Post processing film filters
artphobe
Posts: 97
in The Commons
What are your favourite tools for final touches or applying a film filter to a rendered image?
Reality/LuxRender has alot of "film" filters which give add realism to the render, is there any other image processor that has those kinda filters? (Agfa color, Kodak etc)
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Hi there are plugins for photoshop that offer many film emulation filters such as those by NIK software, which I believe may now be had at no cost.
https://www.google.com/nikcollection/
I found G'MIC for Gimp, but have no idea how to go about installing/using it :[ it has all the Kodak, Fuji etc film emulations I need (that LuxRender offers)
Put G'MIC exe file in C:\Users\*User Name*\.gimp-2.8\plug-ins folder and you should have it in Gimp under Filters menu (for me its last option on the bottom). Activate it and expand Film emulation menu, pick a submenu (like Instant pro) and in the Presets field pick a emulation.
I'm in love with the Google NIK filters. I use them with Gimp. I like the G'mic tools, too, but I'm just now starting to explore them. There are a couple of nice film filters in Filter Forge, too.
My Ps plugin to go with every of my rendered images is Alienskin's Exposure - it has it all, films of any kind in b/w or color - Agfa, Fuji, Lomo, Kodac, Polaroid a. m., special effects, bloom, overlays and so much more, it really became essential to my work. http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/ It's not free but worth every penny. :)
+10
I use the Nik filters for post processing on every image
Nik filters and/or Filter Forge
There are almost more film emulators than there were films (yes an exageration, but lots of film plugins). Most haven't been mentioned here, at agues because not so many photographers.
...if render times were not so glacial with Reality/Lux I'd still be using it as I like the ability to add effects in the render pass. My favourite film setting for outdoor scenes was Kodachrome 64 as I used the actual film in RL because I liked the colour saturation quality. The nice thing I could set up "action" scenes using that filter that would have been difficult to near impossible to shoot in RL without having to go to a higher ASA and shutter speed.
I have been using the entire Color Effects pro suite, that includes the NIK filters, for years now with Adobe Photoshop CS3.
I find it a bit ironic that we have developed the ability to render
photoreal Flawless digital images at very high resolutions
only to" Dirty them up" in post to emulate the looks of analog film stock.
This is done quite often by ILM on Big hollywood movies like Transformers.
Yeah, the first time I did this, I commented about how weird it felt to spend all that time trying to get it perfect and then use post processing to give it grain and dirt and all sorts of things. It gives nice effects, though. :)
I don't have Photoshop (perhaps the easiest option), so I don't use plugins that only work in that program. I usually use a now-discontinued standalone conversion tool called Lo-Fi, which quickly emulates several different film stocks (Kodachrome, Velvia, 2-Strip Technicolor). But that solution isn't available for everyone, obviously. GIMP has a lot of scripts available that emulate the look of a Holga and mimic the look of the cross-processing effects that one associates with Toy Cameras or low-budget consumer film models. Fiddling with them can give some great results. You can often get impressive filmlike results by ignoring those special scripts and just messing with different curve levels and adding grain and slight blurring to taste. There is a very easy-to-follow tutorial that shows how you can achieve a 'vintage' look by primarily altering the red, blue, and green curves at http://fortysevenmedia.com/blog/archives/retro_photoshop_fun ).
I'm also pretty happy with what Filter Forge has to offer.
Since I do much more digital photography than rendering, I can tell you that these filters satisfy two markets. The first are those who feel that a photo taken with a digital camera is somehow antiseptic or too pristine. (This is Wolf359's point with Hollywood). This leads to a retro-look which feels right to many viewers who are used to film grain and certain types of saturation. The second uses lower-end cameras or cellphones as their primary camera and has learned that those pictures have more visually interest when drenched in cross-processing effects and heavy vignetting and edge blur ike Instagram. This look parallels part of the grunge design movement, which values stained textures, faded lettering etc.
I use NIK tools as well. The Analog filters are nice, but I find that you have to use them sparingly or they give your images an over processed Instagram look. (Unless you want that, of course)
My favourite filters are a set of Photo filters called "Virtual Photographer" from OptikVerveLabs
good price as well.
The drawbacks are that it is Windows only, and if you are using PS it will only work in the older versions. It does work in Windows 7
Thank you, I have PS 7 - never been able to afford to upgrade.
I'm a fan of Picasa, they have a lot of very nice filters. Use them every time. Even made a tutorial for it: http://chanteur-de-vent.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-postwork-recipe-in-Picasa-in-8-steps-627316253
This may sound stupid, but I promise, its fast and convenient. I render to my drop box and do all photo work on my ipad pro on the couch. There are so many good film emulation packages available for pennies per filter...
You can use Perfect Effects 9 for some film filters and other filters. (Of course I use Nik filters and Filter Forge too.)
I got it for free and now they have On1 Effects 10.5 for free.
Ditto for music creation apps. The lower cost mobile market plus streamlined user interfaces often lead to some amazing, inexpesive apps in graphics and music apps. Though for power and felxiblity it's hard to beat PhotoShop + NikCollection.
Yeah I've got all of that...but doing it this way makes it fun again. Can't wait for Affinity Photo for ipad.