Dehancer Review: The Secret to a Real Film Look?
Updated: Aug 20
Is this the secret to getting a real film look on your photos and video?
Dehancer is a film emulation plugin built by a company that has spent years studying actual film stocks and refining the software around them. It runs in Premiere, Photoshop and Lightroom, and there's a phone app too, which means you can carry one aesthetic across everything you shoot.
Disclosure: Dehancer provided the plugin for this review. They have absolutely no say in what I say here, and I cover the downsides below. The discount code is an affiliate code, so using it supports the channel at no extra cost to you.
What Dehancer is
Detail | |
Type | Film emulation plugin |
Works with | Premiere, Photoshop, Lightroom, plus a phone app |
Install | Genuinely simple, no finagling |
Pricing | Subscription or lifetime, priced separately per program |
Individual effects | Yes, you can buy just film grain or just halation |
Discount | ZEFI10 for 10% off |
Working in Premiere
I put this through a set of clips from Niagara Falls, mostly static, center-framed shots that were practically begging for film treatment. Most were shot in S-Log3 on a Sony A7R V.
Input panel
Choose your camera and apply conversion LUTs here if you need them.
Important: Adobe's recent versions convert S-Log3 to Rec 709 automatically, so leave Dehancer set to Rec 709 rather than converting twice. This is the easiest thing to get wrong.
You also get initial camera settings here, colour temperature, tint and a few others.
Film panel
This is where it gets fun. Pick a film stock, and there are so many that it's genuinely overwhelming. There's a push and pull slider, and you can see immediately what the stock is doing to the image.
Film developer panel
Now you're into how the film is developed after the stock is chosen: contrast boost, gamma correction, colour boost.
Worth knowing: the stock presets tend to be quite low contrast. That's a legitimate look, but I usually want more contrast than stock gives me.
Film grain
Emulate different formats and ISO ranges, from 65mm down to 8mm. Every panel can be enabled and disabled independently.
Halation and bloom, my two favourites
These are the ones that actually sell the effect.
Halation adds slight halos around edges. By modern standards that's an error, something you'd avoid in camera. Being able to add it deliberately in post is exactly what gives an image character.
Bloom softens highlights.
Here's why this matters practically. I shoot with a Pro-Mist filter to take the edge off digital sharpness, because old film simply looked smoother and more natural. Doing this in post means I may not need to carry that filter at all, and I don't have to think about step-up and step-down rings for different thread sizes.
Film damage, overscan, vignette
Film damage digitally ages the footage with the kind of imperfections we've all grown fond of.
Overscan is popular as a creative effect, and it's a strong one. Use it intentionally. There are different scans to mimic.
There's also a vignette tool and an overall impact slider for the whole image.
Workflow tips
Copy and paste your settings between clips
Apply it to an adjustment layer to treat an entire sequence at once
Play with aspect ratio if you really want to push the older look
Working in Lightroom and Photoshop
Lightroom converts to a TIFF and creates a separate file, so nothing is destructive and your originals are untouched.
Make your exposure adjustments before you jump into Dehancer. I'd recommend getting the image roughly where you want it first.
The Lightroom and Photoshop implementation has one big advantage over Premiere: you can see each film stock previewed down the side. In Premiere you're scrolling a small panel with no preview, which is annoying. Seeing full examples of what each stock will do is far better, and I wish Premiere worked this way.
Photoshop behaves the same as Lightroom.
Pros
Excellent results straight out of the box. The presets are dialled in enough that you often feel done immediately
No physical filters required. You don't have to rub Vaseline on a thousand dollar lens to emulate film
You can revitalise old footage. Anything you've already shot can be reworked
An overwhelming number of film stocks. If you can't find something here, you're too picky
Deep control over every setting. Even the parameters I never touch feel freeing to have
Easy install, which is not true of every plugin
It emulates film better than most alternatives I've tried
Cons
It's GPU intensive. My laptop fans spun up hard during this, and exports in Premiere take noticeably longer than without it. That's true of most plugins and especially a graphics-heavy one. Manageable, but it depends on your machine
The photo and video plugins aren't consistent. I'd like the Premiere panel to show stock previews the way Lightroom does
It's expensive. There's a subscription option if you'd rather finance it, though that's indefinite, and a lifetime option that costs more up front. It's also priced separately per program
Is Dehancer worth it?
If you're looking for a serious way to emulate film, especially after the fact, I think it's one of the best plugins available. It's particularly good if you shoot both photo and video and want one coherent aesthetic across both, and the phone app extends that to everything else you post.
The price is the real barrier. If you only want one effect, buying just film grain or just halation is a reasonable way in.
Get Dehancer and use code ZEFI10 for 10% off.
FAQ
What is Dehancer?
A film emulation plugin for Premiere, Photoshop and Lightroom, built on years of studying real film stocks. There's also a phone app.
Is there a Dehancer discount code?
Yes, ZEFI10 gets you 10% off. It's an affiliate code.
Does Dehancer slow down exports?
Yes. It's GPU intensive and exports take longer, though how much depends on your hardware.
Should I convert my log footage before using Dehancer?
No, not twice. Recent Adobe versions already convert S-Log3 to Rec 709, so set Dehancer to Rec 709 rather than doing the conversion again.
Is Dehancer destructive to my photos?
No. In Lightroom it creates a separate TIFF and leaves your original untouched.
Can I buy just one Dehancer effect?
Yes. You can buy individual effects such as film grain or halation on their own if that's all you need.
Does Dehancer replace a Pro-Mist filter?
For a lot of situations, yes. Halation and bloom do in post what a diffusion filter does in camera, and you avoid carrying filters and matching thread sizes.
Final thoughts
Great results fast, an overwhelming stock library, and the two effects that matter most, halation and bloom, done properly. It's expensive and it'll work your GPU, but it does the job better than most.
Have you tried Dehancer? What did you think, and are there other plugins I should look at? Let me know in the comments.
My editing desk setup
From this video’s description. These are affiliate links, so buying through them supports the channel at no extra cost to you.
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