Some Thoughts on Reviews and a Quick Follow Up to the Tiffen Dfx Review

Hey everyone. First, don’t forget to scroll down to the next post. I’m giving away a ticket to my upcoming Lightroom seminars. Next… I wanted to post a quick follow up to the Tiffen review from yesterday. I realized from some questions I got on the social media sites, etc. that I’m missing part of the review. See, I try to give a review from two points-of-view. 1) A new un-biased user who may just be joining the photography industry and wants to know how good a product is and, 2) Me – some one who’s used a lot of products and definitely has some biases.

So it’s a really weird thing to write a review. In the case of Tiffen’s Dfx, as a new user I think it’s a great plug-in. It was easy to use, had some GREAT effects in it, with some really good features. As me, some one who definitely has a Nik and onOne bias, it’s probably not something that works it’s way into my everyday workflow. Not because it’s a bad product, but because I have years of experience using something else. Old habits die hard right?

Questions Are Good
The questions were good though. They made me realize there’s a few different audiences out there who read reviews. There’s the people that are just starting out and are wondering what product they should invest in, and there are those who use competing products and want to know if there’s something better out there.

Final Thoughts
In this case, There were a lot of people wondering if I’m switching over to Dfx from Nik or onOne. As an existing (and very biased) plug-in user, probably not. There are a few filters in there that I really liked so I’ll definitely keep my copy installed because Nik and onOne didn’t have those options. If I were a new user, I think Dfx definitely has a plug-in worth considering. Their effects were great and they have an incredibly easy way to view and apply them (as I mentioned yesterday, maybe even easier than some other plug-ins I use). Because I could see so many options and previews without actually clicking and moving sliders, I think it helped me be more creative and perhaps get some “looks” I would have never found elsewhere.

My advice still stands though. If you were just starting out, I’d say download the trials of any plug-in you wanted to use. See which one “fits” for you. Everyone responds to an interface differently. And fortunately the major plug-in makers all have a very different interface, so it’s not like you’d install them and think they’re all the same. They all have good effects, so the best thing would be to test ’em out and see which one you tend to gravitate toward.

My lesson in the end though is that I’ll probably start including a section at the end of my reviews. Something like “Would I (or do I) use this product every day?” and then maybe something like “What if I were just starting out? Is this something I would use?”. As always thanks for your input.