Dehancer FILM LIGHTROOM PLUGIN Review
A personal take on one of the most popular film emulation tools
This isn’t your typical review! Instead, it’s a report on my hands-on experience with Dehancer Film, breaking down the key aspects of the software. After experimenting with its interface and creating a range of looks, I wanted to see if Dehancer could complement my digital workflow, especially since I primarily shoot analog film.
Introduction
Whoever said film is dead couldn’t have been more wrong. No one could have predicted the resurgence of analog aesthetics and their influence on social media and modern photography. Digital advancements have given us incredible image quality—high dynamic range, minimal noise in low-light shots, stunning macro details, and aerial shots from drones. So why, with all this digital perfection, do so many photographers still chase the imperfections of analog film photography?
The answer is simple yet complex: beyond the nostalgia for film’s timeless quality, its unique color rendition, contrast, and sense of authenticity create an emotional connection that’s often missing in digital photography. Digital images can feel overly polished or artificial, even when skillfully edited. Before diving into my Dehancer review, I want to highlight some important considerations when discussing digital film emulation.
This review specifically focuses on the Dehancer Lightroom plugin, which is designed for photo editing. While Dehancer is primarily known for its video editing application, which shares many of the features discussed here, this review will concentrate solely on the photo editing capabilities of the plugin, leaving the video-focused tools outside the scope of this article.
Kodak Vision 500T and Kodak 2383 Print Film
Film Aesthetics
Film aesthetics have long shaped the visual language of storytelling, both in photography and cinema, inspiring generations of creators. So why not just use film instead of emulating it? Several factors come into play, including cost, availability, and practicality. Not everyone has access to the materials required for extensive projects, and analog film can be expensive. Digital photography offers efficiency and creative flexibility that are hard to overlook.
I love shooting analog film. It’s rewarding and inspiring, and the results, to me, are stunning. But for some projects, the benefits of digital can’t be denied, and tools like Dehancer allow you to retain the analog look and feel in a digital workflow—without sacrificing authenticity.
Creative use of the various film profiles to create a dramatic cinema like color grading (Kodak Vision 500T and Kodak 2383 Print Film)
Authenticity of Film Emulation
Is real film photography inherently more authentic than its digital counterpart? Not an easy question. In my opinion the tactile process of shooting, developing, and printing film can add layers of authenticity, especially for viewers who value traditional methods. But will the average viewer really notice the difference between a true film photograph and a high-quality digital emulation? In most cases, probably not. The vast majority of viewers, particularly those unfamiliar with photography, will focus on the final image rather than the process.
That said, there are two relevant points to consider:
For projects where authenticity is integral, the choice of medium is essential. In these cases, film simulation might not be appropriate.
In all other cases, the quality of the emulation determines whether the final image feels like a true analog photograph. A high-quality emulation can elevate your work beyond the typical "Instagram filter" aesthetic and into something more refined.
This brings me to my review of Dehancer. Simply put, it’s one of the few plugins that genuinely delivers a believable and realistic digital film emulation. Let’s have a look!
This set, which I have taken in Venice, Italy in 2019, I used the Fujifilm Provia 100F Slide Film profile. The profiles and presets, which can be created help a lot to build a cohesive and interesting mood an style that works very well in series.
Key Features of the Software
The Art of Creating Authentic Film Profiles
What sets Dehancer apart is its method of creating film profiles. The software includes over 60 meticulously profiled films, from classics like Fuji Pro 400H and Kodak Portra 400 to cinema-specific profiles like Kodak Vision3. It even has profiles for unique analog processes, such as Ambrotype and the Prokudin-Gorsky color separation method.
Unlike Lightroom presets or LUTs, Dehancer’s profiles are based on analog darkroom prints. Through advanced techniques like colorimetry and densitometry, they extract precise data on color, contrast, and grain structure, then calibrate the digital profiles to match the original film’s look as closely as possible.
This approach makes Dehancer’s profiles more robust and authentic, especially compared to presets built around scanner interpretations. The darkroom-centric process eliminates inconsistencies caused by scanner software, resulting in more reliable, consistent film emulations.
Kodak Porta 400 in Venice
Kodak Vision3 Profiles
Dehancer was initially created for video, which explains its inclusion of cinema film profiles like Kodak Vision 3. These profiles pair beautifully with the Kodak 2383 print film LUT, making them ideal for creating cinematic photo series. The blend of photography and cinema offers photographers the chance to tap into the emotional power of iconic movie looks, adding a new layer of mood and atmosphere to their work.
Kodak Vision 3 500T and Kodak 2383 Print Film — along Sonoma County Coast, California
Traditional Analog Workflow
Dehancer’s interface mimics the traditional analog workflow: choose your film, decide how to expose and develop it, and simulate the printing process. While the interface may seem overwhelming at first, it’s straightforward once you understand each tool’s function. The software offers detailed manuals and tutorials, make sure you check them out the get the most out of the product. I will focus on the standout features that underline its quality and impressed me the most.
