TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.1 Image Editor Thumbnail

When images are imported into LightWave 3D, they will be loaded into the Imaged Editor. The Image Editor has a processing tab where the Virtual Darkroom image filter can be added to the image along with any other complementary image filters in the image filter drop-down list. The thumbnail image in the Image Editor is the fastest way to view Virtual Darkroom adjustments to the source image in real time. The downside is that the thumbnail view is rather small, so you will have to keep checking the full-size version of the image once you think the thumbnail is displaying what you want. You will notice that what looks right in the thumbnail does not always look great in the full-size image, and what looks great in the full-size image does not always look like what you would expect in the thumbnail view. So the workflow involves getting close to what you want with the thumbnail image and then going back and forth between the thumbnail and the full-size image to get exactly what you want.

1.2 Image Viewer

The Image Viewer will be used to see the processed full-size image. Double-click the source image name in the Image Editor to view the processed source image in the Image Viewer; the source image must be opened in the Image Viewer every time you want to see the changes that have been made in Virtual Darkroom applied to the full-size image.

1.3 Camera Viewport: OpenGL Background Image

The source image can be set as the background image in the camera viewport. Changes to the source image will automatically update in the camera viewport, which is much larger than the Image Editor thumbnail, but it does not update nearly as fast as the Image Editor thumbnail. This approach takes a little extra time to set up but using the camera viewport can be a better alternative to constantly double-clicking the source image in the Image Editor to view it in the Image Viewer at full-size.

To view the source image as the backdrop in the camera viewport do the following. Load the source image in the Image Editor. Open the Effects panel and click on the Compositing tab. Select the source image from the drop-down menu of the Background Image parameter. Next, use the image size values displayed just below to set the Width and Height parameters of the camera frame in the Camera Properties panel. The source image should now be displayed in the camera viewport with the correct aspect ratio and image filter processing applied.

If the camera viewport looks distractingly busy with other OpenGL information from the scene, go to the viewport's upper option bar and open the drop-down menu that is accessed from the third down-arrow from the left in the bar. Then click the "Show OpenGL UI" option to turn it off for a perfectly clear view.

2.1 Primary Color Space of the Source Image

When an image is loaded into the Image Editor, its color space can be defined with the Color Space RGB parameter in the Source tab of the Image Editor. 

There are five color space options for the parameter as well as the ability to load an official *.cube LUT file from a digital camera manufacturer. These define the image colors that Virtual Darkroom will be working with for the source image.

It is possible to understand the color spaces in a technical sense, and for that you'll have to research them on the web. There are interesting things to learn about them. For instance, it is fairly interesting that sRGB was created by Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft for viewing the Internet on CRT monitors, rec709 was made for viewing images on HDTV screens, Cineon is intended for images that have 10-bits per channel and Ciexyz was originally based on human color perception. This type of information can be useful when producing visual content specifically for a certain type of display device, but otherwise the information tends to be interesting yet trivial to most use cases.

There is a way to understand the color spaces that is more practical for most projects. Linear will produce low saturation and low contrast image colors to work with. sRGB produces high saturation image colors with strong contrast that extends shadows well into mid-tones. rec709 produces the same effect as sRGB except the contrast is biased towards giving more contrast to dark edges rather than mid-tone areas. Cineon and Ciexyz are unlikely choices for most images, but sometimes they are the perfect choice for the image you are working from and what you want to do with it. So choose the color space for the source image based on its original color space or based on the level of saturation and contrast that you would like to work from. In most cases, the image just needs to look right on your computer screen because it will be viewed on a wide variety of display devices that it could not possibly be prepared for except in a general sense. 

Below is an image displayed in the five color spaces for a source image, using the rec709 CS in the Image Viewer.

2.2 Secondary Color Space in the Image Viewer

Once you've chosen the color space for the source image, the source image name can be double-clicked in the Image Editor to have it open in the Image Viewer in full size with all added image filters applied to it. Once the image is in the Image Viewer, a second color space can be applied to the image for its display in the Image Viewer and for saving it out to a file. The available color spaces for viewing in the Image Viewer are the same five color spaces that are available for the primary color space of the source image. They effectively make five times as many image color variations possible for the appearance of the final image that will be saved to a file. 

