Anamorphix is a lightweight tool for photographers using anamorphic lenses. Automatically detect and batch desqueeze DNG images based on embedded metadata or manual input.
How Anamorphix Works
Anamorphix is designed to make desqueezing your anamorphic stills as painless and predictable as possible. Built with photographers in mind, it walks you through the process step-by-step.
Here’s how it works:
Folder Selection:
Start by selecting a folder that contains your DNG files, I usually do this after importing and converting to DNG in lightroom, You can either paste the full path manually or use the visual folder picker for a smoother experience.
Squeeze Ratio Detection:
Choose from a list of common anamorphic squeeze ratios — 1.33x, 1.5x, 1.8x, and 2.0x — or enter a custom value if you’re working with something more niche. This ratio determines how your images will be proportionally stretched.
Optional Metadata Filtering:
Most anamorphic lenses don’t have electronic contacts, meaning they don’t automatically write EXIF metadata like branded glass. But many modern mirrorless cameras (like the OM-1, Sony Alpha, Fuji X series, etc.) allow you to manually assign lens information via custom lens profiles or user-defined EXIF fields.
Anamorphix uses that data to intelligently filter your files. Simply tag your images with a lens name like “Sirui” or “Cooke” in-camera (or later in Lightroom), and the app will only desqueeze files that match those keywords.
This ensures you don’t accidentally process non-anamorphic shots in the same folder — and if you do want to desqueeze everything regardless, just toggle the Desqueeze All option.
Built-in Safeguards:
If anything’s missing — like a folder path or lens tag — Anamorphix alerts you with a clean dialog. It will also read the file and prevent double de-squeezing of images, so its safe to run again and again.
One-Click Results:
Once you’re ready, the process runs automatically and gives you a completion report: how many files were desqueezed, skipped, or errored.
Lightroom Metadata Refresh:
After running Anamorphix, Lightroom may not immediately reflect the updated aspect ratio.
Here’s how to fix it:
Select the affected image(s) in Lightroom
In the top bar, find "Metadata" and choose “Read Metadata from File(s)”
If it still doesn’t update, try restarting Lightroom
Most often, the correct desqueeze appears once you enter the Develop module.
1. Install Homebrew (if you don’t have it yet)
Open Terminal (search “Terminal” in Spotlight).
Paste the following command and press Return:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Follow the on-screen instructions (it may prompt for your password).
More info at: brew.sh
2. Install ExifTool
Once Homebrew is installed, run this command in Terminal:
brew install exiftool
That’s it — ExifTool will now be available, and Anamorphix is ready to be used!
3. Download Anamorphix
Click the Icon to the right to start the download.
Unzip the file to extract Anamorphix V1.0.app.
On first run, right-click the app and select Open (to bypass Gatekeeper warning).
Follow the steps explain earlier in this page!
If macOS says the app is “damaged” or won’t open:
1. Open Terminal
2. Copy and paste this command:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/'Anamorphix V1.0.app'
3. Then double-click the app to open it.
This only needs to be done once, after downloading.