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Your Vision. Realized.

Cinematic Effects Plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom

Blockbuster Effects Made Simple

Bring your creative vision to life with Boris FX Optics, the ultimate photo editing toolkit. Designed for photographers, digital artists, and creators of all skill levels, Optics transforms your images with professional-grade effects inspired by the film and television industry. Whether you're enhancing photos, creating dynamic cinemagraphs, or crafting one-of-a-kind visuals, Optics is your go-to solution.

Why Choose Optics?

  • Hollywood-Grade Effects:

    Access over 160 stunning filters and thousands of presets, including cinematic lens flares, glows, light leaks, and particle effects.

  • Seamless Integration:

    Works directly inside Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom or as a standalone application, blending into your workflow without interruptions.

  • AI-Powered Masking:

    Save time with intelligent masking tools that isolate subjects and apply effects with precision.

  • Customizable Controls:

    Fine-tune every detail of your effects to match your vision perfectly.

  • Authentic Film Stock Emulation:

    Recreate the magic of vintage and modern film looks for timeless, cinematic results.

  • Transform Photos With Dynamic Particles:

    Transform photos with a fast and easy-to-use particle engine that creates unique effects with organic elements.

Optics in the Hands of Artists

Experience Optics For Yourself

Designed For Pros.
Easy Enough For Everyone.

Photographers

Add cinematic flair and enhance the story behind your shots
ยฉ Kris Andres

Hobbyists

Create stunning visuals with easy-to-use effects and tools inspired by Hollywood
ยฉ Photography By Darcy

Social Media Creators

Engaging content that grabs attention in feeds
ยฉ Lillian Liu Photography

Designers

Craft eye-catching visuals that captivate audiences
ยฉ Anya Anti Art

System requirements

Mac OS
OS Requirements
  • Monterey (12.0) and higher
Processor (CPU)
  • Apple silicon or Intel (Sandy Bridge or newer)
System Memory (RAM)
  • 8 GB minimum, 16+ GB preferred
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • Apple silicon integrated GPUs are supported, as are AMD GPUs on most modern Intel CPU Macs.
  • ML filters and masks require an Apple silicon integrated GPU with macOS Monterey (12.0) and above.
Windows
OS Requirements
  • Windows 10 & 11
Processor (CPU)
  • Intel x64 (Sandy Bridge or newer)
System Memory (RAM)
  • 8 GB minimum, 16+ GB preferred
Disk
  • High-speed disk array or NVMe SSD
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • Most modern graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD are supported for GPU acceleration, but for best performance, we recommend workstation powered by NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation, or AMD Radeonโ„ข PRO Series.
  • ML filters and masks require an NVIDIA GPU with compute capability 6.0 or above (Pascal), or an AMD Radeonโ„ข PRO Series GPU.

Transform Your Photos

Optics is a comprehensive plugin designed for photographers and digital artists. Combining innovative technology with visual effects inspired by Hollywood, Optics provides everything you need to bring your creative ideas to life.
Download Free Trial
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The Best Lighting Effects

Explore the largest collection of procedural lens flares, lighting, gobos, and particle effects for photography. Just say no to stock footage elements. Quickly design, edit, and save your own libraries of presets of favorites with Optics.
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Artist Tested. Hollywood Proven.

Optics gives you access to the same plugins and filters regularly used on the most popular films and TV series with the addition of top tools from the Boris FX Suite.

Add Lens Flares, Light Rays, Ultra Zap (lightning), UltraGlow, Light Leaks, and many more effects from our Emmy Award-winning Sapphire collection, or retouch skin easily with Continuumโ€™s Beauty Studio.

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Stunning Particle Creation

The Particle Illusion category is a fast and easy-to-use particle engine that creates unique effects and elements.

Particle Illusion features 1700+ particle presets to enhance photo editing, including Smoke, Fire, Water, Sparkles, Explosions, Dust, Sci-Fi, and more.ย Learn more about Particle Illusion.