Expansion and Compression
Film reacts to light differently than a digital sensor. As film is exposed to more light, the image becomes more saturated in a smooth, gradual manner, and true clipping is avoided. With negative film, much of the image information is compressed, and the density range is narrower compared to digital. During printing (or in this case, digital emulation), this compressed data is expanded to reveal the full tonal range.
Dehancer allows you to control how this expansion and compression occurs. You can prevent highlights from clipping, lift shadow details, or even introduce a slight fade—often seen in film images. This fine-tuning is crucial in maintaining the subtleties of film emulsion in your final output.
Print Simulation
In analog photography, a film negative is just one step of the process. It needs to be interpreted and printed. Dehancer replicates this workflow with its print simulation module, offering profiles for print mediums like Kodak 2383, Fuji 3513, and Kodak Endura paper. These profiles simulate the response of different print processes, adding another layer of authenticity.
Choosing the right print profile for your project helps create a cohesive, filmic look. While Dehancer’s cinema print film profiles are best suited to Kodak Vision3 emulations, there’s room for creativity—mixing and matching profiles to craft your own style.
CMY Color Head Simulation
Dehancer’s CMY Color Head Simulation emulates the subtractive color correction process traditionally used in darkroom enlargers. By controlling the cyan, magenta, and yellow channels, you can adjust color balance with the same precision as you would in analog printing. This subtractive approach offers a tactile, intuitive alternative to the digital white balance sliders we’re used to, allowing for more nuanced color adjustments.
By mirroring the analog workflow, Dehancer gives photographers the tools to maintain the depth and richness of traditional film processing in a digital context, helping preserve the authenticity of film photography while working with the convenience of digital tools.
Screenshot from the Dehancer user interface
Unique Film Characteristics
To replicate the analog film experience convincingly, Dehancer goes beyond just color and tone. The software incorporates the subtle, tactile details that make film so special.
Grain Engine: Detailed Customization and Realism
Grain is an essential part of the analog film look, and Dehancer’s grain engine is one of the most advanced tools available for replicating the unique texture of film grain. Unlike many other software programs that simply overlay grain onto an image, Dehancer incorporates the grain into the image itself, affecting the smallest details differently depending on the light and shadow areas—just like real film.
One of the most remarkable features of Dehancer’s grain tool is the range of grain presets it offers. These presets are tailored to different film types and ISO ratings, from 35mm film at ISO 50, 250, and 500 to the much grainier look of 8mm film at ISO 500. Each grain setting closely mimics the real-world characteristics of the respective film stock, allowing you to choose the appropriate level of grain based on your creative needs. For example, a 35mm ISO 50 film will show very fine, almost imperceptible grain, while an 8mm ISO 500 film will feature much more pronounced and textured grain, adding a tactile, vintage feel to the image.
Dehancer also provides the ability to adjust grain parameters manually, giving you full control over its intensity, size, and impact in highlights, midtones, and shadows. This customization allows you to either subtly enhance texture or go for a highly textured, gritty look, depending on the image and desired aesthetic. You can see an example below:
Dehancer Grain Presets from left to right: 35mm film ISO 50, 250 and 500 and 8mm film ISO 500
Color Grain and Dye Clouds
In addition to black-and-white grain, Dehancer also supports color grain, which is particularly important for simulating color negative film. In color films, the grain comes from the dye clouds that form during the development process. These dye clouds are responsible for the colored speckles seen in analog images, especially in low-light conditions or high-ISO films. Dehancer replicates this by introducing colored grain that varies across the image, helping to create a more authentic and immersive film look. You can see this very well in the last image of the series above, the simulation of 8mm film.
The inclusion of color grain is especially useful for emulating the more complex characteristics of films like Kodak Gold 200 or Kodak Vision3, where the color layers create a distinct, rich texture. By adding color grain, you can achieve the soft, organic quality that is a hallmark of color negative film and create an image that feels truly analog.
Halation Simulation
CineStill Film popularized the look of halation—those red halos that appear around high-contrast edges, especially in night scenes with artificial light. In film, halation occurs when light passes through the film emulsion and reflects back, affecting the red-sensitive layer.
Dehancer’s halation tool allows you to add this effect in a controlled, subtle way, enhancing the realism of the film emulation. However, it’s easy to go overboard. Used sparingly and in the right scenes, halation adds to the believability of the image. Overuse, on the other hand, can make the image feel unnatural. In the series of night images shown below, I exaggerated this effect a bit to make it more obvious.
Bloom Effect
The bloom effect, often confused with a simple glow, results from the dispersion of bright light around contrasting edges, amplified by the film’s emulsion layers. It’s strongest in overexposed areas and gently diffuses into adjacent zones. This effect is critical in creating a convincing analog feel, and Dehancer’s bloom feature captures it beautifully.
