Alien Skin Exposure- Photoshop Plugin

[insanephotography]

Gday guys,

Please let me start by saying I am not trying to start any type of conflict, at all. Please don't turn this into a flame war.

I am from a new generation, that has never used film before. I have no form of photography training other than youtube video's, internet guides and trial and error.

I have until now shot nothing but digital. Ever.

I have recently acquired my first LF camera, a Chamonix 45n-1 (it's gorgeous) and I am wondering about various film differences.

There is a photoshop plugin called Alien Skin ( http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/ )which I use currently on almost all my digital photography. It adds something to almost every shot. ( http://1x.com/member/insanephotography ) This is where I gained my interest in film. I figure if I am modifying every image I take to look like film, I may as well start using film.

I am wondering what the value of the AlienSkin plugin is in determining how different films "look". I have done some research and it seems to be moderately accurate.

So my question, has anyone here used this plugin and also used many different types of film? How do you find the accuracy of this plugin? Can I take some digital images in my style, run them through the plugin, see what I like best and then buy film based on that? (of course it's hard with the limited production now :( :( :( I have a love of the Astia filter within AlienSkin... )

(is it just a matter of buy what you can get your hands on at a decent price? no matter what it is??)

Thank you very much all,

Dan

[adamc]

I don't know about that particular plug-in, but not having prior knowledge of film, it seems like a logical starting point. I'm sure you've scoured Flickr too, looking at images actually shot on the emulsions/conditions you're interested in (landscapes on Provia, for example). My advice is to pick a film with the characteristics you like and jump right in. Nothing beats first-hand experience.

Keep up the research and good luck!

[Alan Gales]

I have never tried or even heard of Alien Skin. I guess they do the best they can to try to duplicate the look of certain films.

My suggestion is to shoot different films to see what they look like to you. A cheap way of doing this is to buy a 35mm camera and fire off a few rolls of different films to see how they look and then shoot what you like with your Chamonix.

[David R Munson]

I've actually been pretty impressed with how well Alien Skin emulates the look of certain films. A given look does seem somewhat based on actual film looks. If there's one look that stands out to you, why not start with that particular emulsion? Just don't expect it to actually look the same. It might be ballpark, but there are a lot of variables at work so it's a lot more than just choosing one film or another to get a particular look. There's something to be said for starting out with whatever film you can get a hundred sheets of for the lowest price you can. Buy it cheap so you don't feel like you have to ration it. Buy enough of it to get a feel for it before you run out.

[Kirk Gittings]

What these kind of film presets do is apply a curve to a file that resembles the characteristic curve of particular films. This is guesswork at best since they are applying a curve to a file with unknown characteristics. The other factor in a particular films "look" is how and what it was developed in. Any given film can look very different in different developers ie Tri-X in HC110 vs Pyrocat. How would a preset know or mimic that as the resulting look is very different.

So IMO and IME its not likely that you will get similar results. BUT you have to start somewhere. I would start with a well established film in a standard developer like D-76.

[Peter De Smidt]

If you can describe the characteristics that you're after, we could make suggestions. For example, color or bw? Do you want fine grain or more prominent, but maybe super sharp, grain? What kind of tonality are you after? Are reciprocity characteristics important? How will you be developing it?

[timparkin]

I looked at Velvia and was most dissapointed..

http://www.timparkin.co.uk/2012/07/state_of_velvia_50_simulation/

[DrTang]

I use it occassionally... it seems to approximate a kind of typical look for the various films - meaning..for tri-x..what most people who shot tri-x and developed in D-76 say..got..of course you could develop tri-x in all kinds of other stuff at all kinds of iso ratings and get all kinds of other looks - and people do/did

btw...I myself tend to use the Polachrome w/o added grain settig about 75 percent of the time when I do use the plug in

[Kirk Gittings]

I don't use Alien Skin but other programs I do use with film simulation presets are interesting. The one that is for the film I like never looks anything like it but another one may. I remember on one program finding the curve in the Pan F preset looked a lot more like Tri-X than the Tri-X one did.

[Lenny Eiger]

Dan,
I would say don't bother. The differences between film are seen in the subtleties. There are smooth transitions in specific areas that are generated by a film's spectral response and by development. However, your work is quite contrasty, it's a very commercial look. This type of look can be achieved by any film and you would likely not be able to pick up any differences between them. The differences are in the transitions one leaves out when printing contrasty. Unless you make a jump to Litho films, orthochromatic ones or infra red, there won't be much difference, IMO.

Lenny

[insanephotography]

Gday guys,

Thanks for all the advice. I think I will use it as a starting point.

I have some Portra160VC here, and some Ilford Delta 100, so it should be interesting.

It's quite interesting, I keep thinking of the colour cast that the portra VC will introduce, and thinking "I can just fix that in PS" but then that isn't the point is it!!

Thanks for the comparison Tim, quite useful!

@ Peter, I'm not really sure to be honest. On one hand I really love a desaturated colour look such as Fuji Pro 400H gives, but on the other hand my most used "presets" are Astia and Provia400F.

@ Lenny, I have been away from my main PC for about 7 months and since then is when I have started my 1x account :) All the work on there is from the last 7 months. I am probably just in a contrasty phase at the moment, a lot of my older work is much more benign :) I am thinking I can't go wrong shooting Velvia landscapes and some sort of contrasty B&W though. Kodak Technical Pan is my most used B&W preset at the moment.

Cheers for the thoughts all, I guess it is trial and error, but the more I can reduce that the better. Developing colour for trial and error is EXPENSIVE in Oz. I almost choked when I saw a pricelist of $10 AU a shot, without scanning...

Dan

[E. von Hoegh]

Insane, I just noticed that you live in the Antipodes.
You should be very careful about letting your Alien go out in the sun there! The poor thing could get a fatal sunburn, or worse! (some Aliens have been known to explode when exposed to UV) Where is your Alien from? Depending on the type of star his/her/it's planet orbits it could be OK to let him/her/it go outside, but you need to be sure.

You really should try film - exposure to chemicals in the darkroom doesn't harm you at all.;)

Good luck and welcome to film!.


E.vH.

[grdglass]

You might also try Topaz Labs' B&W Effects. They claim to have real grain. I imagine that means they photographed the grain of films. I believe they have a free 30 day trial on their plugins. I use both Topaz and Alien Skin and Topaz seems more sophisticated lately.