I am a film girl. I love the way film participates in the creative process with me. While I must see and capture the image, the type of film that I have loaded in my camera adds to what I am seeing on my own. Each time I get a roll of film back I am surprised by the little touches of extra color saturation or desaturation that the particular film adds. I don’t experience the same surprise and participation with digital photography. Even with some help in Lightroom, it can be difficult to get the mood and emotion that film brings to the process.
That was until I tried Totally Rad’s new preset kit, Replichrome III: Archive. From the first click of a preset, my heart skipped a beat. I watched as my digital images transformed to the look of film.
They describe the new set on their website:
Replichrome III: Archive is a collection of 22 rare films sourced from across the world. We curated a selection of eclectic, hard-to-find films and hand-crafted them to give photographers a collection of film emulation presets not found anywhere else.
This set contains a Tweak Kit to customize grain, tone, and sharpening and includes multiple versions of each film, using both Noritsu™ and Frontier™ scanners, to give photographers unlimited control over their photos.
I took my daughter, Dani, out to the local library take some test shots. When I came home and started playing with the images in Lightroom, I was ecstatic. With this set of presets, Totally Rad has been able to bring the soul of film to the digital world. Life and mood seemed to jump out of each image with each preset I added.
I am in love with this pack and know it will be my go to for presets for some time.
My friend Holly wrote a great, detailed review of the Replichrome III: Archive presets this week over on Viewfinders. Please hop over to read a digital photographers review about these presets. Next week I will be comparing film phontography with some of the black and white presets on Viewfinders.
For the purpose of full disclosure, I received a free copy of Replichrome III to test. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
a life developing 
beautiful pictures! you are amazing!
You are beautiful! Thank you for always being a willing model.
So awesome! I’m in love with the photos!
Thank you!
the lighting is so beautiful in these. reading by the window is my favorite!
I think it is mine too. Thank you.
So beautifully atmospheric! Love.
Thank you. xx
I love the emotion the presets add to your already gorgeous pictures! Love this set:)
Thank you.
I love these Staci. They are absolutely beautiful. I have gone to the Totally Rad and put Replichrome III in the basket about 5 times and nearly bought it and backed out every time. I’m going to look again. 🙂
I have really enjoyed them! Let me know if you take the plunge! I’d love to see what you create with them.
Thanks for the love!
Wow – these are so lovely! I’m usually resistant to digital-made-to-look-like-film, but…ah!..these just look wonderful. Also, you’re already a film lover so you get a pass 🙂 You have such a beautiful family Staci. Also, I love her clothes. She is one stylin’ young lady.
She really does have style! She buys all her clothes second hand. I love that about her. I also love that when I say I want to take her to the library for a photo shoot, she exclaims, “I have the perfect outfit!”
Dear Staci! Wonderful pictures, packed with emotion. For a long time I’ve been looking for presets whicch represent the emotion I feel. Tried VSCO, but wasn’t quite it. Then the Replichrome I series, got close but still not there. Did you have the same experience beforing using Replichrome III Archive? Btw, what digital camera were these images shot on, do you think it makes a difference?
I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. Your comment got lost in my spam. I have both the VSCO and Replichrome I set and like them both. With some presets, you do need to still edit after the preset is added to get that look you are wanting. I shoot with a Canon 5D Markii and shoot in RAW. Hope that helps.