I used to
run a photography club and I can still remember the
days when we experimented with many different types
of film to see what was best for any given
situation. My own preference was Kodachrome 25 for
just about everything except weddings, when I would
use Kodak Portra 160NC. In my opinion, these were
two of the best films that we ever evaluated and
used. Of course, if you have been brought up on
digital, you will have no idea why we all got so
excited about what film to use. With a decent
digital camera and Photoshop, you can forget all
about film. But there is still something special
about film and I know that quite a number of
friends, although steadily decreasing, still use
film for professional wedding photography,
especially in the large format arena.
So it was with a touch of nostalgia that I recently reviewed DXO FilmPack v 1.1.1. I have always been impressed with DXO products as they come across as professional, innovative, complete and simple to use. To prove the point of simplicity, this product does not come with a help file of any sort and it does not need it, as it is extremely intuitive.
To apply your film effects, you load the program which can be standalone, or as part of DXO Optics Pro or as an Adobe Photoshop plug-in. I tried the standalone product. Once loaded it prompts you to drag or open a photograph and then you are presented with a menu offering the following:
Film Type: eg Black and White, Colour Positive, Colour Negative.
Film Make: eg my beloved Kodachrome 25 and Kodak Portra 160NC
Once you select your film and make, you can then adjust the contrast, saturation and apply special effects such as sepia or gold toning. If only I had this 20 years ago, my life would have been so much simpler and I would not have spent so much money on film.
One major advantage of digital is that you do not need to buy expensive films and store them in a fridge until needed. I would not like to go back to film, but I can see that if I needed to match my old prints with modern digital photographs after scanning for example, then this program would be an absolute dream. You also have control over grain and intensity. In a darkroom, once you had processed your film, you had little control over the final print unless you wanted to dodge and burn. As for making monochrome prints from colour, well that was something special and took great technique to get just right.
With DXO FilmPack, welcome to the modern world. And if you don’t like the change, just undo and try again. Having tried quite a few photographs with different films, I can see that DXO have come up with a trump product. I know that they do a lot of rigorous, scientific research to get it right – and it shows. Recommended.
So it was with a touch of nostalgia that I recently reviewed DXO FilmPack v 1.1.1. I have always been impressed with DXO products as they come across as professional, innovative, complete and simple to use. To prove the point of simplicity, this product does not come with a help file of any sort and it does not need it, as it is extremely intuitive.
To apply your film effects, you load the program which can be standalone, or as part of DXO Optics Pro or as an Adobe Photoshop plug-in. I tried the standalone product. Once loaded it prompts you to drag or open a photograph and then you are presented with a menu offering the following:
Film Type: eg Black and White, Colour Positive, Colour Negative.
Film Make: eg my beloved Kodachrome 25 and Kodak Portra 160NC
Once you select your film and make, you can then adjust the contrast, saturation and apply special effects such as sepia or gold toning. If only I had this 20 years ago, my life would have been so much simpler and I would not have spent so much money on film.
One major advantage of digital is that you do not need to buy expensive films and store them in a fridge until needed. I would not like to go back to film, but I can see that if I needed to match my old prints with modern digital photographs after scanning for example, then this program would be an absolute dream. You also have control over grain and intensity. In a darkroom, once you had processed your film, you had little control over the final print unless you wanted to dodge and burn. As for making monochrome prints from colour, well that was something special and took great technique to get just right.
With DXO FilmPack, welcome to the modern world. And if you don’t like the change, just undo and try again. Having tried quite a few photographs with different films, I can see that DXO have come up with a trump product. I know that they do a lot of rigorous, scientific research to get it right – and it shows. Recommended.
DXO Film Pack Software Review