Software Review: Alien Skin Exposure



Reviewer: Dan Speca
Posted: 8/25/2006

Alien Skin logo
Exposure in the box


At a Glance
Description A Photoshop plug-in allowing photographers to apply film-like qualities to digital photographs.
Highlights Great for the photo professional; split-screen preview, wide range of film stocks and settings
Lowlights High price for the amateur looking for cool Photoshop effects
Manufacturer Alien Skin Software
Exposure webpages

US$199 ($99 for owners of other Alien Skin products)

Exposure is Alien Skin's latest set of plug-ins, this time geared towards professional photographers, particularly those who long for the days of film, grain, emulsion, and darkrooms. As more and more professional photography goes digital, subtle--and not so subtle--qualities of "analog" film stocks are lost, and Exposure attempts to bring those back, much like plug-ins that attempt to add pops, clicks, and warmth to a digital audio recording.

Exposure takes digital photography and simulates the look of film by mirroring the qualities that specific film stocks have. Granted, many of these effects can be achieved by adjusting color and level settings, but Exposure takes it a step further by simulating actual film stocks produced by Kodak, Fuji, and Ilford, taking into account the color and contrast tendencies of each stock.

Also setting Exposure apart from the standard image adjustment tools is the attention paid to film grain. Noise settings offered in Photoshop simply do not represent the grain patterns in film; grain size, shape, and spacing all vary from film stock to film stock, and variations often exist within a single stock (different densities within highlights, midtones, shadows).

grain tool
The Grain tool

Softness is also given new life in Exposure, giving photographers the ability to soften the sharp nature of digital images. And for those who find Photoshop's Unsharp Mask feature to be a bit harsh, Exposure sharpens only the brightness channel of the image, offering a much more natural effect.

Color to Black & White conversion is also given great attention, as it takes into account the unique properties of black & white film stocks such as Kodak's TRI-X, providing a much more accurate representation of tone.

Exposure comes with a number of predefined settings for film stocks, yet sliders also allow you to control colors, grain sizes and depths, tonal range, and sharpness/blur levels. You are able to preview any filters or settings in a number of split screen configurations, as well as save any unique settings you've created.

split screen
Split screen in action

Exposure also stores corrected images on their own layer, which limits the amount of "undos" one has to use and maximizes the ability to play around freely with different settings and controls. Turning layers on and off also lets you perform A/B comparisons on different filter results.

Having studied film in college, I have a fairly decent understanding of film stocks and the whole development and printing process, yet I am by no means a professional (and am not fanatical about my photography). I do, however, take a bunch of digital pictures that I like to print (often blown-up), but can't stand the artificial digital photography look of the prints. So for me, Exposure can help to create a nice film look for blown-up prints, as well as mask any deficiencies in either the pictures I've taken or my skills as a photographer.

To illustrate what Exposure can do, two images were used: portrait and scenic, both taken with a Canon SD630 Digital Elph (6.0 mp).



The first effect applied was a simulation of Kodak's black & white TRI-X, a pretty standard black & white film stock. As you can see from the images below, we gain some nice, simulated film grain, most noticeable in the midtones.

TRI-X portrait

TRI-X scene

The second effect attempts to soften the edging by using Exposure's Diffuse Glow preset. The results are mixed; not as noticeable in the scenic photo, the portrait shows noticeable softness without appearing blurry.

diffuse portrait

diffuse scene

The third effect applies a Kodak Ektachrome preset. Color saturation, as well as an infusion of warmer tones, are greatly increased, much as it is when using Ektachrome film stock.

Ektachrome portrait

Ektachrome scene

Finally, I applied the Kodachrome 25 (sharp) filter. The portrait image (originally a bit soft) sharpened up nicely, and a deeper color depth improved this image greatly. The scenic shot looks much like the Ektachrome image, yet the highlights still pop.

Kodachrome 25 portrait

Kodachrome scene

Overall, a pretty cool tool. Exposure's $199 price tag may be a bit steep for amateurs, although there is a $99 upgrade available for owners of other Alien Skin products.

Ratings Defense
I gave Exposure 4.5 Geekheads out of 5 for Quality due to its wide range of features, as well as its apparent love affair with traditional photography. The attention to accurate film grain recreation is terrific; Alien Skin really paid attention to detail on this one. An amateur most likely won't know the difference between specific film stocks and the like, so I took off half a Geekhead for lack of an amateur user facing. (Maybe Alien Skin will come out with a more amateur-friendly version??).

For Geekness, Exposure gets a solid 5 Geekheads out of 5. Any true photography Geek who wishes to make his or her digital photos look like they came out of a standard SLR will have a field day with this plug-in. Those people who obsess about exposure, apertures, shutter speed, and the like will be hard pressed to find another plug-in that speaks to them the way Exposure does. Methinks that there has to be more than a few photographs of these Geeks sitting down in the Alien Skin offices right now.