You can also create and export cinemagraphs โ€” photo animations โ€” using Optics in Photoshop, Lightroom, or the standalone application.

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Physical Camera Characteristics

Optics is the only Photoshop plugin that emulates the physical characteristics of optical camera filters, whether itโ€™s historical film stocks, color grading, or lens and diffusion effects.

Add beauty and depth to your digital images with diffusion filters like Mist, Fog, Net, Halo, and more.

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Packed with Effect Presetsย 

  • 600+ film stocks and film looks
  • 126 optical lens flare presets from Boris FX Sapphire
  • 800+ Gobo lighting patterns
  • 1700+ particle presets, including Abstracts, Dust, Smoke, Fire, and more
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AI Masking and Paint Tools

Optics features masking and paint tools powered by Machine Learning to replace backgrounds, isolate effects, or fix and touch up pixels.

  • Mask ML with point and click object masking
  • EZ Mask, Gradient, Mask ML, Paint, Path, Snap, Spot, and Selection mask types
  • Combine multiple masks using blend modes
  • Paint, clone, and blur with support for Wacom tablets
  • Exchange masks with Photoshop
  • Face ML isolates facial regions
  • Depth Map ML generates depth based masks

Must See Effects

Light

Light can be added to a scene where none existed before just as if you were adding light at the time of shooting. Realistic lighting and shadow is introduced using digital versions of lighting gobos.

Film Stocks

Provides a physically accurate model of film exposure and processing to make your digital imahe look like it was shot on particular film stocks. It can perform color correction for specific film types, add film grain, and apply glow or soft focus effects.

UltraGlow

Generates a variety of glowing light from bright areas of the image utilizing a primary as well as secondary, after glow.

Ozone

Allows you to manipulate the color of an image with incredible flexibility and accuracy.

Lens Flare

Renders a lens flare image over the image, aligning various flare elements between the hotspot and pivot locations.

Particle Illusion

Particle Illusion is an easy-to-use, powerful, high-end particle generator that gives photographers and artists instant access to photorealistic particle effects. Particle Illusion is the choice for anyone looking to quickly and easily add amazing particle effects to any image.

Prism

Easily generate prismatic color aberrations.

Beauty Studio

Designed to automate the process of eliminating wrinkles, pores and other undesirable blemishes from facial skin tones.

UltraGrain

Adds realistic simulated camera grain to any shot.

SpotLight

Lights the input clip using one or two spotlights. For each enabled light, the intersection of a 3D light cone with the image plane is calculated using the given light source position, aim location, and beam angle. Ambient light can also be applied to affect the entire image evenly. A wide variety of lighting shapes can be produced.

Pixel Sort

Sapphire's digital glitch art effect, PixelSort, takes an image and reorders pixels along a chosen direction so you get those streaky, melting digital smears that feel like data has been dragged across the frame.

VHS Damage

VHS Damage is a one stop shop bad video tape look. โ€œMake this look like it lived on a chewed-up videotape for 20 yearsโ€ โ€” but with all of that analog chaos completely under your control.

Effects showcase

New for Optics 2026

Create face masks, depth-based effects, and fix images with one click. Work faster in Photoshop & new cinematic looks.
Download Free Trial

New for 2026

  • Photoshop Plugins Panel โ€“ Work with Optics directly inside Photoshop through a dedicated dockable panel for a smoother, more integrated workflow.
  • AI Filters โ€“ New machine-learning tools such as DeNoise ML, UpRes ML, Depth Map ML, and Face ML.
  • Updated Sapphire โ€“ New Sapphire filters and fresh presets expand your creative options with modern, stylized looks.
  • Updated Interface โ€“ A redesigned Collections and Filters window makes it easier to browse, discover, and organize all filters and favorites.

Photoshop Plugins Panel

The new Optics Plugins Panel brings Optics directly into the Photoshop workspace. You can browse, apply, and adjust filters without leaving Photoshop, making it easier to build looks inside your existing workflow. The panel docks like any other Photoshop tool, creating a smooth, familiar experience for Photoshop users.

