Exposure 3

Exposure brings all the creative tools of film photography to the digital world.
Over 500 analog techniques and organic looks are back like cross processing, Polaroid and vintage Daguerreotype. There is careful research under the hood, but the controls are simple so you can focus on the creative choices. The result is a photo that looks like it was made by a human, not a computer.

 

 

Overview:

 

What is Exposure?

In 2005 experienced photographers told us that in their transition to digital they missed the look of specific film stocks. With their help we created Exposure 1. Exposure’s accurate film simulation was a big hit, but photographers pushed us to revive more tools from analog photography, not just film.

Exposure now gives you easy access to effects from every stage of the photographic process. A few examples are blur from cheap plastic lenses, color shifts from cross processing, grain and contrast from push processing, and warped vignettes from low end cameras or from the printing process. With over 500 carefully researched presets, Exposure beautifully renders looks that span the entire experience of film back to the earliest days of photography.

What began as a tool for the film generation of photographers has become a general creativity tool. Now even photographers who never touched film can experience the rich world of analog looks in a tool that makes it easy and fun to experiment. Enough telling, more showing!

How was it made?

To model film stocks that were available during creation of Exposure, we did test shoots with the film and a digital camera under controlled lighting. We then measured the differences to create settings that mimic the look of these film stocks. For the grain we put the film under a microscope, literally.

 

Above are photomicrographs that we took while studying film grain.
From left to right they are Kodak TRI-X 400, Fuji Velvia 100, and Ilford Delta 3200.

 

To model discontinued films we couldn’t do these controlled experiments. Instead we relied on photo archives, and more importantly the professionals who created them. We quickly found that the anthropology of learning from film photographers was as important as the chemistry and math. Of course we do have rocket science math inside Exposure, but the advice of experienced photographers and film lab technicians is what makes our effects look human.

 

 

Key features:

 

Speed!
Our new preview system is much more interactive, which makes it easier to experiment and quickly explore presets. We also found ways to speed up our rendering, especially if you are using Photoshop CS5. Exposure 3 in 64-bit CS5 is over twice as fast as Exposure 2 in CS4 on the Mac and about 30% faster on Windows.

 

Over 500 Presets
There are now over 500 carefully designed factory presets in Exposure 3. Entire new categories have been added, such as Cinematography and Lo-Fi. New settings have been added in almost every other category too. Where appropriate, we enhanced existing settings with the new vignette, dust, and scratches features. We have two videos that give a tour through all of our factory presets. You can also visit our examples page to see many of Exposure’s effects.

Aging and Vintage Films
More vintage films have been added, including Technicolor movie film, early versions of Kodachrome, and Autochrome (one of the first color film processes). The illusion of age is enhanced by new features like dust, scratches, and vignettes. Visit our examples page to see these new effects.

Lo-Fi Photography
Toy cameras such as Lomo and Holga are extremely popular for creating odd special effects. Exposure 3 provides a wide range of looks from this Lo-Fi photography, including lens blur, warped vignettes, and funky colors from cross processing. Visit our examples page to see these new effects.

 

Ease of Use
The entire user interface has been rewritten from scratch. Here are some of the most noticeable results.

• The preview image updates much faster.
• Settings can now have comments that appear as hover help. We added comments to some of the factory presets to help explain the best way to use them. You can add comments to your own saved settings too.
• The mouse scroll wheel lets you quickly zoom to arbitrary levels.
• You can duplicate a factory preset by dragging it into the User Settings list.

What’s Already Great

Realistic Grain
Exposure’s grain is carefully researched and realistic, unlike the digital speckles rendered by other software. Like actual grain, it clumps and is strongest in the midtones. Grain size scales with your image size, just like real photographic enlargement.

 

Non-Destructive Editing
Exposure supports a non-destructive workflow, making experimentation easy. Effects in Photoshop are rendered on a new layer, leaving your original image untouched. In Photoshop, Exposure can be run as a Smart Filter for easy tweaking of the effect after it is created. Batch processing is supported with actions in Photoshop and through tight integration in Lightroom.

 

Multithreaded
Exposure takes advantage of multiple processors and multiple cores in order to run fast on modern computers. The more cores, the faster Exposure runs.

 

Huge Range of Effects
The best way to see what Exposure can do is to check out our examples and videos. For a quick overview, here are some of the techniques of film photography that Exposure handles. These are just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Black & White Films Agfa APX Agfa Scala Fuji Neopan Ilford Delta Ilford HP5 Kodak PLUS-X Kodak Panatomic-X Kodak T-MAX Kodak TRI-X Kodak Technical Pan Color Print Films Fuji Pro C, S, and H Fuji Reala Kodak Portra NC Kodak Portra VC Kodak Ultra Color UC Color Slide Films Agfa RSX II Agfachrome Fuji Astia Fuji Provia Fuji Velvia GAF Ektachrome EES, G, GX, and VX

Other Effects Kodachrome, every variation from 1936 to the present day Polaroid, including Polapan and Polachrome Technicolor Infrared Early photographic processes, including Autochrome, Calotype, and Daguerreotype Color toning for B&W photos, many variations including split toning Blur caused by plastic lenses “Glamour Shots” soft focus Vignette, wide range of shapes Dust & Scratches Cross processing, many variations Wide range of Lo-Fi presets to simulate cheap plastic cameras Wide range of fading and aging effects Bleach Bypass

 

System Requirements

 

HOST REQUIREMENTS
This product requires one of the following host applications:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later
• Adobe Lightroom 2 or later
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later
• Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X3

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
1024x768 or greater monitor resolution

Macintosh:

• Intel processor
• Mac OS X 10.5 or later

Windows:

  

• Intel Pentium 4 processor (or compatible)
• Windows XP SP3 or later

 

 

Exposure works great with 64-bit Photoshop CS5! Exposure 3 in CS5 is over twice as fast as Exposure 2 in CS4 on the Mac and about 30% faster on Windows. Another speed boost comes from our new progressive refinement preview system. All this makes the huge world of Exposure 3 effects easy to explore.

Exposure 3 has tight Lightroom integration that supports batch processing and does not require Photoshop. Visit our Lightroom page to learn the details.

 

 

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