Since we're talking Alien Skin "Blow up".....

[neils]

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So the recent question about Alien Skin's "Blowup" was asked but I'm wondering if anyonme is using the "Exposure" grain replicating software from them. Just curious. I've added grain in Nikons NX to some images and it isn't so bad at all. But it has nowhere near the options that Exposure has.

 

I'd love to find a nice way to mimic Rodinal,

 

Thanks

Neil

[geoffsm]

No M8 content here (still waiting for mine), but I use Exposure to one degree or another on many images. Apart from the grain, which I only use in specific situations, I find their canned film look tone curves, in moderation, to be a nice way to impart some personality to the files from my 5D. From playing with various M8 DNGs I've filched from around the web, they don't seem to need it.

 

I do use the grain on some low-ISO files that I'm converting to black and white to give more of a film feeling to some images. I saved the grain settings from the HP5+ film look as a separate preset and use that (generally not at full strength). The grain, while quite good, is still a little too regular for me, so I keep it to a minimum. I think this is something they're planning to address in Exposure 2. I don't think it quite gets that Rodinal look (e.g. Ralph Gibson), more like xtol, but there's a lot of room for experimentation here.

 

As David Adamson has noted, Exposure's grain is much better for stomping on the (organic, "swimmy") artifacts created by Blow Up than the grain generator built into Blow Up itself. Together they're a pretty amazing combo for printing large. I've printed crops from images that would be 48" on the long side and they look great, even up close. It's almost a free lunch...

[Englander]

I assume you know that in Photoshop there are already two pretty sophisticated filters for imitating film grain one of which is very flexible. Alien says they have variable amounts of grain for shadow, midtone and highlight; PS does for midtone and highlight, only. It depends on how much you want to pay for presets of various film types that were obtained through arduous research.

 

Since you specifically want Rodinal grain, one way to accurately imitate it is to obtain an actual Rodinal negative of an N or +1 exposure of a clear sky, have it scanned at high resolution, save it, adjust it for high contrast so the grain pattern is perfectly clear, bring it into your images as a layer, select blending mode--overlay,softlight, hardlight, etc-- and then adjust opacity to suit.

 

Joe

[imported_peter_m]

Neil,

 

If you do mostly black and white you may want to check out B/W Styler from the Plugin Site.

 

Peter

[ustein]

I like Exposure a lot for B&W conversion and also split toning. Of course you can do most things in PS but it is not that easy and you miss all the fine presets of Exposure.

 

Uwe

[stunsworth]

I'm another Exposure user. There's something perverse about taking a file from a digital camera - Canon 5D in my case - and trying to make it look like a film shot, but I happen to like the results - and the Tri-X setting is very good IMHO. I'm not so enamoured of the colour conversions, but I like the b&w a lot.

 

I downloaded the 30 day trial and then bought the plugin. If you ask for a CD rather than download you get versions for Mac on PC. The CD shipped via DHL and arrived in the UK within a couple of days.

[Guest stnami]

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Exposure adds another dimension to PhotoShop and these are bonuses and as most state yes possible in PS via actions but these actions are not flexible as Exposure.

[neils]

Thanks for the replies. I may give the Exposure trail a shot. For B&W conversion I use Image Factorys "Convert to B&W Pro". Very good and very flexible. It is also in old school darkroom speak so to speak. They refer to exposure (enlarger) , contrast (filters) etc.

 

I did give the grain feature in CS2 a look, I've used it in NX but I don't have some of the plug-ins I like available for me in NX so something to add to CS is what I'm looking for.

 

Pervese to add grain to a 5D image? Not really. At a recent local get together of some local shooters I brought 4 13x19 B&W prints.

 

2 were from my D2HS, 2 were from the M6 w/TX I scanned. Very very similar framing of the same subject.

 

Each pair was printed 2 different ways, One was printed with the MIS UT7 ink set with an Epson 2200, the other the 2200 using the BO (black only) method.

 

All of the six who looked at the prints picked the TX/Leica/BO print as being the "best" best of course being subjective but it meant it had that certain zing/sparkle/something....

 

But they all liked to see some grain was what it came down to. I've had a 3 decade affair with the M's but damn that D2hs makes a nice file too. If only I could find the zing/sparkle/something. Might just be grain.

 

Go ahead with grain. Smooth is boring. Like Plus'X in straight Microdal. YUK!!!!!!

 

 

Neil