Make your expensive digital camera look like an expensive re...

[MacBytes]

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Category: Reviews
Link: Make your expensive digital camera look like an expensive regular camera with Exposure from Alien Skin (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20070301093025)
Description:: There is something about the look of film, both still and moving, that is just more compelling than the clean look digital photos and video can deliver. Exposure really does deliver great results in a fraction of the time it takes to achieve similar results on your own. The included presets are, for the most part, all very well done, and provide a quick way to preview many different film looks, or act as a great starting point in creating your own looks.

This ease of use and time-savings comes at a price, however, as Exposure costs $199 (almost as much as an entry-level digital camera) but Alien Skin offers a discount for owners of other Alien Skin products. I would say Exposure is definitely targeted at the prosumer/professional digital photographer looking to recapture some of the richness of film that gets lost in the move to digital. For those discerning digital photo pros, Exposure is a must have tool in your photo arsenal.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Price: $199 (discount available for owners of other Alien Skin products)

Pros: Great film-like results, intuitive interface, large number of presets, fully customizable, can save your own presets.

Cons: A bit expensive for the causal digital photographer

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[mkrishnan]

Mmmm, when I loaded this site, I did not get any images... which makes understanding a review of photo editing software rather difficult! :eek:

Although, I'm a bit concerned about the part where the person states that they have a 20D and leave it on full auto.... :(

I have to say that, when I take properly careful shots with my 300D, especially with a good lens, that I do have to do photoshop, but it's really very minimal and takes only ~1 minute per image I like. Just stuff like running USM to simulate some of the sharpening techniques I'd use if I ran my own dark room anyway.

[Grimace]

the images look to be working now.

I am a bit skeptical too. I think I could achieve the same results in Photoshop or Aperture.

[michaelrjohnson]

the images look to be working now.

I am a bit skeptical too. I think I could achieve the same results in Photoshop or Aperture.

I feel the same way. I feel I could accomplish this in Photoshop (with a little time) very easily; except, perhaps, for the simulated grain processing (which seems intelligent).

$200 is a high price in my opinion.

[shadowfax]

I feel the same way. I feel I could accomplish this in Photoshop (with a little time) very easily; except, perhaps, for the simulated grain processing (which seems intelligent).

$200 is a high price in my opinion.Yeah... aperture is a full-on management app, and it doesn't cost much more. I prefer tweaking my own images, as well.

[Chaszmyr]

I have to assume that they don't really intend to sell this app to people who are already used to Photoshop or Aperture.

[JeffTL]

Not sure the reviewer is competent to judge the product ... he says he usually leaves focus to Photoshop. Last I checked, there really isn't much you can do for an out-of-focus image, except maybe shrink it down small enough you can't tell.

[artalliance]

Actually, my friend, a pro photographer, uses the PS plug-in from time to time to give his digital shots a bit of more film grain. Looks quite nice.

[benpatient]

wow. 200 dollars for some "channel mixer" presets and relieving me of the burden of dragging the "intensity" slider in photoshop's "film grain" filter?

"a must have for discerning digital photo pros" indeed.

more like "a must have for the photoshop filter junkie who's already bought all of the useful filters"

at least that's based on this guy's review. My guess is that this software is actually supposed to be used by people to simulate specific printing processes, like Pan X or some of the more exotic paper/chemical combinations like platinum, lithium, selenium etc.

in fact, here's alien skin's page on what this software does.

https://www.alienskin.com/exposure/exposure_examples.html

the obvious "cool" thing you can do here that you can't easily do in PS are the cross-processing simulation and the immitation of specific types of film/printing.

I believe what we have here is a useful product that is being underrepresented by the reviewer, who doesn't quite know what the product does, but he's pushing it on us anyways.

I'd say this software is a solid "must-have for pro photographers who want to simulate a specific type of film or development processing in a consistent way to a large number of photographs."

[Earendil]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this strikes me as a product for rich people who can't be bothered to learn.

He has a 20D ($1000) but leaves it on Auto? At least buy a Rebel...
SLRs are not only waisted as soon as you use auto, but also don't produce as good a images as todays consumer cameras unless you know some basic post processing.

Then to go and buy a $200 filter, to use with a $1000 camera to make it look like a $200 film camera, when you have no intention of using it outside of auto, or learning the basics of PS?!!


I'll tell you a better way to make you expensive DLSR produce images that look like film for $200... Go buy a $200 film SLR :cool: :rolleyes:

[CTYankee]

Every one of those effects can be done with actions that you can get for free. Nothing new or interesting there. Heck, I can even write actions for most of those.

It certainly does look like software for people with little time or knowledge. For them its a good thing. Regardless of what we may think about it, the photographic world is becoming one of the $2000 point and click system. People buy $1500 cameras and $500-2000 lenses and never take their camera off of "P" mode.

Its actually a good thing for us all. Let the rich people pour new money into R&D, drive down costs by increasing volume, and flooding the used market with new in box glass that isn't as sharp at the corner wide open at 100% in Photoshop.

[Ted Witcher]

This is actually a plug-in for PS. I encourage you guys to download the demo. They did a very nice job with this... the presets are rough/ballpark to the actual films they emulate, but if you throw out the name and just look at the image, a pretty good film looking image is possible. The grain modeling is really quite good. It works best, though, going from color to b/w. Much better as a starting point than using channel mixer or whatever.

[benpatient]

i've played with the demo a bit, and i'd have to say, this has a pretty limited market that it's going to reach effectively.

the grain emulation is better than the one built into PS, but for B&W conversions, (again, unless you're trying to emulate a particular type of film), i still find channel mixer to be as fast, but more flexible. (not to mention free.)

50 bucks for this, sure, might be worth it to some people...200?

rather spend that on another external hard drive or some lighting accessories or a down payment on CS3 or a copy of leopard.