Used alongside halation, bloom helps make your images feel more organic, adding depth and a cinematic quality that’s hard to achieve with digital-only workflows. For me, this feature alone is a standout and a big reason to consider Dehancer.
Unique Random Imperfection Simulation
Dehancer also offers tools to simulate imperfections like film borders, dust, scratches, and lens vignetting. These details can add an extra layer of realism, but in my experience, they can sometimes feel artificial. The vignette tool, however, is more useful, and the other imperfections might serve a specific purpose for creative projects, but I personally didn’t use them much.
Kodak Vision 250D and Kodak 2383 Print Film with strong halation and bloom effects
Comparing Film Profiles
Dehancer offers an impressive range of film profiles, allowing photographers to choose from various iconic film stocks. To highlight this, let’s compare four different presets—Ilford XP2 Super 400, Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Vision3 50D printed on Kodak 2383 print film, and Agfacolor 100F—to demonstrate the vast creative potential and variety in film emulation.
Ilford XP2 Super 400
Ilford XP2 Super 400 is a C-41 black-and-white film known for its fine grain and high contrast, making it ideal for portraits, street photography, and high-contrast scenes. In Dehancer, this profile replicates the deep blacks and bright highlights characteristic of the film, along with a subtle grain structure that enhances texture without overpowering the image. Despite being monochrome, XP2 Super 400 retains a modern feel, and with Dehancer’s tools, you can fine-tune its contrast and grain for a highly customizable black-and-white emulation.
Kodak Gold 200
Kodak Gold 200 is a classic consumer-grade color film, popular for its warm tones and saturated colors. Dehancer’s emulation of this film brings out its nostalgic feel, with slightly heightened reds and yellows, which are perfect for landscapes, portraits, or lifestyle photography. It excels in daylight but can also handle moderate lighting conditions, offering vivid, nostalgic color rendering that’s true to the original film stock. This film profile appeals to photographers looking for that sunny, retro look that is still widely cherished today.
Kodak Vision3 50D Printed on Kodak 2383 Print Film
The combination of Kodak Vision3 50D (a cinema film stock) with Kodak 2383 print film offers a completely different aesthetic, drawing inspiration from the world of motion pictures. Vision3 50D is a low ISO, daylight-balanced film known for its subtle colors, wide dynamic range, and clean, detailed rendering, making it perfect for outdoor scenes. When combined with the Kodak 2383 print film profile in Dehancer, it adds the cinematic qualities of a rich, contrasty print. This combination brings a timeless, cinematic feel to still images, enhancing color contrast and adding a subtle “bloom” to highlights that evokes the atmosphere of classic Hollywood films.
This combination demonstrates Dehancer’s ability to bridge the gap between cinema and photography, providing photographers with the tools to evoke powerful, cinematic emotions in their work.
Agfacolor 100F
Agfacolor 100F, known for its vibrant colors and sharpness, is a less commonly seen film stock but offers a distinctive, almost vintage color palette. The blues and greens are particularly vibrant, making it ideal for landscapes and travel photography. Dehancer’s profile captures this unique color balance, offering an alternative to the more widely used Kodak or Fuji films. Agfacolor 100F has a slightly cooler tone than Kodak Gold 200, making it an excellent choice for scenes where you want to emphasize freshness or a cool, crisp look.
Variety and Flexibility with Print Emulations
What makes Dehancer stand out is the incredible variety of combinations you can create by mixing film profiles with different print film emulations. For instance, pairing Kodak Vision 3 50D with Kodak 2383 print film creates a cinematic feel, while Kodak Gold 200 printed on Fuji 3513 can introduce subtle shifts in color balance and contrast for a more nuanced look.
With so many options, Dehancer allows you to explore countless creative possibilities, from warm, nostalgic tones to cool, cinematic vibes. The flexibility to combine different film stocks with print profiles offers photographers an expansive toolkit, making it possible to craft highly personalized looks for any project or mood.
By allowing these combinations, Dehancer gives you the freedom to experiment, ensuring that you’re not confined to one aesthetic, but can build a signature style that mixes the best of both classic analog and modern digital workflows.
Comparison with Other Film Simulation Tools
How does Dehancer differ from popular Lightroom presets like Mastin Labs or RNI? Essentially, Dehancer takes a different approach. While presets rely on Lightroom’s built-in tools, Dehancer offers a comprehensive toolkit for building a look from the ground up. It includes effects like halation, bloom, grain, and print simulation—all in one interface.
The most notable difference lies in how Dehancer profiles are created. Unlike other presets, which are often based on scanned film, Dehancer’s profiles are derived from darkroom prints, leading to a more nuanced, organic result.