DeNoise ML

DeNoise ML uses machine learning to remove unwanted noise while preserving important detail. It delivers clean, natural results that maintain texture and clarity, making it ideal for low-light images, high-ISO shots, or any photo that needs a gentle cleanup.

UpRes ML

UpRes ML enlarges photos using a machine learning model trained to maintain structure and fine detail. It produces sharper, more convincing upscales than traditional resizing, which makes it useful for printing, cropping, or giving older images new life.

Depth Map ML

Depth Map ML is a new masking tool that analyzes your photo and generates a depth based masks showing what is near or far in the scene. You can use this mask to target blur, relighting, or color adjustments with precision. It makes depth aware editing easier and more accurate for portraits, landscapes, and composites.

Face ML

Face ML is a dedicated masking tool that automatically detects facial regions such as eyes, lips, and skin, and separates them into individual masks. This allows targeted retouching and selective color adjustments without hand drawing masks. It speeds up portrait editing while keeping results natural and controlled.

Updated Sapphire

Optics includes updated Sapphire effects from the 2025.5 release, adding creative new filters like PixelSort and VHSDamage along with a wide range of fresh presets. These additions bring more modern looks and useful variations to the Sapphire tools photographers already rely on.

Updated Interface

The redesigned Collections and Filters window makes it easier to browse, discover, and organize filters. The Filters tab groups every effect by function, while the Collections tab highlights curated sets built around specific creative goals. You can also save favorites for quick access to your most-used tools.

Powerful Looks. Instant Style.

Professional-grade looks packs built by artists for artists.

Get Started with Looks

Each pack includes 10 artist-curated Looks to bring your creative vision to reality. Youโ€™ll need an active Optics subscription or trial to use the Looks preset collections.

  • Choose from two Looks packs โ€” Monochromed and FutureCyber

  • Use the Looks presets as is or adjust the parameters to your liking

  • Stay tuned for more Looks packs designed by new artists in the future

  • Show off how you use Looks by tagging #borisfxopticslooks

Free Optics Look: Golden Hour

Download your free Optics Look preset. Use as is or customize the parameters to suit your style. Please note that an active trial or Optics license is required to use the Look.

Whimsical Wedding Looks Collection

Whimsical Wedding Looks Collection

Add a touch of romance to your photos with this light and airy wedding preset collection.

$49.95

$37.46

Add to Cart

โ€œA collection of soft tones and subtle lens flares, this Looks preset bundle is for photographers who want their wedding edits to look like an ethereal daydream.โ€

Renee Robyn

Photographer & Optics Product Manager

Monochromed Looks Collection

Monochromed Looks Collection

Inject some elegance and drama with this collection of ten deluxe Black and White presets!

$49.95

$37.46

Add to Cart

โ€œI wanted presets made for bold visionaries - something that takes B&W from nostalgia into the surreal. This pack unlocks the hidden power of Optics, engineered for photographers who want to stand out. โ€

Renee Robyn

Photographer & Optics Product Manager

FutureCyber Looks Collection

FutureCyber Looks Collection

Channel your inner cyberpunk with this future-flavored collection of ten creative presets!

$49.95

$37.46

Add to Cart

โ€œOptics is an artistic filter gallery on steroids! This Looks collection of sci-fi inspired presets showcases some of the more creative and lesser-known filters.โ€

Dean Samed

Digital Artist

Get More. Pay Less.

  • Get 50% off a new annual sub of Optics with purchase of a Monochromed Looks pack!

