Simulator
AI generated demo imageYour photo stays on your device. This page opens it in your browser and works on it there.
Film imperfections
Digital sensors record a clean, stable picture. Film doesn't, and its flaws are what people mean by "the film look." Here's what each imperfection is; the simulator above adds them to a photo one by one.
In every frame
These show up in a single photograph as much as in a moving picture.
Grain
Film records light in microscopic silver halide crystals that develop into clumps of dye. Their random pattern reads as texture, most visible in midtones and coarser on smaller formats like 16mm and Super 8.
Halation
Bright light passes through the emulsion, bounces off the film base and comes back, leaving a red-orange glow around highlights. Stocks without an anti-halation layer show it strongly.
Highlight bloom
A soft, wide glow around bright areas from lens flare, diffusion and light scattering inside the emulsion. It softens contrast where light meets shadow.
Colour response
Film doesn't record colour linearly. Blacks are slightly lifted, highlights roll off gently instead of clipping, and many stocks lean teal in shadows and warm in highlights.
Dye fading
Over decades the dyes in a print fade unevenly; cyan usually goes first, leaving a washed-out, magenta-red picture with weak blacks.
Softness
Small formats and vintage lenses resolve less fine detail than modern digital, so edges look gentler, especially on Super 8 and 16mm.
Vignetting
The corners of the frame receive less light than the centre, darkening the edges and pulling the eye inward.
Light leak
Light that sneaks into the camera through a worn seal or an opened back fogs the film, painting orange and red flares in from the edge.
Dust and hair
Specks and hairs on the negative or print get printed or projected with the image. On a projected print they show as dark spots, on a scanned negative as white ones.
Scratches
Grit in a camera, printer or projector drags lengthwise along the film, leaving thin vertical lines that run through many frames.
Only in moving film
These happen between frames, so you only see them when the film runs. Press play in the simulator above to see them.
Gate weave
Each frame is pulled into the camera's gate by sprockets and never lands in exactly the same spot. The picture drifts and jitters very slightly as it plays.
Flicker
Small differences in shutter timing, exposure and development make brightness pulse from frame to frame, strongest on old and amateur footage.
Changing dust and scratches
Dust lands on different frames, so specks pop in for a single frame and vanish, while scratches wander and persist for seconds at a time.