LuttieFilm Simulator
Which film stock suits this photo? Drop it in and see it on every negative at once, scanned the way photo labs do or printed the way cinema was. It's the same film engine the Luttie editor runs, so what you pick here is what you get when you keep grading.
How to choose a stock
Start with the light. Tungsten 500 suits night, practicals and lamp-lit interiors, and renders daylight blue, which is the look people chase with CineStill 800T. Daylight 250 is the neutral cinema choice for exteriors. For people, Portrait 400 keeps skin warm and soft; for landscapes and colour, Vivid 100 is the saturated one. Soft 500 is for restraint: muted colour and gentle contrast.
Scan or print?
A negative is only half of a film look. Photographers see film as a lab scan: soft, low in contrast, easy on skin. Cinema audiences saw it through a print stock, which supplied the contrast, the dense blacks and the cool-shadow, warm-highlight crossover. Switch between Scan, Cinema Print and Soft Print on the same photo and you'll see why print film emulation matters as much as the negative.
Exposure matters on film
Film responds to exposure differently from a digital slider. Give a negative more light and its shadows climb out of the toe and colours go pastel, which is why Portra shooters overexpose. Give it less and the shadows sink and muddy. Drag Exposure while watching the grid: some stocks forgive a stop either way, others don't.
Questions
- Is the film simulator free?
- Yes. Comparing stocks on your own photo is free and needs no account. Opening a stock in the Luttie editor to keep grading is free with a free account; exporting the look as a .cube LUT, and film effects like grain and halation, are part of Luttie Pro.
- Does my photo get uploaded?
- No. Each stock is calculated in your browser and applied to your photo on your own device. Nothing is sent to a server.
- Are these real Kodak and Fuji film stocks?
- No. They are Luttie's own stocks, each shaped after the published characteristic curves of the film it's inspired by, with some values chosen by eye. They haven't been measured against real film, and Luttie isn't affiliated with Kodak or Fujifilm.
- What's the difference between Scan and a print?
- A colour negative is flat and low in contrast. Scanning it, as photo labs do, gives the soft look people know from film photography. Printing it onto print film, as cinema did, adds contrast, dense blacks and cool shadows with warm highlights. Try both on the same photo: the difference is bigger than between most negatives.
- Can I use it on log footage?
- Yes. Export a frame from your clip, drop it in, and set Source to your camera's profile: Sony S-Log3, Canon C-Log3, Nikon N-Log, Apple Log, Apple Log 2 or DJI D-Log. The simulator decodes the log curve and camera gamut before the film stock, the same way the editor does.