In the Image Viewer, Linear will make the image appear darker and high-contrast, sRGB can make an image appear lighter sometimes with a light atmospheric effect and rec709 will increase dark edge contrast. The effect of Cineon and Ciexyz in the Image Viewer depends on the source image and its primary color space. For a normal sRGB image with its primary color space set to rec709, Cineon will make it appear toned down in grey and Ciexyz will make it appear unnaturally absent of red saturation. The different CS combinations can be very interesting. Cineon can actually make image colors "pop" when used to do so with images that can benefit from it.

Below is an example of a source image using rec709 for its primary color space and then its five variations in the Image Viewer using its five secondary color space viewing options.

2.3 Saving a Processed Image in the Image Viewer's Color Space.

In the Image Viewer's top options bar, the viewing color space option is on the right. The saving color space option is on the far left. So keep in mind that the Image Viewer will not automatically save the image in the color space you are looking at; it will save the image in the color space that is specified in the far left color space option. Make sure the color space you are viewing an image in is the color space you will save the image in before actually saving out the image to a file.

The far left color space option for saving a file is circled in the image below.

3.1 Highlight Exposure

In the Image Editor's Processing tab, double-click the Virtual Darkroom image filter and the main options panel will open. LightWave 3D's default presets can be loaded through the Apply Preset drop-down menu at the very upper left of the panel. Custom presets, such as the Extended Virtual Darkroom Presets, can be loaded from the Preset File drop-down menu in the upper right section of the panel.

Once a film simulation preset has been loaded, the main options located below the file loading menus can be adjusted. The first two parameters are Negative LUX and Negative Time. They control the exposure of the highlights in an image. LUX is a multiplier of the Time parameter and is usually set to a value of '1'.

Exposure time is measured in seconds, which can be seen in the readout for the Image Filter in the Image Filter stack. 100-speed film is exposed at 100th of a second so that its speed would be entered as 0.01 in the Time parameter. Film images can be taken with one or two stops increased or decreased exposure time, which is the doubling or halving of the standard exposure time for the film as an increased or decreased "stop" in the film's exposure. So 100-speed film increased by one stop of exposure would change from 0.01 to 0.02 and decreasing its exposure by one stop would change it from 0.01 to 0.005 in the Time parameter. A 400-speed film would be entered as 0.0025 and might be increased nine stops to 1.28 before it looks right in Virtual Darkroom. Film speed is an interesting value to start from but it might need to be increased by more stops than physically possible to look right in Virtual Darkroom.

3.2 Shadow Exposure

The next two parameters are Positive LUX and Positive Time which control the shadow exposure in the image; it can make the shadows lighter or darker. LUX is a multiplier of the Time parameter and is usually set to a value of '1'.

3.3 The Shadow-to-Highlight Gradient

The two sets of Negative and Positive parameters form a constant gradient between the highlights and shadows of an image. Adjusting one will affect the other except for its most extreme value which remains pinned. So adjusting the shadows will affect the mid tones of the image too, all the way up to but not including the highest highlight exposure value. The same goes the other way around; adjusting the highlights will affect the mid tones of the image too, all the way down to but not including the lowest shadow value.

3.4 Color Plane Balance

At the bottom of the main options panel are the color plane balance parameters where the sensitivity or influence of each color plane is specified in a percentage. The sliders stop at 100%, but percentages higher than 100% can be entered manually if needed. Negative values have no effect. Balancing the three color plane sensitivities allows one to find the film's natural color bias or the natural image colors as expressed within the film's curves. They also allow one to make a color plane bias to emphasize primary or secondary additive colors in the final image. Different colors support different moods as does exposure's luminosity. So a moody color bias can dialed in here instead of a natural representation of the source image. 

3.5 Additive Color Theory: Primary and Secondary Colors

Unlike the subtractive colors of painting, RYB, Virtual Darkroom uses the additive colors, RGB. So balancing the RGB color planes of a film to find your intended color balance will use additive (light) color theory, which follows the basic rules below.

