Alien Skin Exposure vs Color/Silver EFX vs Just RAW

[nightfly]

Finally got a digital camera that I like using (Ricoh GRD III) and so far am pleased with the photos but would like to give them a less digital more film like look. Not looking to emulate any film specifically, just want what Mitch Alland terms more of an "expressionist" look to them. He suggests using Color EFX and Silver EFX and details his process in several threads. Another creative director I know likes to hit the photos he receives with Alien Exposure. Of course all of this is probably doable in the RAW converter/post processor of your choice.

What do you guys like for giving your digital photos a more analog feel? I'm not talking about cheesy borders or over wrought hipstamatic like effects but just a more subtle look that takes away the plasticy feel of digital.

 

[kully]

Give Silver Efex Pro a try, it has a 30 day trial. I used all those you mentioned and went for Silver Efex.

It will take a little fiddling and printing before you find something you are happy with.

 

[nightfly]

The digital images I see that are most appealing to me have a warmth and a depth that are much different than the very brittle, over saturated and over sharpened images that scream digital to me. So perhaps "plastic" was the wrong term.

I would like a tool that works well for both black and white and color. Alien Skin has both (although the way they are accessed treat them as different filters) and I guess Silver EFX and Color EFX though marketed as different products are probably very similar. Really just a question of how they are bundled for sale.

I guess the ultimate thing would be integrated into the non-destructive RAW workflow rather than saving out a seperate TIF as I think at least Exposure does.

 

[tbarker13]

Lover Silver Efex Pro. I use it for all of my B&W conversions.
I don't do enough color to even think about the color version.

 

[250swb]

I use Silver Efex Pro almost exclusively for B&W as a Photoshop plugin. The massive control available is far easier to implement than simply using Photoshop on its own.

Even with colour I never think of the digital file as anything more than a neutral position to start from, just as a negative in the darkroom needs to be matched with the right choice of paper and printing technique. So I've never found digital files to be a problem regarding a 'plasticky' look, that only comes about if you never do anything to them and regard the boffin who wrote the camera software as final arbiter of your taste. But Silver Efex really does allow for all the fine tweaking and printing methods that was possible in the B&W darkroom, plus far more subtleties that could only have been dreamed of. There is no danger of a plasticky look with Efex, but I understand why you would be worried, you don't want the post processing software to impose its own digital signature on the image.

Steve

 

[nightfly]

I was referring to the look of unaltered or straight from camera images (usually JPEGS) that are often sharpened and saturated to within an inch of their life. They look very unnatural (plastic like someone with too much plastic surgery).

Just looking for something to get a certain feel from the images. I guess really I'm wondering if the methods employed by some of these plug ins are worth the cost versus learning to do this myself in Photoshop or Lightroom or similar. I would assume they really amount to very sophisticated, saved transformations, that are akin to creating your own actions. However I'd rather be shooting than sitting in front of my computer so the cost of my time would quickly add up.

Basically I love the way my Tri-X images look that comes from a combination of my metering and development process and the way my Portra 160 images look which basically comes from the film itself. I don't want to necessarily emulate those looks precisely, I just want to be able to create a distinctive feel for my digital images like I have for my analog ones.

 

[GSNfan]

Silver Efex for b&w, Alien Skin Exposure for colour.

Give those digital files some texture and warmth, make them film like but call them digital. That way you're honest and yet still you spare the eyes of your audience from looking at flat and unemotional images.

 

[250swb]

I guess really I'm wondering if the methods employed by some of these plug ins are worth the cost versus learning to do this myself in Photoshop or Lightroom or similar. quote]

You couldn't do that amount of work in Photoshop/Lightroom. Or if you did it would take a day for each image. Some of the filters in Efex, like the grain filters, are not just about introducing random noise, but emulating Plus X, or Trix X or many other films, and then giving extra controls for contrast etc. If your time is worth anything its cheaper to buy Efex even though it does cost a lot initially. Its not just about a formula for an image, but being able to see small changes either side of that setting which makes perfection.

Steve

 

[gavinlg]

IMO silver/color effex are the best quick and easy filter software available. Alien skin is crap in comparison in my experience.

silver effex on a 5d file (forgive the over-sharpening - flickr is difficult to deal with):

 

[nightfly]

Very nice ^. Starting with a 5d file help too. They look pretty nice right from the camera.

I'd probably choose either a Silver/color efx (package) OR Alien Skin Exposure. Can't see spending for both as they are pricey plug ins. I think the Silver/Color EFX package is roughtly comparable price wise to Exposure.

Thank for the answers. Need to get a copy of Lightroom and begrudgingly upgrade my Photoshop to the latest version first. Think they have a package deal on Lightroom for new users/upgrading Photoshop till the end of the month. Surprised they haven't dropped the price of Lightroom to compete with Aperture, but they're Adobe so they don't care.

 

[Keith]

With my D700 using the higher ISO settings, 3200 or 6400, takes away the digital cleanliness IMO and gives a much better black and white feel. These settings can be a little tricky to control in broad daylight if you want to limit your depth of field of course.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I use Exposure. Works great.

 

[Bluedog2212]

Alien skin vs Silver efx

Alien skin vs Silver efx

I use silver efx to work with scanned b/w negatives, makes a big difference.

It does not give images like I get from wet printing, however. Not better or worse, just different.


I don't do much digital capture anymore as I find film more comfortable.😎

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I use Silver Efex for "quick" B&W conversions, and not for "that really nice B&W conversion". While it may seem it gives you a lot of control, I think that it requires more work to fine-tune it than some other plugins that I have that are no longer available (B&W Converter Pro and 55mm's Suite) that give me true control and allow me to rein in highlights, introduce no grain (I've found that even if I turn off the Film option in Silver Efex, it adds unwanted noise/grain), have Multicontrast Paper settings (one of the plugins I have)...it takes a lot (a lot) of work.

I'm glad that Photoshop CS5 has the 32-bit version available for 64-bit operating systems, because those old plugins don't work in 64-bit (I wish Adobe would allow legacy 32-bit plugins to work in their 64-bit versions)

 

[nightfly]

Basically, I'll be using my Leica with Tri-X or Portra when possible. The digital stuff will be coming from travel and when I'm too lazy to grab the Leica (don't want to bring a bag, just slip the little GRD III into my pocket). The images might end up being important to me, but for the most part they will be more vacation snaps.

Mostly I'm shooting the GRD wide open to tame the depth of field a bit so the images tend to be low ISO and fairly clean. Plus having had the original GRD I was not one of those people who thought the higher ISO files it produced looked like real grain. They looked noisy and pretty bad in color. The GRD III is a huge improvement in this respect.

I'm pretty pleased with the files out of the camera, just need something to give them a little more distinctive look. I tend to like my scanned negatives printed on an Epson 3800 better than what I got in the darkroom so I'm not chasing after the wet print look.

I imagine coming up with a setting for color and one for black and white and probably hitting all my images with that rather than hand tweaking each one. Part of my decision to go with the GRD for travel was to avoid the dread I feel coming back from a trip and having to develop scan and futz with a bunch of images while my wife bugs me to post our vacation photos somewhere.

 

[Ted Witcher]

Can anyone compare the specfic color emulations in Nik vs. Alien Skin and/or post examples? Just looking for the color treatments, not the filters or B/W.