Emulating film in digital

[onesh0t]

Hi,
I remember someone posted scans of grey cards which were shot on film. It was an interesting method of emulating grain in post. Unfortunately I cannot find the thread.

Would anybody have those on their hard drive still?

[Tareq]

First, i didn't understand this method.
Second, how to do this? I have film and gray cards, is there a way to do it? I would like to have a try as well.

[girlsfather]

with average values corrected to RGB 128/128/128 and blendmode set to overlay or similar, this is a method to get real film grain/and or colour in your digital shots.

There are plugins and stand alone software that do this.
Some had tiles that were repeated and thus not so good in critical areas as even tones (skies and the like).
AlienSkin Exposure has different presets that emulate the look of film - both colour and B&W - and offers a variety of adjustments that can be done and saved as presets.
Nik Software is similar.

I am also a fan of the real scanned B&W film grain and use it from time to time.
As I was given the file by a client, I will not share it.

[girlsfather]

Originally Posted by Tareq

First, i didn't understand this method.
Second, how to do this? I have film and gray cards, is there a way to do it? I would like to have a try as well.

the idea is to do a reproduction on film of a neutral grey area that is completely even lit. To have no structure/texture you should defocus. Then the only thing you see is the grain/colour of the film. Then you scan it. Apply that to your picture using for example overlay blenmode.

[Tareq]

Originally Posted by girlsfather

the idea is to do a reproduction on film of a neutral grey area that is completely even lit. To have no structure/texture you should defocus. Then the only thing you see is the grain/colour of the film. Then you scan it. Apply that to your picture using for example overlay blenmode.

Well, will check out how to do it in step by step and give it a try, i would like to do many shots in film like look, i have film if i want to do only film, but i shoot more with digital, and only my digital MF has that quality to memic film, and i will use this camera more to add that scanned grain for film like shots.

[ksparticus]

Grain Surgery Plug in worked awesome for me. I had installed it for my CS4 a few years back although I'm not sure if it's compatible with CS6 or not

http://www.plugsandpixels.com/grainsurgery.html

[DomQuichotte]

Normally, I don't use Plugins, but there is a good one for that purpose! And there's a free 15 day trial!

http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro/usa/entry.php

[franko60]

And don't forget Powerretouche.com. They have plugh-ins in their suite that emulate the tonality of different film/paper combinations and a grain plug-in that adds grain.

There are a couple of things to understand. The grain structure in a film will be affected by such things as the temperature the film is stored at (which is why professional film is always stored in a refrigerator until use), the chemicals the film is developed in, the type of fixer used, the temperature of the developer and other factors. Secondly, a digital image will always have something that film doesn't and that is noise. Adding grain can disguise noise to a degree but won't remove it completely so you will always have a combination of noise/grain.

To minimise the noise before adding grain, shoot at the optimum ISO for your imager. I could be corrected here but my testing has shown that with my camera/lens combinations that isn't always the lowest ISO.

Then run your noiseware plug-in. There are several good ones and some of the experts here can tell you the best way to do this. I'm happy with what I get out of Noiseware.

Then do your black and white conversion using your preferred method if you're converting to black and white; if colour, skip this step.

Finally add noise using either the gray card method used here or one of the plug ins.

And though you get close, you still won't get a total reproduction of film, for all the the reasons mentioned above.

When I was shooting film I was well known for my pastel high grain process. I started with 3M 1000ASA film and adjusted exposure, developer time and temperature and the type of developer used to manipulate the film to give me the look I was after. I could change that look over quite a wide range by manipulating variables.

So if you're looking for an easily reproducible, predictable process that gives you the same look every time, following the steps above will give you that, but be aware, it won't be the same as film with the process manipulated by somebody who knows what they're doing.

[onesh0t]

Yeah, I know it won't be the same, especially that photographs will look different dependent on the film and post-processing used. I just wanted to get a reasonable approximation of grain, which is usually nicer than emulating it in digital. I'm not that much of a purist.

[Tony W]

The thread Here discusses this and there is a link to a grey card image including the granular structure of film.

There are many points to consider including the degree of enlargement for a given film type (and size) if you want to emulate film as near as possible and also the viewing distance of the prints - far enough away with an analogue print and granularity is not noticeable

[onesh0t]

Originally Posted by Tony W

The thread Here discusses this and there is a link to a grey card image including the granular structure of film.

There are many points to consider including the degree of enlargement for a given film type (and size) if you want to emulate film as near as possible and also the viewing distance of the prints - far enough away with an analogue print and granularity is not noticeable

Thanks Tony_W, thanks the exact thread I was looking for.