+ red = red
- red = cyan w/ green and blue edges*

+ green = green
- green = magenta w/ purple and red edges*

+ blue = blue
- blue = yellow w/ green and orange edges*

*Each film stock will have a different light response for each color plane in the film. The outcome of any two planes forming a secondary color will not be one simple color but a complex gradient around the secondary color as the main color. This is based on differing color plane sensitivities that form the extent of color divides, overlaps and intersections in the film. A single color plane might show more or less detail and have a brighter or darker overall color value. Two planes put together will form their own compound gradient from individual color plane gradients that do not perfectly align with each other. All three planes together will form the visual characteristic of the film which might be strong or subtle in differences when compared to other films stocks.

Each time a new image is used with Virtual Darkroom, it might be good to re-calibrate the film to the image. This will mean finding the right shadow color, rebalancing the sensitivities of the color planes and then adjusting highlight exposure. The process for doing this is the same for each type of film and can be done with the following steps:

1. Load an image of your scene in the Image Editor.

2. In the Source tab of the Image Editor, set the Color Space RGB parameter to the known type for the image or to a setting that gives the color saturation and contrast that you would like to work from.

3. In the Processing tab, add the Virtual Darkroom image filter and double-click it in the stack to open up its main settings panel. Load a film preset by clicking either the Apply Preset drop-down menu and selecting a preset from Virtual Darkroom's internal list of presets or by clicking the Preset File drop-down menu button, selecting Load Preset from the list and then browsing for the VDR preset file to load.

4. Once the VDR file is loaded, set all of the upper four parameters, for Negative and Positive attributes, to a value of 1. This will be a baseline while other adjustments are being made.

5. Set all three color plane sensitivities at the bottom of the panel to 0. The thumbnail preview image should appear a single constant color or shade now, indicating the current shadow color for the film that is being displayed based on the current Positive Time values of 1.

6. Now, use the Positive Time parameter to adjust the thumbnail view until it is at its darkest possible value and near where it would start becoming lightened/colored. This will be the darkest shadow possible in the film and be close to being able to be lightened into the film's natural shadow colors. The darkest shadows for the film are now set, which you might want to keep or change later, but these will be the most natural.

7. Now set the color sensitivity for each of the three color planes at the bottom of the main panel to 50%.

8. Use the Negative Time parameter to adjust the exposure of the highlights in the image and bring its visual detail into clear visibility without being over or under exposed.

9. Turn all the color plane sensitivities back to 0%. Then adjust the Red Sensitivity parameter upward until its maximum detail is clear in the thumbnail preview. Record or remember the number. Then turn the Red Sensitivity back to 0 again.

10. Adjust the Green Sensitivity parameter upward until its maximum detail is clear in the thumbnail preview. Record or remember the number.

11. One of two approaches can be taken at this point. Either (A) turn the Green Sensitivity back to 0% and adjust the Blue Sensitivity parameter upward until its maximum detail is clear in the thumbnail preview, and then enter the previous Red and Green sensitivity values into their entry fields, or (B) leave the Green Sensitivity value where it is, enter the previous Red Sensitivity value in its parameter, which should turn the thumbnail preview image into a nice yellow-green gradient image, and then adjust the Blue Sensitivity parameter upward until the thumbnail preview image looks as naturally balanced as possible.

If there is a color plane that is not able to clearly show all of its detail before reaching the 100% value, then keep that color plane at 100% and the other two color planes at 0%. Then adjust the Negative Time parameter until the color plane shows its maximum detail somewhat clearly in the thumbnail preview. Then go back and adjust the other two color planes' sensitivities to re-find their optimal detail values in light of the new negative exposure setting.

When the maximum detail is found for each color plane and they are all displayed together, the image might appear too bright again, so adjust the Negative Time parameter again to find the best exposure for the new sensitivity settings. 

At this point, the result will be both the natural color balance of the image and the natural color bias of the film.

