The Home of the Hybrid Photographer

Alright, it’s been a while since the last preset release, but most of this WordPress switch is over and it is time to get to putting some material back out again! Today I bring you another preset, this time simulating the old, cheap Polaroid High Definition 200 35mm film that could once be found on the shelves of Wal-Mart in the USA.  I really want to say that this film was actually manufactured by 3M, but I am not sure.   Look close on the sample above, the look similare at first glance, but if you look close, the right side is noticably different. It is subtle, but it is there.

This preset was devloped from a roll of film that was found in the bottom of a closet earlier this year.  It had probably sat for years before ever getting loaded in my Minolta X-700 and I am estimating that it had expired in the late 90′s or early 2000′s.  Anyways, after I scanned in the roll of film, I found it had a strong blue cast to it.  Normally I create the preset as scanned, but I decided I would go ahead an release a corrected version, trying for that original show room floor look.  I will be releasing the “expired” version of this film soon as well.

Anyways, the download is below, I hope you enjoy it.  Be warned, the reds can be hars on skin tones of those with blemishes, so if that is an issue lower the saturation of the red channel in your image.  As you apply this preset to more images, you will see more of the difference it can make on an image.

Hopefully some one enjoys this preset.

Anyways, if you have not noticed, I have been writing on an almost weekly basis over at X-Equals.  Normally I have an article up on Brandon’s blog on Thursdays, but this week we have been working on something special.  Tomorrow Brandon is launching his new X-Equals+Digest, a twice a month e-mail digest serving up new content not seen on the X-Equals website, and I am a major contributor to his efforts.  Sign up for his new digest here, doing so will provide you with exclusive content available only to his subscribers and you wil be helping me out as well as I am heavily involved in helping him with this project.  If you sign up soon you will get an all-new preset designed by me when the digest goes live tomorrow.  So sign up, you will be doing a good thing!

Until next time (which will be sooner than last time)

Michael

Today, in association with X=blog, LifeInDigitalFilm presents two film emulation presets featuring my new Holga effect. Today’s download consists of my Kodak Kodachrome 25 and Kodak Panatomic X presets with the new Holga effect built right in.

When using these presets on normal dSLR images, without cropping, these presets are ready to rock. If you want the classic square cropping of a Holga with 120 film, simply change the Post-Crop Vignette Roundness from +33 to 0.

If you want to get the Holga effect in a preset of its own, hop over to X=blog. Brandon’s site is the exclusive home to my Holga-effect preset. It is ready to stack ontop of any of my presets, or any other preset you want a Holga-look applied to. Refer to yesterday’s tutorial on modifying presets to combine the Holga effect with any other preset into a brand new preset.

Currently the Holga effect and Holga-treated presets are only available for Lightroom. I am working on a method by which to use them in ACR, and will update when available. For now, enjoy with Lightroom.

[NOTE: I figured out a work-around to use the Holga Base preset in ACR. It is live over at X=blog. I am not going to release the Holga+Film presets for ACR due to the extra step involved to complete the effect. If you want Holga+Film effects in ACR, grad the Holga set at X=, follow the install instructions. Then get the desired film presets here and install. In ACR apply athe film preset first, then the Holga BAse, finally goto the Graduated Filter menu and add the Holga Base Gradient. This will stack the Holga Effect over the desire film preset.]

Until later,

Michael

Recently a friend of mine was over at my house, discussing film emulation. As he was getting ready to leave, he asked me if I had any E-6 I needed processed, as he does his own and his chemistry is getting a tad old. I said I didn’t have any E-6, but if he was getting rid of the chemistry soon anyways, as he no longer shoots film, he could run some c-41 print film through the slide process. He had never done it before, but he went ahead and took four rolls of C-41 film from me to process.

Well a few days ago, he got the film back to me. Fuji 160C was one of the films he cross-processed, and it turned out to give some really wild results. Almost unusable for my purposes, but it has an edge, especially if there are no people in your image.

See, the processing looks great, interesting color-shifts, green going a touch neon; perfect for some creative landscape or artistic animal work. But is just does not work for humans, as it turns any skin tone a funky shade of yellow. I do not like the look on skin. That is not to say that you might not like it, or may find a way to make it work in an image, its just I don’t think I can.

So if you see a possibility for it, download it and take it for a spin. Let me know if you can make anything out of it.

There will be more upcoming C-41 to E-6 cross processes upcoming, most less harsh than this one. Also I have some revisits upcoming, where I shoot another roll of an already emulated film and emulate it again. Be it a different expiration date, different developer or just different conditions at time of test shots. I try to emulate any roll I shoot, and if they are good enough, they will make it here. Worst case scenario, you have 5 different Tri-X presets to choose from, but choice should never be a problem.

Back soon with Part 2 of the Presets series

Until Then,

Michael

Sorry for the delay in new content, sometimes the unexpected occurs and you don’t have a back-up plan. Good news is, I am back up and running. $50 bucks bought a new hard drive, and after 3 nights of fighting to get WinXP SP3 up and running, I gave up and instead dropped on the Windows 7 beta on my main machine. Turned out to be the best thing I have done in a while. If this is the sign of what Microsoft has planned for Windows, I may not migrate to Mac after all. I have always preferred to run a Linux or BSD machine as my main machine, but how 7 feels, I think I can actually stand to run Windows again…but I will let you know what I really think in a month or two, after the system has time to get bogged down. That is where Windows traditionally fails, I am hoping 7 shows to be more reliable in the long run.

Anyways, I have one of the presets I rescued from the crash for you today. Today I continue the collection of Forte films that I started releasing a week ago. Today I preset to you Forte Fortepan 100. I hope you enjoy it.

Sorry I don’t have anything else today, I am still trying to get ramped back up on making more content for LIDF, and I had some other obligations to fulfill also. I have a guest post coming up on X-Equals soon on the topic of sharpening in Lightroom. Keep checking Brandon’s site for that, as it should be up later this week.

Until tomorrow,

Michael

Well, Friday seems like a good day for a new preset. Thank goodness it’s the weekend now, as I have three days in which to get my current load of presets completed. I’m running low on ready stock and need to get my current batch done. But that’s not what you are here for now, is it?

Today I bring you an emulation of another fine film from Foma. Today’s release is on their “low-speed” Fomapan 100 Classic. It is similar to Fomapan Creative in many ways, with a slightly different tone profile and a finer grain.

I hope you find the emulation enjoyable. I will be back tomorrow with more content of some sort, most likely not a preset, but something more informative (as I have to get more presets ready to roll).

Until then,

Michael