After completely uninstalling FP 7 from my system and removing the folders where it had been installed I was surprised to find that all the film emulation presets and ‘extra features’ such as luminosity masks and borders are still available in PL8. I think I have located them:
I wonder how they got there? Did PL8 find them and suck them in when it installed? Or when I installed FP7 (in one of my repeated efforts to get it to work) it installed them, (despite saying it could not find a host application). Or - and I hazard a guess this is it - they are part of the default PL8 install anyway and just function because there is a license on my system somewhere?
Also - when I installed FP7 (or tried to) after installing PL8 I was surprised that it did not find PL8 as a ‘host applicaton’. Is this expected?
You are correct. The FilmPack and Viewpoint features are already built into PhotoLab but are hidden unless you have licenses to those software titles. Once the FilmPack license and/or Viewpoint license has been activated the features for both those software titles are unhidden and available from within PhotoLab.
The standalone versions of FilmPack and Viewpoint do not need to be installed to accomplish this. Most PhotoLab users don’t seem to bother with installing the standalone versions of those two titles. The main purpose of the standalone version of FilmPack or Viewpoint is for those users who do not have a license for PhotoLab.
That said, there are a few features that only exist in the standalone version of FilmPack - they aren’t in PhotoLab with FilmPack activated. The channel mixer in PhotoLab has six channels. FilmPack’s has eight.
I think the Channel Mixer in FP7 standalone has six channels, not eight. It is active only if you convert to B&W.
The FP7 Hue has eight sliders for hue shifts (active only in color mode), which correspond to turning HSL wheel in the same eight hue ranges of PL HSL.
In PL Channel Mixer is applied before Rendering actions (acts like a lens color filter), which are followed by HSL, hence PL HSL doesn’t do anything in PL B&W mode. For the same reason FP Hue is inactive in FP B&W mode. PL HSL is much “richer” than FP Hue.
@mwsilvers Thanks. That is what I would expect. But - what happens if, say, I upgraded to FP8 (from FP7) and that includes new emulations? How would PL know about these? Would I need to install FilmPack to somehow get the new emulation presets?
Also - while, as you say, you can basically get the emulations from within PL - I think (but can’t now see) that there is a customise tab in FilmPack - where you can tweak the emulation? I don’t think this is available in PL?
A new version of FilmPack will always be implemented after an update, or upgrade to PhotoLab so that PhotoLab includes any new embedded FilmPack features. That means that the most current version of PhotoLab will have those embedded updates in advance. The previous version of PhotoLab and most probably the version of PhotoLab two generations back will also be updated with the new FilmPack features.
As an example, when PhotoLab is upgraded to version 9 sometime this coming autumn, if there is also a planned upgrade to FilmPack 8, it will be implemented afterwards so that PhotoLab will already contain the new embedded features. There would also be an update to PhotoLab 8, and most likely PhotoLab 7, with new camera and lens support in addition to the new FilmPack embedded features. Based on previous upgrade cycles, earlier versions of PhotoLab, in this case version 6 and before, would not be updated and the new features of an upgraded FilmPack would not be available in those versions of PhotoLab.
With regards to ‘tweaking’ the emulations in the Filmpack’s customize tab, what do you believe you can change in FilmPack that you can’t also change in PhotoLab?
(Copied from the docs as I can’t install FP at the moment). Are you saying that all these settings e.g. exposure, highlights etc. are the same sliders as in the basic adjustment tab in PL? I was thinking that they were tweaking the camera rendering being applied - and thus different from the main PL sliders.
Every one of the FilmPack features in your snapshot, and more, are available in PhotoLab with a current FilmPack 7 license. However, they are not all grouped in one place and are instead located along with other related PhotoLab features. It is all integrated into one cohesive whole. The FilmPack standalone contains a number of similar features as PhotoLab so that some users can completely develop their images without using other software.
The FilmPack standalone contains some similar features as PhotoLab so that users can completely develop their images in it without using other software. However, it is a very limited subset.