12. Once the maximum color detail is displayed for the film in all 3 color planes, it is often noticeable that the film stock still has a strong bias toward one color plane or another, so fine adjustments can be made to adjust from maximum visible details to a color that is more natural in your eyes. The original image can be used as a reference for these adjustments.

13. When the natural color balance is found and adjustments have been made to compensate for the film's color bias, further adjustments can be made to the image through the highlight and shadow exposure settings to add or lessen contrast and add shadow color or keep the shadows as dark as possible.

NOTE: If you are looking for the perfect balance of color planes, the Image Editor's small thumbnail view and Virtual Darkroom's 0.5 incrementation of color plane values (smaller values can be entered manually) make the task a little more difficult than it should be, so it is recommended that the image(s) be generally calibrated in Virtual Darkroom and then imported into Photoshop or After Effects or a similar post processing application where the "Auto Color" and "Color Balance" tools can be applied to the image(s) to get  that perfect balance.

5.1 Film Grain

Film grain can be applied to an image by checking the Grain option box in the main options panel of Virtual Darkroom. It will apply film grain according to Selwyn Granularity. The image below has been enlarged, but at 100% magnification it looks great with a 0.00125 granularity value.

Virtual Darkroom applies granularity uniformly across an image, which is not entirely realistic because granularity in an image differs across the image according to image contrast. Low-contrast areas will have higher granular visibility from low-density grain while high-contrast areas will have 50% or less granular visibility due to retaining high-density grain. So it is recommended that a post processing application be used to simulate the non-uniform appearance of granularity in film. 

In the image below, the left image has no grain, the middle image has uniform grain and the right image has the grain masked out of the shadow areas. Notice that the grain in the middle image is present in the black hair at the back of the head but absent from that area in the right image that is masked. Also notice that the left image shows in the far right of the image that the red bar and its shadow over blue are displayed cleanly while the right image shows the red bar and its shadow as retaining grain in those midtones even though the grain is absent in the shadows of the hair. In the masked image, the shadows remain smooth and the colorful midtones are made more colorful with the simulated film grain.

5.2 MTF Curve Scattering

Checking the Scattering option box in the main options panel will enable the simulation of light bouncing within the film emulsion by using the film's MTF curve. Basically, the general visual effect is of lightening the image and contrast reduction. In Virtual Darkroom, Scattering functions correctly with color negative film simulations. It can make a well-exposed image a bit over bright, so adjust the Negative Time parameter to lower the exposure of the highlights until the image looks right. The Scattering function is reversed for color reversal film simulations since the current version of Virtual Darkroom was designed for print only, instead of projection film. A good side of its reversed function is that it can be effectively used to reduce strong highlights in an image, such as when taking photos of fruit outdoors in open sunlight. Otherwise, just adjust the Positive Time parameter instead of the Negative Time parameter to increase the exposure of the shadows in the image until the image looks right. The image might appear quite dark at first, but this will correct the darkened image; don't touch the Negative Time parameter until after adjusting the shadow exposure for film presets that are darkened by the Scattering option.

In the image below, scattering has been applied to the left side of the image without any other changes to settings.

5.3 Adding Shadow Color

Lower the Negative Time parameter to zero to see only the shadow color of the image. The Positive Time parameter can be adjusted to darken or lighten the shadows. When the shadows are lightened, they will show the film's natural shadow colors, which is not comprised of a colorless gradient from black to white.

5.4 Shadow Color

Depending on the type of film stock being used, shadow color can be much more complex than a single color that changes its luminance value. For example, a shadow color might change from black to dark red to bright, saturated red to orange to yellow to light grey-white. A shadow might also hold a purple color in its first few steps of lightening and then continue in tints of blue. So play around with the shadow colors and choose the one that will best suit your image and the effect that you want to achieve.

The shadow colors for every film stock in the Extended Virtual Darkroom Presets along with their X, Y and YX variations can be found in the Positive (Print) Time Shadow Color film characteristic sheet shown below.

5.5 Adding Highlight Color

Move the Positive Time value in the direction that gives shadow color, lightening them, then move the Positive Time value in the direction that darkens the highlights of the image. The image's highlights will darken and become colored with a color that is a lighter color than the film's shadow color.

