Auto FX Free is a collection of 10 free Photoshop plugins (you don't need Photoshop to use them): Focal Zoom, Light Brush, Lighten and Sharpen, Mood Lighting, Soften Details, Vitality, Dreamy Photo, Mosaic, Abstract Edges, Photo Border.
There's no marketing trickery with the download or installation. There's no registration required, you don't have to hand over your email address, there are no stupid restrictions or "upgrade now!" nag screens.
The install adds a program to your system called "Auto FX Free", which enables the plugins to be used stand-alone.
Launch it, open an image (JPG, PSD, PNG, BMP, TIFF) and choose your preferred plugin from the "Select AFX Effect" menu.
A panel displays the settings for each plugin. Choose Focal Zoom, for instance, and you're able to set the position of the effect, the opacity, adjust lighting effects, and customise the results with a brush.
Filters may be combined, and you can save the finished image as a JPG, PSD, PNG, BMP or TIFF file.
Please note: the Download link takes you to the product page. Scroll down, choose your operating system and click "Download" to get the installer.
Verdict:
There's nothing jaw-dropping here, but Auto FX Free does have some interesting and very configurable effects, and at this (non-)price it's hard to complain.
One note: we found the stand-alone Auto FX software crashed a few times for no apparent reason with some a few images and effects, but worked perfectly with everything else. If you run into problems, keep trying with different images and you should see better results.
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