Tag Archive for: analogue

Different looks for different moods

In the old times we choose the filmrol for the look we wanted, now a days everything is of course digital and although I still love to shoot with film my workflow is 99% digital. I do however always say that “In my workflow I’m a 99% digital photographer, however in my heart I’m a 100% analogue photographer”, now why do I tell you this today?

 

When I look at my digital files I always feel something’s missing.
They are not bad, or looking weird, but they are just a bit “too” perfect, I know it sounds weird from a guy teaching to use the color checker and light meter however do realize that these tools are just to get the basis right, from this basis I always build up to the final look.

ALL the images you see from me are in one or another form tinted.
The last few years I’ve been mainly using the awesome DxO filmpack for this but since the release of Alien Skin Exposure X I have to be honest I’m more and more switching “back” to Alien skin, the X release is just really nice. If you already have filmpack… don’t upgrade (unless you want to) but if you don’t have any tinting plugin yet make sure to check out Alien Skin Exposure X (follow this link for a cool discount).

 

But what does tinting do?
To show you this and also to let you see my thought process I included 4 images from a session we did with Nadine in 4 different looks, it’s the same image, the only thing I changed are the colors, judge for yourself which one you like the best 😀

Nadine Januari 6 2016 1352 BW

Nadine Januari 6 2016 1352 SC

Nadine Januari 6 2016 1352

As you can see 4 totally different looks with different “feelings”.
I would normally just go through some presets I created and sometimes it just fits, but there is more….

 

If you shoot a commercial series it’s very important to keep the look constant, in other words use the same preset for all your images, now you also understand why it’s important to keep that basis correct, because if the basis is the same/correct the preset will give you the same results.

 

To make sure you select the right preset I would advise to try out your favorite preset on a few images and if they look awesome that’s the preset to use, however very often a really cool preset can look awesome on Photo 1 but terrible on Photo 2, often you will quickly see what the “problem” is, it’s better to select a different preset than that fits great for all images.
For commercial shoots I will also normally show a few images in a black and white conversion I really like, this way the client can always choose and making sure the clients gets a lot to choose from means that they will order more prints, but you will actually have a bigger chance they will hire you again because you give them a lot to choose from.

 

So the next time you’re done with your image…. and you think it’s perfect….. run it through a tinting plugin and I’m sure you will be very surprised 😀

New York in BW Leica R

During our stay in New York I shot some images with the Yashica Mat 124 which I shared on the blog a few days ago, however I also shot one roll of Kodak 400 BW in my Leica R camera. Today some of my favorite shots from this roll, scanned with the Reflecta MF5000 and Silverfast Studio Ai.

 

NY  (2)

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Some more film from NY

Last week I showed some BW material from the Yashica Mat 124, today it’s time for some color images I shot during our visit in New York.

New York April Mei 2014 E6 Yashica (2 of 18)

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New York in BW

During our stay in Atlanta I bought a new camera for myself.
As you all know I love analogue photography and vintage cameras, I don’t call myself a collector but if I see something cool I will try to grab it, if it’s not too expensive. Most of the cameras I have in the studio are bought on flea markets and can still shoot but ….. well they are not great cameras. I will often shoot the RZ67ProII and 645 with film backs (normally digital) but let’s be honest you don’t take those on the streets during a trip. So I wanted something small but still medium format and it had to have a meter (I don’t want to bother with a meter on the street). During a visit to a camera store in Atlanta (the camera doctor) I found a mint Yashica Mat 124 and fell in love with the camera. I did shoot 2 rolls of films with it during a visit to the Old car city in Atlanta but New York was the real testing ground.

 

The images I share today are still in the testing phase, I have to work up the speed to get the more interesting shots, but it’s cool to see what a camera like this still gives you in terms of resolution and detail. I’m scanning the film with a Reflecta MF5000 which gives you a pretty good resolution, it’s the next best thing to the Nikon Coolscan (which are sold for ridiculous prices). When scanning the resolution of the 6×6 film is app 13000×13000 pixels which seems pretty high, but always remember that the usable resolution is NOT what you scan with, although (especially with BW film) the images come out incredibly sharp for film. In lightroom I always use the 1:3 setting to judge the sharpness of my scans and I can honestly say that the Yashica stunned me, for such a small camera it’s amazing what you get, I guess that the 6×6 film renders something comparable to 40-50mp in digital which is not too shabby 😀

 

But enough of the technical mojo, let’s show the images.
Film : Kodak 400YMT
Scanner : Reflecta MF5000
Camera : Yashica Mat 124

New York April Mei 2014 BW Yashica (1 of 12)

 

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