5.6 Color Plane Bias for Additional Moods

Besides finding the natural color balance for an image and maybe adding shadow color, the color plane sensitivities can be adjusted to find additional color variations that can complement different scenes and moods. The color variations available will follow the primary and secondary colors of additive color theory addressed in section 3.5 of this tutorial.

5.7 Light Leaks with Authentic Colors

Light leaks can be simulated with Virtual Darkroom. Since the image produced for the light leak will be based on the film stock's color curves, the light leak will have the correct color and luminosity for the over exposure of that type of film. This will be more authentic than placing a random light leak image over the film simulation image with a blending mode. Images for simulating light leaks can be produced by using Virtual Darkroom to produce a main image that uses natural colors and then a secondary light leak image that uses highly exposed shadows for the light leak colors. These two images would then be combined in an application such as Photoshop, placing the overexposed image above the natural color image and masking the overexposed image with a black and white light leak pattern that has been cut and pasted to the alpha channel of the overexposed image. Producing light leaks this way with Virtual Darkroom allows the well-exposed and overexposed parts of the image to both have the natural film colors of the simulated film stock being used for authentic film imagery.

5.8 F10 Renders for Processing Image Sequences

If the source image used for the camera's background is an image sequence, then the entire sequence or part of it can be rendered with the Virtual Darkroom image filter applied to each image in the sequence by pressing F10 to render the scene. Multiple source image sequences can be rendered in the scene's timeline by setting the options for each sequence in its own Source tab so that they display one after the other at the right time. In the Render Options panel, the General, Buffers and Output tabs will need to be used to set the number of frames to render in the scene and the folder to save the processed images to.

In the image below, the first image of the AFS_Akira image sequence has been loaded into the Image Editor and its Image Type parameter has been set to Sequence in the Source tab so that LightWave 3D has loaded its entire sequence of images to display in the timeline. At the bottom of the Source tab are the parameters to specify on which frame the sequence will begin to display in the timeline and what range of images in the loaded sequence will be used. In the image below, the image sequence is set to start at frame thirty in the scene's timeline, the eighth image of the loaded sequence will be the first to display at frame thirty and the forty-eighth frame of the image sequence will be the last to display at frame seventy in the timeline. This will require seventy frames in the timeline to render, so the range of frames to render is set in the General tab of the Render Properties panel. Specify the folder to save the images to in the Ouput tab. Then F10 can then be pressed and the entire sequence will be rendered into simulated film colors.

A physical film emulsion can have a wider light capture capability than a digital camera sensor. Physical film can capture light from the infrared spectrum and capture bright details without becoming overexposed too quickly. The overall effect is that physical film has HDR image quality. To best represent film's wide light capture ability in images produced by digital cameras, either the camera will need to be able to record light in an *.hdr file format or bracketed exposure will need to be used to capture a series of images with evenly spaced exposure incrementation. The bracketed exposure technique will be discussed here.

Many digital cameras can produce bracketed photos. Check your camera's user manual to see whether it does. A bracketed photo will be a sequence of photos that evenly differ in the amount of some value in each, such as exposure, ISO, white balance and focus. Use the exposure value in bracketed photos to capture a sequence of photos that shows the different level of detail available to the camera at different exposure settings without being too dark or blown out. The photos can then be combined in LightWave 3D and rendered out with a Virtual Darkroom film simulation and light leak image for the ultimate authenticity in analog film simulation.

For best results, use a tripod and remote release for your camera when taking bracketed photos.

The steps below show how to do this in more detail.

1. HDR images can be taken with many digital phone cameras either in the native operating system or by using an app. However, if what you want is a photo taken by a DSLR camera with your favorite lens, then unless the camera comes with a great HDR mode, bracketing will be used to allow you to take a series of photos that can produce an image in post that has the detail of an HDR image. Even some of the phone apps allow bracketing.

2. Every digital camera will have its own menu system and maybe some of its own naming conventions too, so explaining how to take a bracketed photo series will be a generalized explanation here.

