Digital Film Tools is a company that combines software designers, motion picture visual effects, video editors, and photographers to create plug-ins for Adobe products including After Effects, Photoshop, Aperture, and Final Cut Pro.  Presidents Marco Paolini and Peter Moyers have garnished some pretty cool accolades for their work on such films as The Last Samurai, Talladega Nights, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Mission Impossible.  Most notable to Kentuckian photographers and videographers, is Marco's work on the film Elizabethtown, a film located in Hardin County.  

This review is of the company's application of Light!.  Light! is a impressive plug-in for Adobe Photoshop users that allows the photographer to add great lighting effects to pictures.  Like a lighting designer for a theatre company, it uses patterns and gobos to achieve a professional looking image by placing different patterns of light to backgrounds.  The photographer can use this tool to also change the color of the light so that different moods can be created based on the designer's preference.

Installation
Installing the Plug-In was simple, as is most installations of programs of Apple.  Included in the package is a user guide which is invaluable in setting up the plugin correctly.

Tutorials
Light's tutorial is simple, easy to understand, and helped me to produce pretty cool effects on my photos.  It's the type of tutorial that gets you the general idea and lets your creative juices go.

Features
Light! Allows the photographer or graphic designer to add various light features to your photos, including Light, Fog, Diffusion, Glow, and Fill. 

Interface
The interface took some getting used to, but on the whole the interface of the program is quite easy to understand. All the areas of the program are customizable and as one will see when downloading, the program's "skin" is darker so you can more easily scrutinize your work and tweak what you need to.  The different components are customizable, and you can even "tear off" different parts to give you more flexibility.  After working with it and using the tutorials, it'll be like second nature to you.

A Simple How To
Basically, to use the program well, you'll have to understand the masking technique first. Simply mask the subject in quick mask mode, convert it to a pixel mask in the masking tool panel on the right and invert the selection. Next, go to the Light! plug-in through the menu.

At the Light! Plugin menu you can make all your changes and edits in real-time.  I won't cover all the features nor the nooks and crannies, but the most popular setting you'll want to be familiar with is the Selection section and the Shape Section to the right.  Basically, to make a Light! effect you want to have Selection>Extract On>Layer Mask and on Shape>Blend Mode> Multiply.  This will give you the effect that's featured on Digital Film Tool's website of the man with the yellow background.

Support
I believe that Digital Film Tool's support is great as I had a few questions about the program before I got started.  I searched the wikis, the websites, which were all very thorough, but didn't resolve my simple question.  I emailed the president of the company through the website and within an hour the president of the company, Marco Paolini replied back with a thorough reply and thanked me for using the program.  The support experience was a great one!

Examples
I've provided one example of my work so far with the Light! Plug-In.

This is of a picture of Trey Grayson, current KY Secretary of State, running for US Senate.  All politics aside, I thought that the picture I had could use a little patriotic Light!.  

Final Thoughts
For a photographer just starting out or for someone who wants to add a little something to their photos this will be a great tool in their digital toolbox.  With nothing more than a camera and a background, the photographer can still add great effects without having a ton of equipment to lug around, maintain, or buy.  For the seasoned photographer this could be a great way to spice up those great photos you're already used to taking.