I am always amazed with what happens with new technology. Take the early days of fonts and laser printers and desktop publishing. People that did any type of document designed were frothing at the bit for high quality laser printers and large selections of good looking and easy to use fonts. But, what happened soon after this? People wanted to make their headings and titles and stuff look like they were printed on an old printing press or even a 9-pin dot matrix printer. So, of course fonts for both of these were created and at least for a time they were all the rave. Fortunately we have moved beyond this fad.
However, digital photography is going through a similar period. However, unlike the font’s period I am hoping that this period in digital photography doesn’t go away. What period am I talking about? Why it is the black and white and film period. Back when all you had was black and white film people wanted color. Now that we have color people want black and white and it doesn’t stop their, people also want their black and white photos to look like black and white photos done with certain processing techniques and shot with certain types of film. Basically we want our high quality digital images to look like they were shot with old film cameras with film that offers unique grain and texturing even of film that hasn’t even been available for years. We also want to be able to apply these film looks and dark room techniques to color images as well, while keeping them color. In a nut shell we want our new digital images to look old and from film.
Why is this different than the laser printer and font period? Why don’t I want to see this period in photography go away? Because these types of photos are stunning, just look at Ansel Adams. His work is nothing short of extraordinary. They have a feeling and tone to them that simply can’t be matched with color and especially with a digital camera. Unlike the 9-pin dot matrix fonts of the early desktop publishing years that were as ugly then as they are now, black and white photos with these unique processing methods and film grains are attractive and fun. Even the color versions of these are attractive and can offer a digital photographer options that until Alien Skin Exposure simply weren’t possible.
The next question is how does one achieve such a look with digital images? Well, you can certainly do the conversion from color to black and white in almost any image editing application. An application like Adobe Photoshop which offers several really good methods for converting color images to striking black and white. However, the processing techniques like cross processing or pushing film and even duplicating the grain of the older film stocks isn’t something that can easily be done in Adobe Photoshop alone.
Alien Skin realized this and they have come out with what I consider their best, most useful and most worthwhile plug-in package ever. Alien Skin Exposure is that plug-in package. Included in the package are two plug-ins one for color and one for black and white. The color plug-in allows you to cross process; apply different film stock grains and much more to color images while keeping them color.
The black and white plug-in also allows you to do cross processing and apply different film grains to your images, however it converts your images to black and white and it applies film grains from old black and white film stock to your images.
This is a simplified look at what Alien Skin Exposure does and allows you to do. Now here s a more technical look at what this incredible plug-in allows you to do.
Exposure brings the look and feel of film to digital photography. Digital photographers can now simulate current and discontinued film stocks, as well as recreate their signature look as a one-click effect. Exposure also simulates darkroom and studio effects such as push and cross processing. Moreover, saturation, light temperature, dynamic range, softness, sharpness, and the addition of realistic grain can be managed in one place.
Foremost a film simulator, Exposure is based on the detailed analysis of real world film stocks. A photographer can now quickly and easily evoke the vivid colors of Velvia®, the rich blacks of Kodachrome, or the sensitivity of Ektachrome. Exposure includes presets that emulate the warmth, softness, and realistic grain of dozens of real world film stocks, both color and black and white. Plus, any preset can be the starting point for a signature look, adjusted to suit a particular subject, or applied to a batch of images using Photoshop Actions.
Exposure adds realistic grain separately to the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights of an image. Unlike other digital products, Exposure does not add simple, harsh noise to an image. Instead, Exposure models the size, shape, and color of real world grain. Exposure can even mimic the pronounced grain of films such as Ilford 3200 Delta, as well as the discontinued Ektachrome EES and GAF 500.
Collecting color, dynamic range, softness, and grain controls in one plug-in, Exposure simplifies workflow. Photographers can now master one easy-to-use tool. Streamlined color and saturation controls warm/cool with a single slider while preserving skin tones or preventing oversaturated reds. Exposure makes gamma correction and contrast changes less intimidating by adding high level contrast, highlight and shadow controls to curves editing.
Exposure includes several, additional features that address the needs of photographers. Exposure reproduces key studio and darkroom effects such as cross processing, push processing, and glamour portrait softening. Exposure encourages non-destructive editing, allowing users to render an adjusted image as a new layer in Photoshop. Exposure's advanced preview system includes an optional, split screen preview in addition to a before/after button. Exposure pairs unlimited undo/redo with fast rendering and lets photographers zoom and pan using Photoshop style keyboard shortcuts.
I have seen other offerings including plug-ins, tutorials, Adobe Photoshop actions and the like that are supposed to do these kinds of things. However, I have not seen one that comes even close to what Alien Skin Exposure offers. Exposure is just an incredible package and if you’re interested in the films of the past and black and white I highly recommend you download the trial version and take it for a spin. This is in my opinion the first plug-in package that Alien Skin has done that is actually worth while and worth every penny they are asking for it, it has a real world use unlike the texture plug-ins they have done up to now. Finally we can get color and black and white film simulation in the digital world.