Dehancer is ideal for photographers who want to create a customized, highly detailed analog look. However, photographers who work with large batches of images—like wedding or editorial photographers—might find that presets are more efficient. That said, there’s no reason you couldn’t use both. For example, you could apply a Mastin Labs preset to simulate the look of a Frontier scanner, then use Dehancer to fine-tune with its advanced grain and bloom tools.
Practical Tips for Using Dehancer
In order to help you to get the best out of Dehancer I decided to share some tips I have learned when using the software for the review. Unfortunately, Dehancer doesn’t yet support RAW files, so you’ll need to prepare your images in Lightroom before sending them to Dehancer as 16-bit TIFF files. Here are the settings I recommend:
Profile: Adobe Standard
Exposure and white balance: Adjust for neutral tones
Curve: Linear
Sharpening: 0
Noise Reduction: 0
Color Space: sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Bit Depth: 16-bit
I prefer a less processed starting point before working with Dehancer, so I keep my adjustments minimal before exporting.
Quick Tips:
Work in the order the tools are presented, starting with film profiles.
Adjust tonal contrast in the print module, then refine with the expansion module.
Stick to logical decisions—replicate a real analog process but don’t be afraid to get creative.
Working in Series
Dehancer makes it easy to create cohesive image series. Each time you load a new image, it begins from the settings used in the previous image, which helps maintain consistency. However, it’s always a good idea to save your looks as presets. This way, you can apply the same adjustments while fine-tuning each image according to its unique lighting and tonal needs.
Kodak Gold 200 on Kodak Endura Paper
Dehancer iphone App
Dehancer also offers a mobile app for iOS, bringing its powerful film emulation tools to the iPhone. One of the standout features is the precise matching of film profiles to the iPhone camera, ensuring that the emulations are as accurate and realistic as possible, with excellent looks comparable to those from the desktop version.
The app includes almost the same set of tools as the desktop application, making it an easy and accessible way to apply analog film simulations directly on your iPhone. It’s designed to be user-friendly, working seamlessly with photos stored on your iPhone, and allowing you to create and save your own custom presets for quick and consistent edits.
An additional advantage of the Dehancer iOS app is its ability to handle video editing. This feature allows you to apply the same film profiles and effects to your video footage, giving mobile filmmakers the opportunity to create cinematic, film-like videos with ease. The inclusion of this capability makes the app an excellent tool for those looking to extend their film emulation workflow to both photography and videography on the go.
However, like the desktop version, the iOS app does not support RAW editing, which limits your ability to work with RAW image files. Additionally, the app doesn’t allow you to modify the original image file—each edit results in a new export, which can clutter your iPhone’s photo library if you’re editing multiple images. Unfortunately, there is no iPad app available yet, which might be a drawback for users who prefer a larger screen for editing.
The app operates on a subscription-based pricing model, starting at €6.99 weekly, €9.99 monthly, or €99.99 yearly. This may be a consideration for users deciding between the mobile and desktop versions.
Despite these minor limitations, the Dehancer iOS app is a powerful tool for photographers and videographers who want to apply high-quality film emulations on the go, offering a convenient way to experiment with film looks and cinematic effects on your iPhone.
Final Thoughts
Film emulation software like Dehancer is a powerful creative tool. It gives photographers access to a wide range of film profiles, encouraging experimentation and allowing you to explore different visual moods without physically switching film stocks. With consistent use, these profiles can help you develop a recognizable, cohesive style across your body of work.
Summary
Price and License Options
Dehancer offers several licensing options, ranging from a three-month license at $69 to a lifetime license at $199. While the price might be a concern for some, especially hobbyists, it’s important to remember that Dehancer is a professional tool used in high-end productions. The investment is worthwhile if it becomes an integral part of your workflow.
Pros:
Exceptional film profiles
Outstanding grain engine
Halation and bloom effects
Complete analog workflow emulation
Subtractive color model
Creative freedom with cinema and print film LUTs
Neutral:
Different approach from scanned film presets like Mastin Labs or RNI
Imperfection simulation still feels a bit artificial in some areas but is very useful for certain use cases
Cons:
No RAW file support
Time-intensive for large batches of images
Limited output options
No real non-destructive editing
Conclusion
Dehancer is a highly recommended tool for photographers interested in exploring the rich aesthetics of film and developing a unique visual style. Its high level of authenticity and creative flexibility make it an excellent choice for those looking to achieve an analog look without the need to shoot physical film. However, it may not be the best option for photographers handling large batches of images, as the time-intensive nature of applying individual film emulations can slow down the workflow.
What sets Dehancer apart from other film emulation tools is its exceptional ability to replicate the true colors and characteristics of real film, providing a level of authenticity rarely seen in digital alternatives. For photographers aiming to shape their artistic identity and craft a distinctive style, Dehancer is a strong contender, offering the creative freedom to stand out in a crowded field.