AshigrainShape the colour. Feel the grain.
Follow light from exposure to print or scan. Ashigrain lets you shape each stage, with every effect adjustable throughout your grade.
Film response
Soft highlight transitions and rich shadows follow each layer’s exposure-to-density curve. For most films, those curves come from published manufacturer data.
How it worksFilm's tone curve: highlights roll off softly instead of clipping, shadows keep density, and colour shifts the way a print does. Original vs Ashigrain.
Negative and print
Choose any print stock for any negative (the colour prints Kodak 2383 or 2393, Fujifilm 3513DI and Svema TsP-8R, or the black-and-white Kodak 2302), or a flat scan for your own grade. Compared with 2383, 3513DI gives a softer, less saturated print, especially in the blues.
How it worksTriptych labelled Scan · Kodak 2383 print · Fuji 3513DI print: the print stage shapes the look. 2383 is contrasty with deep blacks; 3513DI is softer and less saturated, especially in blues.
Printer lights
Warm or cool the print with red, green and blue printer lights, measured in printer points. Automatic grey-card timing provides the starting balance, placing a metered 18% grey at the print’s target density.
How it worksGrade like a lab: a slow sweep warmer and cooler in printer points, with an on-screen point value. Shows the lab-style timing control.
Halation
Light scattered back from the film base creates a red rim around bright sources. The antihalation layer controls its strength: subtle with rem-jet, twice as strong on Double-X’s grey base, and six times as strong on Vision3 500T with Rem-jet removed turned on.
How it worksOriginal vs Kodak Vision3 500T with Rem-jet removed on: the red-orange glow around every hard light source must be clearly visible. Include a 2× crop on one light, delivered as a second file if needed.
Bloom
Bloom spreads a soft, neutral glow around the brightest areas. Adjust its amount, radius on film and starting threshold in stops above mid-grey; halation provides the separate red rim.
How it worksThe wide, soft, neutral glow of bright areas spreading into the frame, distinct from halation's red rim. Original vs Ashigrain.
Grain
Shape grain separately in shadows, midtones and highlights, with a fresh pattern each frame or a static pattern. Each layer is calibrated to published RMS granularity where that data is available.
How it worksFrom near-invisible to gritty: Vision3 50D's fine grain next to T-Max P3200 pushed. Must be a 1:1 crop so compression keeps the grain.
Push and pull
Push for stronger contrast, fog and grain, or pull for a gentler response. Portra 800 and T-Max P3200 use Kodak’s published push curves; other films use a generic model of extended development.
How it worksPushing a film: more contrast and more grain as it's rated faster. Two panels, labelled EI 800 and EI 3200.
Gauges
Use any film in Super 35, Super 16, Super 8 or 35 mm still format. Smaller formats enlarge the film image more, making grain, halation and softness more pronounced.
How it worksOne shot on three gauges, labelled. Grain, halation and softness grow as the gauge shrinks.
Gate weave and flicker
Recreate a projected reel’s slight frame drift and changing brightness. Gate weave starts enabled for 8 mm and 16 mm, flicker for 8 mm. Both can be switched on or off in any format.
How it worksProjector character: the frame gently weaves and the exposure breathes, like a Super 8 reel. The straight lines make the weave visible.