I don’t usually post news, but this is big. If this is for real, then many of us can easily use up that stash of Ilford we have squirreled away behind our frozen fish sticks.
On September 18th, Grubba Software released TrueGrain, a stand-alone software product that reproduces the look and feel of several different B&W film stocks. Beyond using the sampled grain patterns, it also adjusts tonal response to match that of the selected film. I downloaded the demo and plan on playing with it over the next week to see how this really holds up in real-world use. Conveniently, I am shooting a wedding this weekend, so I’ll have a fresh sample to play with. In the meantime, I encourage you to download the demo and give it a spin.
The software’s adjustable settings are:
Spectral Response
Grain Scaling & Intensity
Dynamic Range
I can’t wait to get my hands all over this.
TrueGrain requires OS X 10.4.9 or higher and costs $300.
UPDATE:
Spent some time with TrueGrain on the plane to and from Ireland.
First, it works pretty much as advertised. The grain is simply impossible to duplicate using any other means, which likely explains the developers choosing to go with scanned images over any algorithmic implementations. The spectral and dynamic range adjustments are replicable using other means, but devising the right combination to match a particular film stock is outside the realm of feasibility in most situations. In the end, this is the ultimate way to recreate the film look without having to deal with the real thing.
Some tips:
Well-exposed, low-ISO images seem to work best. High-ISO images tend to have excessive noise in some channels (mainly blue). This noise is amplified during the spectral response adjustment and the poor quality of some channels can really hurt the image. Detail is lost and noise becomes very objectionable.
Properly exposed images respond best to the dynamic range adjustment. Underexposed images need tweaking to make the contrast appear as expected. I don’t have much experience with overexposed images in this program, so I can’t comment on that.
Now some images.
Leave a Reply