How it works

What happens to your photo, in order

  1. Rotation — the frame is tilted slightly before anything else happens
  2. Optics — simulates what a real lens does: soft focus, camera shake blur, edge distortion, and corner darkening
  3. Film emulsion — adds light bloom and halation (the warm glow that bleeds around bright areas)
  4. Chemistry — applies the film's tonal character: contrast curve, colour response, highlight clipping
  5. Grain — added last, on top of everything, sharp and never smoothed out

Black & white conversion

When converting to mono, the engine weighs the colour channels the way Kodak Tri-X film does — slightly favouring reds, then greens, then blues.

Optical accidents

Base frames are pin-sharp. Imperfections are probabilistic — each one has a chance of firing on any given shot:

EffectChanceIntensity
Corner darkening70%mild always, heavy sometimes
Bloom40%subtle always, strong sometimes
Camera shake15%slight always, pronounced sometimes
Frame tilt15%barely-there always, noticeable sometimes
Halation glow15%faint always, vivid sometimes
Edge smear15%slight always, strong sometimes
Focus miss15%off by default, soft when active

Film character guarantee

Every frame is checked for three qualities: grain presence, movement, and contrast. If none are showing, one is quietly raised to a noticeable level. If only one is present, there is a 75% chance a second joins it. This ensures no frame ever comes out looking like a clean digital photo.