I learned to shoot photos with a Nikon F2. It belonged to a friend of mine who was gracious enough to loan it to me for two semesters of college classes. I later learned that I had the privilege of shooting with one of the venerable work-horses of the photojournalist industry. Yes, it was film, it was messy in the darkroom, I wasted a lot of photo paper, chemicals, and time learning the craft - and I loved it! I shot Tri-X primarily because it was cheap and I loved the grainy, graphic feel of the prints.

Now, don't get me wrong. I was glad to see the dawn of digital photography and the flexibility it afforded especially when paired with PhotoShop. But I felt something was lost along the way in the same way that I sometimes miss the cracks and pops of playing a vinyl album.

If you appreciate the look of film grain, Alien Skin's Exposure 2 is the plug-in you need. Exposure 2 gives you a broad choice of film stocks, both color and B&W to choose from. You'll find the regular offerings from Kodak, Agfa, and Fuji along with some film stocks no longer available like Polachrome.

We'll start with this generic beach scene I shot with a digital point-and-shoot camera. This is straight out of the camera with no adjustments applied.

With the photo layer selected, Exposure 2 is located in the Filter pull-down menu.  Just select "Color Film" or "Black and White Film" to get to the Alien Skin palette window.

Here you can see a partial list of the selections available in the Black and White Film palette. I've selected Kodak Tri-X 400 Pushed 2 Stops. This can give you grain the size of golf balls! One of my favorites with great tonality and illustrative feel.

Time to go real old school. I selected Daguerreotype for this one with beautiful warm sepia color and a full tonality. This is one of the first photography film processes and is perfect for a true nostalgic look.

Remember those old Polaroid instant films? My dad had an SX-70 that shot these square format frames that would develop automatically after about 5 minutes. Not much on detail but they had an almost three dimensional quality about them. They also tended to yellow with time. If you're putting together a scrapbook layout, this is a great effect.

Want those colors to really jump? Apply a Kodachrome 64 slide film effect for deep saturated hues. Back in the day, no National Geographic photographer would've been caught dead without Kodachrome.

Hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I did applying these effects. Exposure 2 makes it quick and easy to transform lifeless shots into photographic art with a broad range of emotions. The interface is intuitive for those with a modicum of Photoshop experience and the results are inspiring for any film junkies.

Enjoy!