A plug-in for the camera RAW image processing program Bibble.
Author: Sean Puckett (seanmpuckett@gmail.com).

Bibble 5 note: All plug-ins will be rebuilt for B5. No upgrade fee will be charged. However, the price of plug-ins may rise when B5 is released. Purchase now to lock in your ownership of a plug-in.

What does Andy do?

Andy mathematically simulates the effects of film exposure/development and paper exposure/development and final viewing. It may be the highest quality analog black and white conversion tool available. If you understand "darkroom," Andy speaks your language.

Download Freeware Now

Andy Freeware is now available! You get 10 film/developer and 10 paper/grade simulations, but you don't get the "tweaks" window. Hey, it's free! Give it a shot, see if you like what Andy can do.
Windows, Linux and Mac versions included in the same download. Read the Andy Release Notes, then access the download area.
You'll find installation instructions as INSTALL.txt in the zipfile.
Please provide feedback at the email address above.

Purchase Professional Version Now

Windows, Linux and Mac versions included in the same download. AndyPRO is now available for Windows, Macintosh (Intel and PPC), and Linux. Included are 66 film/developer simulations and 52 paper/grade simulations (3400+ combinations), plus infinite variations in latitude, toe and shoulder adjustment, plus total control over spectral response (red, green, and blue sensitivity), simulated film grain, and colour mix-back.

AndyPRO: $20 USD

Already purchased, but need an upgrade? Click Here.

Sample Output

Before and after images. Click an image for a larger version.

Swan

Fomapan 100 and Kodak Ektalure simulation.

Copyright 2006 Andy Forrester, http://foresaa.co.uk

Used with Permission

Sugar Bowl

Kodak Veripan and Agfa Multicontrast with Filter 5 simulation.

Copyright 2006 Andreas Siegert.

Used with Permission

Egyptian Temple, Capitol Reef National Park in Utah

Kodak Veripan and Agfa Multicontrast with Filter 5 simulation.

Copyright 2006 Chris Laudermilk.

Untitled Model on Stairs with Available Light

Fomapan 100 on Fomaspeed Normal Contrast simulation.

Copyright 2006 Frank Stefani.

Untitled Portrait

First image, Ilford FP4 printed on Fomaspeed.

Second image, Fuji Neopan 100 printed on Agfa Multicontrast with Filter 3

Copyright 2006 Frank Stefani.

Samples with Colour Mixback (an AndyPRO feature)

Spectators. 0.4 colour mixback.
Copyright 2007 Ryan Li

Shop front. 1.2 colour mixback.
Copyright 2007 Ryan Li

Still Life. 1.2 colour mixback.
Copyright 2007 Ryan Li

Additional Samples

Kodalith Monolith, C 2006 Sean M Puckett.

Around the Neighborhood, C 2006 Sean M Puckett.

Flower Test, C 2006 Sean M Puckett.

User Interface

This page reflects AndyPRO. Andy Freeware does not include the "adjustment" panels.

Enable Checkbox

The enable checkbox controls whether Andy's settings affect the image.

Reset Button

Clicking the reset button forces all of Andy's exposure and alteration sliders to -0- and disables the plug-in. It does not change the film and paper selections. Click it to return to sanity.

? Button

This button shows a popup with the version number, author, and homepage of the plug-in.

Film Specifications Group

This group box collects all controls that affect your choice of film.

Film Stock Selection List (unlabeled)

A list of available film stock simulations, identified by manufacturer and product.

Chemistry List

A list of development processes and chemicals. There may be only one chemistry available, or there may be quite a few. The chemistry and process affects the film stock dramatically.

Paper Specifications Group

Settings here are very similar in operation to those for specifying film.

Paper Stock Selection List (unlabeled)

A list of papers, organized by manufacturer and product line alphabetically.

Grade List

If more than one grade (contrast) of paper is available in a product line, they're listed here. Multicontrast papers will typically show their performance with a specific filter number. Generally, the lower the filter number, the softer (less contrasty) the printed image will be.

Exposure Control Group

While the specifications panels control the setup of the simulator, this group of controls is the operating panel for the simulator.

Film Slider

Controls the amount of light sent through the film stock. The "light" is, of course, the original image in Bibble. This slider adjusts the simulated exposure of the film. Remember than Andy simulates film stock spectral response, so different films will respond differently to the colour balance of your image.

