Disclaimer: This review is based on a licensed copy of Boris FX Optics 2025.0. No sponsorship was received.
The new (Waveform, Parade, Vectorscope) have been rebuilt to handle 10,000 nits of luminance. If you are delivering for Dolby Vision or HDR10+, Optics 2025.0 finally respects your dynamic range without crushing blacks or clipping whites. 3. The "Classic Diffusion" Rebuild Optics has always had "Glass Diffusion," but for 2025, they went back to the analog lab. They rebuilt the Classic Diffusion filter from the ground up using new optical physics modeling.
For years, there has been a silent war in the world of image editing. On one side, you have parametric editors like Lightroom and Capture One. On the other, you have pixel editors like Photoshop. But what if you need something that sits entirely in the middle? What if you want the high-end optical simulation of a Hollywood VFX studio without leaving your raster workflow? Boris FX Optics 2025.0
Until now, Optics was the best-kept secret of high-end retouchers who were tired of "fake" looking Instagram filters. Version 2025.0 isn't a minor bug fix. Boris FX has added three major pillars that change the workflow entirely. 1. The AI Masking Engine (The Game Changer) The single biggest complaint about Optics 2024 was the masking. It was manual, clunky, and relied entirely on Photoshop's primitive selections if you were using the plugin version.
You can now generate auto-masks for with a single click. This is huge. Want to add grain only to the skin to reduce plastic texture? Want to add a diffusion glow only to the background while keeping the subject razor sharp? You can now do this entirely inside the Optics interface. Disclaimer: This review is based on a licensed
Here is everything you need to know about the new release, from the AI-powered masking to the lens flare that actually looks real. For the uninitiated, Optics is a standalone application and a plugin host (for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Affinity). It is essentially a library of over 1,000 parametric optical filters. Think of it as the lens closet of a Hollywood cinematographer, digitized.
How it works: It uses a segmentation model similar to Adobe’s Sensei. It detected my subject’s hair down to the flyaway strands instantly. No rotoscoping required. 2025.0 fully embraces the ACES and OpenColorIO (OCIO) pipelines. For the professional colorists in the room: you can now work in true 32-bit float throughout the entire stack. If you are delivering for Dolby Vision or
Boris FX, the legendary creators of Sapphire and Continuum (tools used on every Oscar-winning VFX film of the last decade), has just released their latest iteration of Optics. And frankly, this isn't just an update; it’s a statement.
Is it the for Photoshop and Affinity users? Absolutely.
Date: April 17, 2026 Category: Software Review / Post-Production Reading Time: 8 minutes
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