I'm using Aperture with Nik Effects plugins (Nik now owned by Google). Part of it is the excellent Silver Effex.
I think their implementation of different film emulations is very good, and some images — even at lower ISO — get some extra spunk with a, say, Fuji Astia or Velvia look on them. Then all different Kodak emulsions, etc. The key is experimentation.
I find such treatments especially good in combination with legacy lenses. Some old K-mount lenses cannot meet all the demands of digital capture, and the images by default look either 'soft' or a bit uncontrolled or the coating is just too old. However, with a film emulation, the image totally transforms itself and I have a feeling like shooting with film again, albeit at ISOs never imaginable before.
Say, ISO 800 would yield in a very grainy look in film, because few colour emulsions can go that high and keep grain fine. But, you take a digital image at ISO 800, which is almost flawless, then apply ISO 100 film grain on it; or ISO 400. The results can be spectacular — something in between digital and film.
Thus I agree with above mentioned statements; direct from camera, very hi ISO images with K7 or even K5, have an artificial looking grain. Sometimes even slight banding is visible. However, if we re-arrange the noise pattern, we can have something quite pleasing and worth experimenting with. Different film filters help enormously — as whole new luminance 'mask' is then applied onto the image, nullifying artificial noise pattern and creating more spontaneous, chaotic, truer silver halide look.
This above is an example taken with K7 and DA15 lens. The original colour image was just an average snap, with big colourful flag hanging from above. Two people's heads also introduced colour next to black car. However, I loved the look of the ca. To emphasize the beautiful car design, I have converted the image to B&W, added just slight toning and 100 ASA Kodachrome emulsion treatment — the chrome and silver details now just pop out, car design is a hero. It's elemental, basic, and I love this treatment much better than original colour.
Here two images below are taken at ISO3200 and with old manual 28mm/2.8 lens. It equals to some 43mm in APS-C. Noise levels on K7 are sky high, images can be beyond repair. But a treatment with just a slight de-noising and applying a film look to destroy digital grain and introduce more organic grain makes it all totally different images. They print beautifully, and the band loved them. Once I found a good formula, with a right feeling, I've applied it across a hundred images.
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If the image is made into B&W, then something else comes to play too — picture design. And that is the magic of B&W images; not only they create less stress on our colour receptors, but our gut instinct and shape recognition impulses thrive. It's mystery.
What other see as digital noise, to me it is not noise, but I see it as creative grain. You can control it by re-arranging it, and then it becomes really powerful expressive tool. And is truly addictive.
Not to mention that one can do the same using the Pentax Q camera. I use both Q and K7, and find film and B&W treatment of the Q images — even at very high ISO — to yield very pleasing results. It's all about thinking outside the box.
Main reason I bought the Q was not its clean low ISO, or my birthday :), or Q's small factor alone; I wanted a smaller, very capable sketching tool. For emotional photographs. To do that, I need to take as many images as possible and be creative, experimental, so the Q was a perfect camera — much better than any fixed lens compact.
This above is taken with Q and 02 zoom lens at 28mm. I was fascinated by glitter of sand and ocean spray and hazed distance — all things I feel, but which colour photograph could not capture — it was too perfectly digitally smooth. Thus B&W and film grain treatment restored my emotional response — the whole scene glitters so much more, and without boundary colours, shapes are dissolving into each other like melted silver, which is exactly how I felt that morning. (Feeling and seeing aren't same)
This picture is also all about design: the land ploughs into the ocean, the ocean equally ploughs into the land. The sky above and beach below reflect each other. We have calm above, then a zig-zag movement in the middle, an outburst of energy, and calm again. Such motifs are popular in landscape painting through times, and here's an example by Hiroshige:
In B&W work, I think I don't need to mention that I'm hugely inspired by works of photography legends such as Robert Frank.
Hope this helps.
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