Detail Enhancer does a number on footage that is low in contrast, like a foggy scene or one which has been overly diffused. It seems to find all of the dark lines in the video and then darken them even more while adding a white glow around them. Used in moderation it’s very effective, while, when pushed to the extreme, it ends up giving a cool bleach-bypass look.
Flash Remover does just what it says, which is to remove camera flashes from your video. I’ve never seen a plugin like this from any other company, but it definitely works, and if you need it, it’ll save you a ton of time. I did find that the presets seemed to be set too high for my needs, but since there’s only one parameter to change, that was easily rectified.
This before and after shows both the Tint and Touch Up effects used in tandem. Notice how Touch Up smooths the skin but doesn't affect the text at all.
Sharpen is a subtler version of Detail Enhancer, in that it seems to work in the same manner but doesn’t get all crazy looking when pushed to the extremes. Detail Enhancer appears to do most of its processing on lines while Sharpen seems to work more on pixel-by-pixel level. It does a great job of sharpening footage, with less artifacts than most built-in sharpeners (although increased jaggies are inevitable on diagonal lines). In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to use this on a wide variety of footage, since it really isn’t noticeable in moderation, except when you remove it and realize how blurry your footage looks!
Pixelator puts that blocky “Cops” blur over top of your subject. This works great for interviews where your subjects don’t move around a lot. If they do move around you’ll have to keyframe the position of the blur, but luckily you are able to do this fairly easily with most editing and compositing software. (And of course in AE, if there's sufficient contrast on your subject, you can combine it with the point tracker to minimize your work.)
Soft Focus blurs the pictures and adds a haze of sorts over top. At minimal levels this looks okay as a diffusion effect, but for the most part I found it just made the video look murky.
Touch Up is a really neat effect that will get rid of blemishes and smooth out wrinkles, but which somehow manages to avoid blurring text or other fine details. When you push it too far it makes people look like cartoon characters, but in moderation it’s a great tool and I’ll probably be using it a lot, especially on female subjects in closeups.
When pushed to extremes, Detail Enhancer can produce an interesting look similar to a bleach bypass.
