Since VSCCO Film was discontinued at the start of this year, I’ve been looking for alternatives to recommend to people who want to create a realistic film effect. While I do have some film like presets of my own, they are mostly designed as an artistic interpretation of film. For those looking for accurate and highly regarded film simulations for Lightroom, there are a couple of solutions.

I’ve been using VSCO film for years. I originally had it for Aperture, but when I moved to Lightroom full time, it was one of the first add-ons I bought. For me, it was the gold standard of film simulations. I loved the presets, and used them extensively, and I was quite disappointed when they were discontinued. Recently, I’ve been on the lookout for a replacement, in case my own VSCO presets stop working, or I end up with a new camera that isn’t supported. Here are some of the best options that I’ve discovered, based on my own trials, as well as recommendations from readers.

Mastin Labs

Mastin Labs produces a number of film preset packs for Lightroom, covering some of the most popular and most sought after films from both Kodak and Fujifilm.

Like VSCO, Mastin Labs presets use custom colour profiles to calibrate their film simulations to various camera makes, however they directly support less manufacturers than VSCO did. Specifically they support Canon, Nikon, Fuji X (except the X100) and Sony.

The Lightroom presets from Mastin Labs come in a number different packs, which at the time of writing are as follows:

Kodak Everyday Original (Includes Ektar, Kodak Gold and TriX)
Fujicolor Original (Includes Pro 400, Pro 160 and Pro 800)
Fujicolour Pushed(Includes “push processed” versions of Fujicolor Original)
Portra Original (Based on Kodak Portra)
Portra Pushed (Push processed version of Portra Original)
Ilford Original (popular black and white film)

I’ve been testing these out over the past few weeks and so far I’m impressed. They give a similar tonality to the now defunct VSCO presets, especially in Portra. I will have a full review at some time in the future, but if you’re looking for any of the above films specifically, these do a good job, and people are always recommending them to me as well.

One of the things that I like about the Mastin Labs presets is that they’re laid out like a set of instructions and tools that you follow. There is white balance, Film, Tone and Grain. You simply go through each section and select what you want, making it a really simple way to apply the simulation.

The only downside is that they are a little expensive, as the packs only include a small number of presets, but if you really need these particular looks, then it’s up to you to judge if they’re worth it or not.

Replichrome from Totally RAD

Replichrome, from Totally RAD, has been around for a while, and it came out around the same time as VSCO film was becoming popular. Like VSCO film and Mastin Labs, they use a custom colour profile to create an accurate film effect, and include a variety of popular films.

Replichrome comes in 3 packs, which are as follows:

Replichrome 1: Icon - The includes various print films, including Kodak Portra, Kodak Ektar, Fuji 160 and so on.
Replichrome 2: Slide - This includes various slide films
Replichome 3: Archive - this includes some rare films such as Agfa and Konica films.

Replichrome does something unique in that it also takes the scanner into account with its simulation, and offers different versions of each film, based on different types of scanners, Frontier and Noritsu. I’ve used replichrome 1 and 2 for a number of years and they’re quite accurate. I wrote a review a while ago, but I may need to do an updated one, as Lightroom has changed so much in the mean time.

RNI Films

I haven’t actually tried these personally, but I get lots of readers recommending these presets to me all the time. RNI All Films Pro 5 is a single pack containing lots of different film stock simulations, including most of the ones featured above. The set actually contains 180 presets including custom colour profiles making use of Adobe’s creative profile technology. The set includes a wide range of films including Kodakchrome and Polariod films.

As I said I haven’t tried these myself, but they do come highly recommended, so they might be with checking out. Unlike the other options mentioned here, you get most of the popular film stocks in a single preset pack, although it is a little more expensive, but it is cheaper than buying individual packs from the others.

Exposure X5

The other options I’ve covered here are all presets for Lightroom, but there is another option, and that is to use the plug in and editor, Exposure X5. While Exposure X5 is also a stand alone raw converter, it will does work as a plug in for Lightroom and Photoshop and offers another way to achieve film simulations. The software has a range of options and tools for simulating film, including some useful tools for simulating the softness of analogue, which is something the other options don’t really do.

It’s not perfect though, and the presets that come with the software are probably the weakest of these options. The tools are there though, and with a bit of tweaking you can come up with some convincing options. I wrote a review of this recently and you can find it here on the blog.

Conclusion

These are just a hand full of the options available, but they are the most renowned and well known. Part of the problem these days is that there are so many presets available that its hard to find good ones, but I do think these options are good. And of course if you do’t want to use a preset, then you can also try something like Exposure. If you have any recommendations of your own, please leave them in the comments below.

Shameless Plug

I would be remiss to post an article like this and not plug my own presets. As I said at the start, I don’t do any direct simulations, but I do have a number of presets designed to create a film like effect, and Ii keep my presets fairly expensive too. The most film like set is the variations of “Film Lux” and you can get all three as a bundle. There are more details on my store.

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