Paper Slider

Controls the amount of light sent through the developed film onto the paper stock. Because Andy simulates both film and paper, there are two exposures -- the pseudo "camera" and the pseudo "enlarger." This is the enlarger time control.

Final Slider

Controls the final gain of the developed paper. One way to think of this control is of the room illumination when viewing the final print.

Helper Checkbox

Activates the exposure helper. Provides visual guidance to you when you are over or underexposing both paper and film stock. Film cues are red, while paper cues are green. The light cue shows you where you are blowing the highlights -- there is no detail here. The darker cue shows you where detail has been lost from the shadows. Based on whether you have lost detail from the film or paper, adjust the exposure or simulation controls appropriately.

Neg Checkbox

Reveales the film negative, bypassing all paper simulations. The negative is balanced to appear at the highest brightness on your screen for inspection purposes. Essentially, you are presented with a light table. The Helper checkbox also functions when the negative is visible, although you won't see paper cues.

Full Checkbox

Andy simulates the DMAX (darkest black level) of photographic paper, which generally results in blacks that aren't very black on your screen. If you check Full Range, the paper DMAX will be stretch to your screen's DMAX in linear space, which essentially just drops the black area down to RGB 0,0,0. This is not the same as "auto levels."

RGB Checkbox

When RGB is checked, the film simulation runs each of the RGB channels through the simulator process individually, thus imitating some of the response properties of colour film (but not all of them; colour film simulation is still a ways off). When in RGB mode, the spectral response sliders provide gamma adjustments instead of spectral response, so white is preserved.

Media Adjustment Window

Settings to adjust the simulators are in a seperate window for easier management and a less cluttered interface. This window does not need to be visible for its settings to affect the simulation. Be careful that you know what is on your adjustment panel!

Film Group

Adjusts the response curve of the film simulator.

Shadows Slider

You can add up to four stops of extra shadow (toe) range to a film stock with this slider. The curve is adjusted only at its extreme, to allow extra detail to appear where it would otherwise be lost in the black -- but without affecting most of the rest of the exposure.

Latitude Slider

You may alter the film's latitude (overall contrast) with this slider, adding plus or minus four stops to both shoulder and toe. Unlike the Shadows and Highlight slider, this is a broad effect with dramatic effect on the whole image.

Highlight Slider

The same function as Shadows, but for Highlights. Up to four stops of detail can be added to the extreme highlight (shoulder) end.

Paper Group

Adjusts the response curve of the paper simulator. Identical functions to the Film tab's sliders.

Spectral Group

These settings adjust the spectral response of the film to the Red, Green and Blue channels. All of the simulators I have created have been correlated to specific wavelengths of light for a consistent, reproducible simulation.

Red, Green and Blue Sliders

Each slider adjusts the relative response of the film simulator to each of the three channels of colour captured by your camera. The slider scale is in log10 units, which means that a setting of 3 is 1000x a setting of 0. My standard specification of colour for Andy has the Red peak at 610nm, Green at 530nm, and Blue at 450nm. Your camera may vary, but probably not by much.

These sliders reset to the simulator default any time you change a film simulation. Thus, reserve your spectral response tweaking for when you've settled on a particular emulsion.

When using RGB mode, these sliders provide gamma adjustments for the RGB channels. This lets you adjust colour balance without losing pure white. A setting of 1.5 (which is the default when RGB is turned on) is "no adjustment." A setting of 0 is "very dark" and 3 is "very light" for each channel.

Special Group

Extra features!

Grain Slider

Adds an amount of simulated film noise. This simulation is based in part upon observed behaviour of real film grain and the optical and physical properties of film (in general), and while it will not fool anyone who is looking for "bad film grain," it can add a nice bit of subtle texture to your Andy output.

Important note: because of the way on-screen previews are generated in Bibble, the grain you see on screen will not be the grain you get at final output if you are not viewing the image at 100%. The zoom window, however, is quite reliable at all zoom levels.

