Alien Skin's Exposure 2

I recently discovered that there was a software company here in Raleigh that did some pretty nifty photography software. As a photographer and software engineer, this was pretty interesting to learn. Then I discovered I actually knew the wife of one of the engineers. I decided to try out one of the companies more interesting offerings, Exposure 2. The program is available as a Photoshop plugin that takes a digital photo, with its typically flat curve and often "blah" colors, and lets the user mimic the effect of various classic films. They've profiled Velvia, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, T-Max 100, and tons and tons of others. Whether Color or Black & White, Slide or Negative film. The software tries to match the contrast, the color, and even the grain.

Pretty cool stuff. And I am happy to say that it works. And the plug-in offers plenty of tweaking on top of all the different film presets. The only downside to this program is that it is damn expensive. Is it worth it? If you are making money with your photography, it may be. It does a fantastic job and it simplifies stuff you might otherwise be able to do in Photoshop. For me, in this economy, with this just as a serious hobby....I think I'm gonna pass for now. But I've still got a few weeks left with the fully functional demo. So we'll see.

More in a future posting.