The Home of the Hybrid Photographer

LR/ACR Preset: Ilford Pan F+, originally uploaded by GrayImaging.

Tonight is the first in my short series of Ilford films. Tonight I bring you the slow but sharp, fine grained Ilford Pan F+. Watch your black clipping and contrast using this preset, as a little too much can really black out shadow highlights.

As always, both Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw preset files are included.

As side notes, I will be redesigning LifeInDigitalFilm over the next few months. I will be moving the blog from Blogspot hosting to another hosting provider when I finally get my business website up. When I do make the hosting switch I will be migrating LIDF to WordPress, which I wish I would have used when I started this mess. The change should allow me to provide a better experience, and the web hosting will allow me to have actual information pages for each film I emulate. So if in the future I have lapses in posts over a day or two, know that I am working on making the site better, not blowing it off.

Also, today I converted a really great preset to ACR. It is x=warm+storm preset, and it throws a really great effect on your image. I ran it on a wedding catalog I have and I had great results. Check it out at x-equals.com/blog. You may have already seen it up at PresetsHeaven, if you have still run over to x-equals, Brandon has included the ACR version of his preset for your enjoyment.

Well, until next time,

Michael

LR/ACR Preset: Kodak Kodachrome 25, originally uploaded by GrayImaging.

Sorry for the few day delay in updates, got more than a few projects in the fire at the moment. I have had this preset complete for quite sometime now, as observant presetters may notice. Tonight is Kodak Kodachrome 25, which I used in my 100 style preset last week as the Koda preset.

It is an emulation of Kodachrome 25, which, in almost every sample I had possesses a very different color curve than its ISO 64 counterpart. That is not a bad thing, as it gives me more to preset. It tends to pound greens a tad harder, while taking it easy on the blues.

Also I would like to let you know that my Convert LR preset to ACR article has been published by Brandon over at x=blog. I completely rewrote the article and even made screenshots [which I never do here :^P (I never use emoticons either { ...or nested comments })]. I feel the post at x= is far superior to my roughly written process I posted a few days ago. Please check it out HERE.

If you have not seen the x=blog, please do so. It is a veritable treasure trove of great photography, processing, computer, and business tips.

LR/ACR Preset Ilford FP4+ , originally uploaded by GrayImaging.

And now for something moderately different:

Today I am presenting my version of Ilford’s mid-speed B&W film FP4+. What is different today is that it is not just a Lightroom preset. Inside the zip file is a folder called “ACR Presets” containing .xmp files for Adobe Camera RAW.

To install .xmp presets simply drop them into the following folder in Windows…(no clue with Mac)

[C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings]

When you open a file with ACR, look on the right side of screen. Below the histogram and above the slider are icons for different RAW controls. The furthest button to the right shows 3 sliders as its icon. Click it to reveal the list of presets installed. Then simply click the preset of choice to apply it. Then teak the image in ACR before you open it into Photoshop.

From now on I will be including an ACR preset with my Lightroom presets. On slow days where I have no new presets, I will update the old releases with their ACR counterparts.

I hope this adds more value to your download and opens up my film emulations to a wider audience. My preset will now be usable on Lightroom and Photoshop [I believe PS Elements also uses ACR, if so it will work on it too...let me know.]

Anyway, FP4+ is a very good, mid-speed film produced by Ilford. I really like it a lot for portraiture, I feel it gives very good skin tones on a variety of skin. I use it quite a bit, and for a 100 ISO range film (125), it is quite good (not quite Fuji Neopan 100 Arcos).

Until next time,
Michael

LR Preset: Polaroid 669, originally uploaded by GrayImaging.

[Adobe Camera RAW presets added 01132009]

Bonus Preset day! Today you can also enjoy my new Polaroid 669 preset, in 3 flavors, plain, warm and cold. The zip include the standard color-balanced preset, a warm toned preset, and a cool toned preset. The color casting was achieved via my normal method of split-toning. For a much more different approach try X=blog’s version of Polaroid HERE also.

I assume you all know about 669 film, and if you don’t, give it a Google. It’s my bonus preset for the day, so I am making this short.

Until Next Time,
Michael

LR Preset: Kodak Kodachrome 64, originally uploaded by GrayImaging.

[Adobe Camera RAW preset added 01132009]

Finally I am back up and online, sorry for the extended absence, but I got a good belated Christmas gift for all of you. My Kodak Kodachrome 64 emulation.

Be warned, this is not as straightforward as most of my other presets. If you are of the school of thought that a preset is the last thing you do to an image, this may not be for you. This preset really needs attention after the preset has been applied. It is a little finicky in the contrast/brightness areas. I have not found an image yet that I did not have to adjust one or the other. Mind you, this will get a good approximation of the colors, saturation and response curve of the film, but you will have to pay attention to the brightness and contrast.

Also, if you use my Auto-toning presets, the Kodachrome Auto tends to overexpose, unless your original exposure was dead-on. Much like the actual film, you must have a good exposure when using Auto. Alternatively, just bring down the exposure, it will improve the image if it appears washed out.

This preset can require a bit more work to finesse out a good image, however I feel the results are great when you find the sweet spot. I could have spent much more time tweaking this preset, but I like the results…it just requires a little extra after the preset has been applied.

Also, if you read the readme.txt file in the zip, I have instructions on how to use the split-toning feature to simulate the discoloration of the 60′s era and 70′s era stock. Just in case you are interested.

Until next time[ hopefully much sooner tha last time],
Micahel