Question
I use digital for the convenience aspect of it, but sometimes I take a picture and can't help thinking that the soft, slightly "faded", washed-out look would be nice. How would I go about getting such an effect in post-processing, and what (if any) in-camera settings are required to do a good job?
Answer
The answer you don't like - out of all the digitally added film effects I've tried (and I've tried many along with actually shooting film) none really come close. That is not a scientific type of knowledge, but rather an impression. So if you really really want film look, you'll end up shooting film and even then, you'll most probably be disappointed on how far your results are from the film icons.
In many cases what is perceived as the film effect is not just a film effect, but photographer's creative vision put into right film choice and shooting technique plus the specifics of the emulsion plus photographer's editing. Harald Mante's Kodachromes are worlds apart from Steve McCurry's Kodachromes (again, personal impression based on the books, can't provide a reference).
The answer you might find useful - Nik Software's Color Efex Pro plugin contains many color film emulations and their Silver Efex Pro contains B&W film emulations. Other than that, DXO FilmPack also has pretty decent choice of films. These are the ones I've tried myself and can recommend, although this is not a guarantee of realistic rendering. Based on just web examples, Alien Skin Software's Exposure also looks interesting (I'm looking forward to try out their Kodachrome emulation).
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