Film emulation has been a cottage industry in photo editing for over a decade. The tools have gotten significantly better. The conversation about them has not kept pace.
The honest starting point: no digital tool fully replicates the look of film because film look is not primarily a color profile — it is a combination of optical characteristics, chemical grain structure, halation, dynamic range rolloff, and the specific aberrations of the lenses used to shoot it. The best emulation tools capture some of these elements convincingly. None capture all of them simultaneously at the level of accuracy that would fool a practiced eye on a direct comparison.
With that baseline established, the tools that are genuinely worth using: RNI Films (Real Nice Images) has produced some of the most accurate spectral modeling available in a Lightroom-compatible format, particularly for Kodak and Fujifilm stock emulations. VSCO’s film packs, despite being older, hold up well for certain stocks and remain the most practical option for users who want one-click results without fine-tuning. Dehancer, operating as a plugin for both Lightroom and Photoshop, goes the furthest in modeling optical phenomena like halation and gate weave — relevant primarily if you are processing video or want a heavily cinematic result.
Capture One’s built-in film styles have improved meaningfully in recent versions and are underrated relative to their profile in the wider discussion. For users already in the Capture One ecosystem, the native options are worth exhausting before reaching for third-party plugins.
What to avoid: any preset pack marketed primarily on the strength of influencer association rather than technical specification. The good tools describe what they are emulating and how. The marketing tools describe the aesthetic you will achieve. One of those is a useful product description.