Alien Skin Exposure 2
Reviewed By: Doug Sahlin
Rating: *****
There are a lot of people who think digital images are too sterile. I would agree with them. Digital images don’t pop the way images captured on film do. If you’ve ever used Fuji Velvia or Kodachrome, you know what I mean. Images captured with those films have rich saturated colors and pleasing grain patterns. That’s right, I said grain, not noise. Digital photographers do their best to avoid capturing noisy images. But a nice grain pattern is artistic. Fortunately for those of you who want to emulate the look of film with your digital images, the wizards at Alien Skin created a plug-in called, Exposure. Recently they released the new and improved Exposure 2. The engineers at Alien Skin have done a thorough job of researching the characteristics of print and slide film. If you like the look of Kodak Ektachrome slide film, no problem. With Alien Skin Exposure 2 you can make your digital images appear as though they were photographed with Ektachrome. There’s even a preset for the Ektachrome slide film sold in the 70s that had a bluish look. There are presets for color, plus black and white. You can also tweak the presets to create your own look.
System Requirements:
For Macintosh users, Exposure 2 is available for the following applications: Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 9.0.2 or later, Adobe Photoshop Elements® 4.0.1 or later, and Adobe Fireworks® CS3. For Windows users, Exposure 2 can be used with: Adobe Photoshop® CS2 or later, Adobe Photoshop Elements® 4 or later, Adobe Fireworks® CS3, and Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo XI. For the Macintosh, the minimum system requirement is a 1 GHz PowerPC or Intel processor with Mac OS X 10.4 or later operating system. If you own a Windows machine, the minimum system requirement is a 2 GHz Pentium 4 processor with Windows 2000, XP or Vista operating system.
Exposure 2 in Action:
Pick a film, any film. Yes, it really is that simple. I used Exposure 2 with Photoshop® CS3 and Photoshop Elements® 6.0. With these applications, you open the Exposure 2 dialog box by choosing the Exposure 2 from the Filter menu. You can choose to emulate color print or slide film, or black and white print film. The dialog box has four tabs: Settings, Color, Tone, Focus and Grain. You can choose a preset from the Factory Settings menu. The menu features an extensive list of color print and slide films or black and white films if you choose that option. There are also settings for color, cross-processing, focus, grain only, Polaroid, and tonality. If you’re editing a portrait of a young woman, you can one of the “Glamour Shot” settings. If the portrait you’re editing needs skin softening, choose one of the “Soften-Diffuse Glow” settings. You can modify a preset by changing settings in the tabs. As you modify the settings, the preview updates in real time. You can also view a split preview. When you get a look you like, you have the option of saving it with a unique name. Your saved settings appear on the User Setting section of the dialog box. You can even choose a category for your settings.
After you fine-tune the settings, click OK to apply your changes. The default option applies the changes on a new layer, which means the filter is non-destructive. Lower the opacity to reveal some of the original image. If you’re not satisfied with the changes, you can always delete the layer and apply Exposure 2 using different settings. The following image show an image of a flower. The left half of the image is the original photo and the right half shows the photo with the Exposure 2 Velvia 50 preset applied. Notice the rich saturatin of the colors, which looks exactly like the results I got when photographing images with Fuji Velvia slide film..
Conclusion *****
I embrace digital photography, but I love the richly saturated colors my images had back in the “Old Days” when I used film cameras. Before using Exposure 2, I used to tweak my digital images using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. With Exposure 2, I can select a factory setting and emulate the look of the slide films I used before I switched to digital cameras. The Exposure 2 interface is very intuitive. The factory settings are spot on and deliver exactly what each preset title says. I give Alien Skin Exposure 2 a Five-Star rating. As of this writing, Alien Skin Exposure 2 sells for $249.00, and is available for electronic download or physical delivery. If you loved the look of slide and print film, you’ll love this filter. For more information visit Alien Skin’s web site. If you like to try before you buy, you can download a fully functional 30-day demo by clicking the Demo link at Alien Skin’s web site.