Colour Slider

This adds the original (pre Andy) image colour to the post Andy luminance levels. Note that this is not an attempt to simulate Colour film -- it is a "special effect" and mostly useful for adding a gentle amount of toning back to a B&W image. I have used a modified saturation model that only permits colours to become less intense with luminance changes, not more intense. A setting of 1.0 is as near as you can get to restoring the original colour. Settings greater than that augment the saturation significantly, while settings less than 1.0 produce mild tinting.

If you set this slider to 1.0, you can then use TonyPRO's "bleedthru" feature to mix image colour into your Tony-generated tonings. Experiment with this.

I find the colour slider has the most appealing effect when using extremely high contrast settings. This gives you deep blacks, expansive whites, and dashes of colour in the midtones that are very nice, particularly in portraiture.

The Colour slider doesn't do anything when you're in RGB mode.

Andy Simulation Suite

The following simulations are included in the current release of AndyPRO. Simulations marked in bold are included in Andy Freeware.

Film

• Adox 25 in D-76 (4 variants)
• Adox 50 in D-76 (4 variants)
• Adox 100 in D-76 (4 variants)
• Agfapan 25 in Refinal
• Agfapan 100 in Refinal
• Agfapan 400 in Refinal
• Fomapan 100 in Microphen (3 variants)
• Fujifilm Neopan 100 in Microfine (4 variants)
• Fujifilm Neopan 400 in T-MAX (3x), D-76 (3x), SPD (3x)
• Fujifilm Neopan 1600 in SPD (3x), D-76 (3x), Fujidol (3x), Microfine (3x)
• Ilford FP4 in Ilfotec HC
• Ilford PANF in Ilfotec HC (4 variants)
• Ilford Delta 3200 in Ilfotec
• Kodak HS Infrared Unfiltered in D-76 (very strong blue response), and filtered in D19, D-76 and HC-110 (note the simulation does not attempt to fabricate infrared light -- you get the red channel only)
• Kodak Imagelink HQ in Prostar
• Kodak Kodalith in Kodalith developer (1 variant) and D-11 (3 variants)
• Kodak TechPan in HC-110 (3 variants), Technidol (3 variants), and Dektol
• Kodak Tri-X in T-MAX (4 variants) and D-76 (3 variants)
• Kodak Verichrome Pan in HC-110 (3 variants) and D-76 (3 variants)

Paper

• Agfa Brovira-Speed in all six grades (0-5)
• Agfa Multicontrast Premium with all six filters (0-5)
• Agfa Record-Rapid in all four grades (1-4)
• Foma Fomaspeed, four grades (soft-hard)
• Foma Fomaspeed Variant III, six filters (0-5)
• Forte Fortezzo in Hard, Normal and Soft
• Ilford Multigrade IV Fiber, seven filters (00-5)
• Kentmere Art Classic
• Kentmere Art Deluxe in Grade 2 and Grade 3
• Kentmere VC Select seven filters (00-5)
• Kodak AZO in Grade 2 and Grade 3
• Kodak Polymax II RC in Dektol, six filters (0-5)
• Kodak Portra in RA-4 (just one variant)

Hey, you don't have my favorite film/paper!

Sorry about that. I tried to collect a wide variety of film and papers so you could have many different tones and contrasts to play with. AndyPRO's inclusions are well past the point where "one more" film or paper is going to make any difference to someone not familiar with that particular film or paper, so that's where it stops.

If you've got your heart set on a particular emulsion or paper, I can create a simulator for you -- if you can find a log/log characteristic curve that describes it. For films, you should also supply the spectral response graph. The cost is $50 USD per curve you wish me to create it in a big hurry, or free if you're willing to wait an indefinite period of time for me to maybe get around to it someday. I don't want to seem predatory, but creating simulators isn't much fun! Write me directly for more information about this offer.

Notes (IMPORTANT)

Presets

Bibble has a built-in function to save plug-in presets. This is very useful once you've settled on a few combinations of film/paper that you like to use. To save a preset, click the arrow icon in the upper right of Andy's window, and select "Save..." Give your preset a useful name, and it will be saved to your Bibble options directary. Click the icon again anytime to choose a preset.

Legal

• Andy is copyright 2006 Sean M Puckett, all rights reserved. Andy may not be distributed except via direct download from its homepage at nexi.com/andy.
• Names of vairous companies and other products may be trademarks or registered trademarks. They are used here strictly for identification purposes; all rights remain with the original holder.