Photographer’s New App Gives Digital Photos a Realistic Analog Appearance

Feb 12, 2026

Jeremy Gray

A split image shows a rocky beach with driftwood, a tunnel entrance with a single car, and a snowy mountain landscape with a lake and pine trees.

Back in late 2022, PetaPixel wrote about photographer Tom Schucker’s Pieca camera, a 3D-printed Raspberry Pi-powered camera with a Leica M-mount. Schucker is back with yet another awesome photography creation, but this time it’s a photo editing app built around advanced film simulation effects.

Wholegrain is available now and includes a fairly robust suite of editing tools, advanced effects, over 50 film simulations, and custom presets. The full list of simulations is available on Schucker’s website, Tea and Tech Time, but some highlights include Fujifilm Provia, Superia, and Velvia, Kodak Ektachrome and Portra, Rollei IR 400, and much more. While all the film simulations have been specifically tuned for iPhone photos, Schucker notes that they will work on any digital photos, regardless of the camera used.

A photo editing app shows a house with four different color filters: red, black-and-white, blue, and orange. Editing options and filter thumbnails are visible at the bottom of the screen.

Side-by-side comparison of a white house with a porch and stairs, surrounded by green grass and yellow flowers, under a clear blue sky; the left image appears sharper, while the right image looks slightly hazy. — Before (left) and after editing (right)

Each film simulation, along with available creative simulations like bleach bypass, “summer vibes,” and “expired green,” has adjustable parameters that let photographers dial in the perfect look. Users can tweak things like grain size, intensity, and color, for example. There are also halation and bloom tools, each with various control settings. Then there are standard photo editing sliders, such as white balance, shadows, vignette, and more. Once a photographer makes their perfect look, they can save their edits as a recipe in the app.

Schucker notes that Wholegrain’s film grain algorithm and color processing are both custom and, based on the sample images the photographer provided, are also very good. The app lets photographers achieve realistic film grain results.

Black and white photo of a tropical landscape with tall palm trees, thick foliage, scattered rocks, and a partly cloudy sky, creating a dramatic and serene scene.

A grassy landscape with rolling green hills under a bright blue sky scattered with fluffy white clouds. Two small bushes are visible in the open field.

A car enters a tunnel beneath a large Art Deco building with red-tiled roof towers and tall windows, set against a clear blue sky.

A row of two-story red brick industrial buildings with large windows and various business signs at sunset, casting warm light and long shadows on the exterior. There are potted plants and a stop sign in front.

A snowy mountain landscape with red-tinted trees surrounds a deep blue lake under a clear blue sky, with distant snow-covered peaks in the background.

A dark car is parked outside a brightly lit laundromat at night. The sign above reads "teddy bear WASH • DRY," and rows of washing machines and chairs are visible through the glass windows.

Vintage is very trendy right now, but there is also a broader push among mobile photographers to capture smartphone images that look less like typical smartphone shots. With typical smartphone image processing and built-in camera apps, photos often look overly digital, unrealistically sharp, and have excessive dynamic range. An app like Wholegrain helps push back against that modern digital “look.” More and more photographers, regardless of the camera they use, are embracing imperfections. That’s what Wholegrain is all about, but now photographers get to control and fine-tune these imperfections.

View of a rocky shoreline with waves crashing against the rocks, green and reddish coastal plants in the foreground, and a cloudy sky above the ocean in the background.

A large rocky formation rises by the ocean at a sandy beach scattered with driftwood and small debris under a cloudy sky.

A sandy beach at sunset with a colorful sky, calm ocean, distant hills, and a blue lifeguard tower on the right. Silhouettes of people and palm trees are visible in the background.

A golden retriever stands with its front paws on a wooden fence, looking out in front of a white house with a blue door and two black wall lanterns.

A statue of a woman holding an object stands by the water, with boats, docks, and a shoreline lined with buildings and trees in the background at sunset.

A street sign with "TURK" and "000 →" in bold letters is shown against the backdrop of a beige building with several windows and a blue sky.

A "Do Not Enter" sign stands at the corner of a city street near a building labeled "214 Sutter Street." Sunlight casts sharp shadows on the sidewalk and building facades. The street is empty.

A modern airport control tower with a cylindrical base and a distinctive top structure featuring orange and gray panels, set against a clear blue sky.

A vintage blue taxi with checkered trim drives down a tree-lined city street on a cloudy day. The photo has a soft, nostalgic filter.

Wholegrain is available to download now for free. To unlock all features, including all the film simulations and high-resolution exports, users must have the Pro version of the app. The Pro upgrade is $5.99.