See Looks in Action

Jersey Devil (Digital Macabre Collection)

  • Vintage analog camera effect

  • Inspired by creepy โ€˜Cryptozoologyโ€™

  • Dramatic blur and fog effects

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CursedTape (Digital Macabre Collection)

  • Inspired by The Ring

  • Pixellation and distressed VHS noise effects

  • Vivid glow and gel effects

Reminiscence (Whimsical Wedding Collection)

  • Create dreamy bridal shots

  • Soft hazy glow

  • Film stocks for added drama

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Serving Rosรจ (Whimsical Wedding Collection)

  • Add some ethereal romance

  • Pink hues and gels

  • Stunning lens flares

Bubbles (Monochromed Collection)

  • Add a little whimsy to your photos

  • Soft black and white filter

  • Added particles like orbs and mist

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Vogue Motion (Monochromed Collection)

  • Bring high-fashion drama to your images

  • Stylized prism filter for ย movement

  • Gorgeous magazine gloss

Chroma-Hit (Monochromed Collection)

  • Add a futuristic, dream-like ambience to your image

  • Subtle hues of red and blue

  • Emmy-award winning Sapphire effects S_WarpChroma and S_Film Effect

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Morning Haze (Monochromed Collection)

  • Create beautiful bokeh portraits

  • Dewy, misty morning looks

  • Atmospheric glow for a vignette look

Hack The Planet (FutureCyber Collection)

  • Highly saturated, cross processing look

  • Think Hackers meets Black Mirror looks

  • Deeply 90s aesthetic

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HoloDeck (FutureCyber Collection)

  • Create a glowing hologram look

  • Emmy Award-winning Sapphire UltraGlow and TVDamage

  • Inspired by Blade Runner 2049

Tyrell-Corp (FutureCyber Collection)

  • Dystopian future matrix type glows

  • Uses Sapphire UltraGlow

  • 80s flavored Cyberpunk

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Neuromancer (FutureCyber Collection)

  • Distorted, technical glitch looks

  • Sapphire Parallax Strips and TVDamage

  • Think William Gibson's Neuromancer

Get Social With Us

Connect. Share. Inspire. The Optics community is a vibrant network of photographers, designers, and artists pushing the boundaries of creativity.

Show Off Your Work

Tag your images on Instagram with @borisfx_optics
@borisfx_optics

Learn From The Community

Trusted by the industryโ€™s best

โ€œOptics expands your creative potential, hones your unique vision. But more importantly, letโ€™s you have fun and play.โ€

Curtis Jones explores stunning, remote habitats and shares how heโ€™s using cinematic color grades in his photos.
Read

โ€œA lot of times, I think I know where I want an image to go, and then when I get into Optics, Iโ€™m able to try new things that I wouldnโ€™t have thought of. I almost always prefer the new direction!โ€

A look inside the artistic, whimsical mind of the Canadian-born photographer and how he uses Optics to help bring a dreamy quality to his portraits.
Read

Ask Us Anything

Forum

A place for Optics users to ask more complex questions and request new features.ย 

Forum

Discord

Join our Optics Discord to exchange tips, get quick help, and connect with fellow VFX artists.

Discord

Help Center

Search technical questions or open a ticket with our knowledgeable support team.ย 

Support

Everything You Need To Get Started

Learn More

New to Optics? Optics Essentials is the ultimate beginner’s guide for photographers and digital artists. This comprehensive guide includes how to get started with the interface, masking and applying effects, blend modes, lighting, and more!

Taught by Optics product manager Renee Robyn and director of content Ben Brownlee

Includes 15 easy-to-follow tutorials

Get started with the interface, masking, effects and more!

Get Started

Tutorials

Ask Us Anything

Forum

A place for Optics users to ask more complex questions and request new features.ย 

Forum

Discord

Join our Optics Discord to exchange tips, get quick help, and connect with fellow VFX artists.

Discord

Help Center

Search technical questions or open a ticket with our knowledgeable support team.ย 

Support

Frequently asked questions

What is Optics?
Can I install and activate Optics on multiple computers?
Is Optics the same as DFT from Digital Film Tools?
What happened to the individual Digital Film Tools Photoshop plug-ins?
Does the Optics standalone load Photoshop PSD files?
Can’t see your question listed above? Visit our Help Center

Havenโ€™t tried Optics Yet?
Transform Your Photos for Free Today.

Itโ€™s easy. Download the Boris FX Hub, install Optics, and register for a free 14-day trial.
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