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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

DPP Solutions: Creating A Film Look

Giving your digital images the feel of a classic emulsion easily with Alien Skin Exposure 2

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Before

Film has a distinct look. Some photographers have steadfastly stuck with it for the sole reason that they were fond of a particular emulsion and they had come to know that emulsion’s characteristics so well. And while digital capture offers its own aesthetic, which most of us have fully embraced, there still are times when we long for the look of one film emulsion or another.

Creating the look of an emulsion is possible with a digital photograph, but it’s not necessarily an easy process. Over the years, a number of companies have built Photoshop scripts that would seek to mimic one film type or another. Extremely savvy Photoshop users created their own actions to do the same thing with varying degrees of success. The process is time-consuming, and the results can be unpredictable in many cases.

After

Alien Skin Exposure 2’s cross-processing capability

Exposure 2 by Alien Skin Software is the latest version of the popular plug-in that makes creating the look of a film emulsion simple, reliable and predictable. Exposure 2 is a powerful, professional-level program. It has a broad range of film stocks and special-effects settings that you can apply with considerable levels of control.

The program allows you to select the various films as presets. Among the emulsions you can choose are classic favorites such as TRI-X, Kodachrome, Velvia, Ektachrome, Portra and Scala, as well as less well-known films. In all, there are more than 300 presets. Why so many? Because beyond picking and choosing among various films, you also can apply special effects such as push-processing, cross-processing and infrared simulators.