Open your camera's settings and find the bracketing options. Check your user manual if you are not able to locate it on your own. It might be organized into the physical camera settings group for the rotating function knob on the camera. 

Once the bracketing function is found, choose the type of bracketing to be exposure. This way the camera will take a series of photos of your scene that range from dark to light. Then choose how many photos to have taken in the series. Choosing a large number of photos will take a little more time for the camera to capture and for you to composite together afterward; choosing a smaller number of photos will allow a scene to be captured more quickly by the camera and easier compositing. Then choose the number of exposure steps between each photo. Steps that are too large might cause light information gaps. If that problem happens, then it is better to choose a small exposure step number and a larger number of photos instead. It is up to the photographer to choose the settings that are best for their scene and their interests. 

3. Take a photo of your scene.

Since the camera takes several photos of the same subject, one after the other, it is important that the camera does not move while taking photos. So when possible, use a camera tripod and remote camera trigger. If taking the photo by hand, have image stabilization enabled on the camera or lens, hold your breath and brace your self.

4. Import the photos to your computer.

5. Open Lightwave 3D.

6. Load the series of bracketed photos into the Image Editor.

7. In the Source tab of the Image Editor, set the Color Space RGB parameter to the color space that was used by your camera or the closest equivalent color space, such as sRGB.

8. The series of photos will now be combined in Lightwave's Texture Editor, using its layers and blending modes in the same way that would be done in Photoshop. All that is needed to start is a surface to hold the texture.

Go to the Model tab in Lightwave's main interface, click the Geometry button from the tool bar and select Ground Plane from the drop-down menu.

For the size of the ground plane geometry, set its width and height values to the pixel dimensions of the photos that were imported but in millimeters. Then click "Ok" to make the geometry plane.

10. Rotate the plane's pitch channel to -90 degrees so that the plane squarely faces the camera with its opaque, texture side.

11. Select the camera and open its properties panel. Set its width and height to the dimensions of the imported photos. Then drag the camera forward by its blue, z-axis handle until it perfectly matches with the geometry plane's dimensions in the camera viewport.

12. Open the Surface Editor. Select the ground plane's texture and change it to a Standard material by clicking the Material drop-down menu button at the top right and selecting Standard from the list. Then go to the luminosity channel and change it's value to 100%. And then go to the color channel and click the 'T' button. 

In the texture window for the color channel, make as many Image Map layers as there are photos in the imported bracketing images. To do this, configure the initial layer to use Planar Projection, use the Y-Texture Axis and use Automatic Sizing. Then copy and paste the layer as many times as is needed to suit the number of images.

Next, go to the bottom layer and set its image to the darkest image in the series of photos. Then go to the next layer up and set its image to the next lightest image in the series of photos and change its Blending Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 50%. (This should be Lightwave's "Multiply" option not the "PShop Multiply" option or there will be the same problem as when trying to do this in Photoshop.) Continue to do this for the remaining layers and their corresponding images. The very bottom layer should be left with the default Normal blending mode and 100% opacity. All layers above it should use the Multiply blending mode and 50% opacity. The images should be loaded to the layers from bottom to top as darkest to lightest.

The images are now combined now into one image that preserves all the details. 

13. Press F9 to render the layered image.

14. In the Image Viewer save the rendered image in the same color space as its source images were imported in, using the left color space option at the top of the Image Viewer, and save it as a Radiance (hdr) file or in a lossless file format that the computer OS can make visible thumbnails for. Or both.

15. The saved image can now be imported back into the Image Editor and used with Virtual Darkroom and its complementary image filters before being saved out again and post processed in another application. Remember that even cinematic film uses the Digital Intermediate Finishing Process for post processing before the film is ready for public viewing or post production. 

In the image below, the final bracketed photo to the bottom right has much more visual detail. Notice that details are now visible in the back trunk and passenger's seat. This would be the type of image to have before making adjustments in post-processing in order to have the option to keep, attenuate or discard details, instead of not having the option. The HDR image is also closer to the appearance of analog film.

7.1 Negative

The Negative image filter is nearly indispensable when using Virtual Darkroom. It will reverse a color reversal film back into its natural colors, and it will reverse the X and Y variants of a color negative film back into their natural colors.

