Argue all you want about the demise or survival of film photography, but its undeniable that after a century and half of imaging, film still deeply informs our sense of what a photo should look like. Which is why it's so rewarding to play around with Exposure 2, Alien Skin's new Photoshop plug-in for giving digital images the look of various film stocks.
Black-and-whites can go from Ansel Adams smoothness to photojournalistic grit with a few clicks and slider adjustments. Color images benefit from a similar range of options, from a dead-on simulation of mid-1970s Ektachrome to an overexposed Polaroid.
Even more fun are the range of special effects available as part of the standard package and as downloadable presets. I'm tempted now to imbue all my B&W shots with the stark minimalism of the 19th century calotype process. And you'd be surprised at how certain images deftly respond to the green cast of a simulated night vision camera.
Exposure 2 sells for $249 and requires one of the following Windows or Mac applications: Photoshop CS2 or higher, Photoshop Elements 4 or higher, Fireworks CS3, Paint Shop Pro XI.
Alien Skin
