vertical and horizontal lines. This is very useful for interior photography if you don’t have a wide-angle tilt & shift lens. Just by using a wide-angle lens you can achieve a great result just make sure too include more margins as the correcting effect will crop the image.
2. Horizon
This is a popular one. Every day I see people posting photos with horizons that are extremely tilted. Its an easy fix if you are shooting with a tripod but if you are shooting handheld then this feature is perfect as it easily adjust the horizon line.
3. Miniature effect
The difference between a traditional lens and a tilt and shift lens is that with the traditional lens the focal plane is parallel to the image sensor whereas with a title and shift lens focal plane can be angled. Thanks to the Miniature Effect in Perspective Efex you can achieve the same effect. It can be used in landscape, cityscape but even in food photography.
Conclusion
I’m very happy that this plugin is included in Nik Collection 3 by DxO. As you can see its useful for many different type of photos. As you’ve seen in my article I’ve used it for architecture, seascape and food photography. But the use of it in other types of photography is endless! The interface and layout is nice and its easy to learn how to use the different functions. If you want to take your photos to another level by correcting details such as distortion and tilted horizons I recommend this plugin.
No Comments