The Home of the Hybrid Photographer

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

Alright, back on schedule. Releasing one of two quality Fuji presets today, tomorrow another follows. Today I bring you my interpretation of Fuji 160C, one of Fuji’s professional line films, this one designed for general use, with a heavy leaning towards strong saturation. The film produces great, saturated colors, but not too far over the top. Great for all kinds of uses, but maybe a bit rich in the orange channel for portraiture. But that is what Fuji 160S is for.

160C features a fine grain and Fuji’s “4th color layer” which supposedly allows for richer colors with less grain. Either way it is a great film with a lot of versatility.

Come back tomorrow for the next film preset in my Fuji set, 160S. The subdued portrait film.

Until then,

Michael

Today I bring you another attempt at simulating an infrared film. It is a fairly difficult task that cannot be done anywhere near as accurately as a normal B&W film. So when using my IR presets, keep in mind that you are not creating anything near what the actual film would create. I think I have the general feel of the film captured, however it is impossible for me to create a preset that can take a standard RAW file and give it an IR look.

However, if anyone has access to a IR-converted DSLR, and could send me some RAW files to test with, I should be able to work up a proper IR preset for use with IR modified camera RAW files. If you do, please contact me at michael@lifeindigitalfilm.com

Anyways, today I give to the world preset in the style of Maco IR. I can’t really call it an emulation, but it has similar tonality and reacts to colors in a way that makes it kinda look IR. I hope you enjoy it and can find a use for it.

Don’t forget to show LifeInDigitalFilm some love. Buy the Cold Storage collection, or even just donate a couple bucks. Every little bit puts more film in my hands, resulting in more presets. Find the buttons on the right side of the page.

A lot has been going on for LIDF lately, I have a few items in the works, so keep dropping by. New things are coming, I just can’t say when yet.

Also, today is essentially the last day to make an entry into the Flickr Presetting Lightroom photo contest. Not alot of enteries, and there is a copy of HDRSoft’s Photomatix Pro and 3 copies of my Cold Storage collection up for grabs. To enter you need to post an image to the group, with a title, preset used, and why it was used. the contest collection is small, so the odds of winning are pretty good. Jump over there to join in.

Until then,

Michael

So lately I have been fielding some questions via e-mail and reading some great criticism on other blogs. All in all, I feel the response to my presets has been amazing, but in the interest of always improving, I want to say a few thing that may help clear up some common issues.

Issue 1: Over Aggressive Tone Curves

Alright, I admit some of my tone curves can be harsh when used on high contrast images. I have noticed this and I am currently revising some of the worst offenders to help alleviate the problem. Frankly, it is hard to duplicate the effect of film, as each batch is different, and every frame can differ based on condition in which the photograph was taken. If you notice your image is breaking (excessive posterization in shadows, strange artifacts, etc) I recommend you take a look at the tone curve and make a few adjustments.

If the tone curve is steep, with deep shadows and bright highlights, you may want to pull the curve back on either side, flattening out the image. You may also want to adjust the Point Curve option in the Tone Curve window down a step: from Strong to Medium, Medium to Linear. These alterations may improve your image. The primary concern in my emulation preset is the color settings, with the tone curve coming in second. Try to fix any problems using the tone curve, it may help you out more if/when you take the image into Photoshop.

If you find yourself frequently altering the tone curve of a particular preset, you may want to consider permanently altering the preset to your needs. After making your corrections, right click the preset name and select Update. Hit okay afterward, now you have made the preset your own. If you find that you get better results, email me about your alterations…you may be the extra set of eyes that helps me improve my emulation. Contact emails are on the left side of the blog.

Issue 2: Adobe Camera Raw Presets

For a while, every preset I make has an ACR preset included in the release. The ACR presets are located inside a folder in the archive entitled “ACR Presets”. Every film emulation preset on LIDF now has ACR counterparts to the Lightroom presets. Most of my style presets also have ACR counterparts.

To install the ACR presets all you have to do is copy them to the corret folder for ACR to access them. They folders are as follows:

Macintosh: /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRawFolder/Settings
Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings

Simply replace your current user name into the folder structure where you see UserName. These folder paths lead you right to where you need to copy the .xmp files found in the ACR Presets folder. Once you have them copied over, the next time you open ACR the presets will be available in the Preset tab in ACR (Which is the button furthest to the left under the histogram).

Alot of people were not aware how to install these presets, and if you are interested in converting Lightroom presets yourself, please refer to my post over on X-Equals. It walks you through the process, and gives more indepth direction on installing presets into ACR.

Issue 3: Non RAW Images

If you have been to LIDF lately you may have seen the poll on the top left side of the blog asking if I should make presets for raster images in Lightroom. Overwhelmingly the answer was no, but I saw enough intrest in raster images that I made a decision. I am going to start woking on Photoshop actions to accomplish much the same effect as my presets. This will likely be a way off, and the releases nowhere near as frequent as my Presets, but I plan on doing it.

I decided to forgo presetting for jpegs, as I found the results less than adequate, and I feel Photoshop is the place to make these pixelpushing changes anyways. Take away the power of RAW data and Lightroom is rendered fairly inept for my emulation purposes.

Keep an eye open, they will be coming.

Issue 4: Using My Presets

Finally, if you are using my presets and getting great results, let me know. I want to see and hear about successes. In the same right let me know about problems you encounter, feedback will help these presets improve.

If you use my presets on your own personal blog, drop me an email or a tweet on Twitter, and let me know. I love to see others work with my tools and I will happily send everyone who views this site to you to see what you have done. I enjoy showcasing those who use m presets.

If you are on Flickr and post images processed with my presets, you don’t even have to email me. Just tag you image with “LifeInDigitalFilm” or “LIDF” along with the emulation used in the description, I will find them as once a week I troll Flick looking for examples of my presets in use. If you have a number of images using my presets, I will showcase your Flickr stream just as I would a photoblog.

Maybe it is vanity, but I enjoy seeing my work paying off. Also I can see any inadequacies I did not encounter whilst testing the presets out myself. Again seeing them used can help me further refine and improve my presets.

Well thats it for today, another preset is coming tomorrow!

Until then,

Michael