Currently, color negative films function as expected in Virtual Darkroom, but Virtual Darkroom always applies a color inversion to every film simulation, which means that a color reversal film that should show natural colors already for projection will display inverted colors instead and need the negative image filter to be applied to correct its colors back to normal. That can be seen in the image below.

7.2 Full Precision Gamma

The Gamma Image Filter can bring out more detail in an image before passing it through Virtual Darkroom in the Image Filter stack.

7.3 Tonemap Pixel Filter for LightWave 3D Renders

In LightWave 3D renders, it is easy to blow out the specular highlights in a rendered image, if one is not careful with the lighting. The Tonemap image filter allows one to adjust the light exposure of the entire scene as though using the exposure on a camera. Tonemap should be applied as a Pixel Filter in the Processing tab of the Effects panel, though it is listed in the Image Editor's Image Filter menu too. It will be visible in the VPR viewport or F9/F10 renders in the Image Viewer rather than through the Image Editor.

8.1 Auto Color and Color Balance: white point 

It is not always easy to perfectly balance the color planes in Virtual Darkroom. The color plane value sliders increment in values of 0.5%, which is usually too large of an increment to be perfectly accurate. Fortunately, smaller values can be typed in manually, if one doesn't mind that approach. In any case, once the color planes have been balanced as closely as possible in Virtual Darkroom, there is the option to further balance the color planes in Photoshop. A great tool is the Auto Color tool, which will automatically find the white point for your image by applying Auto Levels to each color plane's channel. Sometimes the result is not exactly what one would expect or want, say it looks washed out, so after applying Auto Color either use the Levels tool to manually adjust the entire image or undo the Auto Color step and manually adjust the Levels for each color plane in the Channels tab. If the color needs adjustment, then open the Color Balance tool and the color planes can be balanced similarly to Virtual Darkroom with adjustment sliders that use much finer increments.

8.2 Levels: Dynamic Range & Mid-Point

When an image is recorded to physical film, it doesn't necessarily look its best right away. That is why cinematographers use the Digital Intermediate Finishing Process and why you will probably want to use a post processing application to bring out the best in the simulated film.

The dynamic range of an image can be increased in post processing. In Photoshop, this is done by using the Levels tool to change the white point and black point of the image data relative to absolute white and absolute black. Sometimes the decreased dynamic range of the film simulation is the toned-down effect you want. Sometimes it is not. And sometimes you'll want something in between.

8.3 Curves: Contrast

In addition to toning down an image, one of the benefits of film is its "fog" effect which gives an image an extra sense of atmosphere and smoothness in low contrast areas. Sometimes the fog effect is too much or the image just lacks the contrast you want. In this case, the Curves tool in Photoshop and similar applications can be used to cut through the fog of an image and add contrast.

8.4 Saturation

The saturation of an image can be controlled in post processing. The VDR film simulations tend to be rich in color due to their particular color curves and the addition of shadow color.

8.5 Layer Opacity and Blending Modes: Blending

If an accurate representation of the original film stock is not the ultimate goal, then one can experiment with further adjustments.  Sometimes the film effect benefits from being attenuated, and that can be done by placing the Virtual Darkroom image in a layer over the original image and then adjusting its opacity. Blending modes have more creative effects. Try running through the list of blending modes to see whether there is one that increases the visual quality of the image and complements the scene. When a satisfactory result is achieved, it can be used as a template for adjusting many other photos or the image sequence of an animation. Try to record the adjustments to a Photoshop Action so that you have a repeatable macro function. Then use the Batch processing function to automatically apply the Photoshop Action to all the images in a folder.

8.6 UnSharp Mask: Crispiness with the Cream

Analog film simulations generally smooth an image's appearance. To make some edges relatively crisp while retaining much of the analog smoothing, apply the UnSharp Mask tool found in Photoshop or the equivalent tool in other post-production products.

8.7 Everything Else

Using an analog film simulation does not necessarily have to entail any limitations. It can be used as the basis for any number of subsequent post-processing changes whether subtle or major.