30 days of film-first rolls

[paigew]

I'm always looking for ways to change things up when it comes to photography so I got a "new" EOS3 and started a "30 days of film challenge". I'm on day 26 and just got my first rolls of portra 400 back. Below are some of my faves (sorry for the overshare )

If anyone has any film recommendations I'm ready to put in a new order! I do like these photos but I'm looking for something with more saturation/contrast/pop. I have used Ektar before and am probably going to get more rolls of that. My b/w scans should be in next week so stay tuned for more
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[limr]

LOVE!!

Number 9 especially makes me smile. I'm a sucker for sunlight through any sort of reed or feathery/fluffy sort of plant. I have many similar pictures

If you want more pop, then Ektar is definitely something to shoot. It's picky, but when you hit it right, the colors are almost as deep and rich as in slide film. I've been quite happy with Agfa Vista and like it even more than Kodak Gold, which was my go-to for a long time. Of course Portra is just divine. Not quite saturated like Ektar but it does a fantastic job with more subtle variations in color, and the latitude is almost legendary at this point. It's very forgiving, possibly because it was actually developed with scanning in mind.

 

[LarryLomona]

Neat set.

 

[xenskhe]

EOS3 - this camera has a very quiet mirror/shutter? This film looks great IMO for the skin tones.

 

[paigew]

If you want more pop, then Ektar is definitely something to shoot. It's picky, but when you hit it right, the colors are almost as deep and rich as in slide film. I've been quite happy with Agfa Vista and like it even more than Kodak Gold, which was my go-to for a long time. Of course Portra is just divine. Not quite saturated like Ektar but it does a fantastic job with more subtle variations in color, and the latitude is almost legendary at this point. It's very forgiving, possibly because it was actually developed with scanning in mind.

Thank you I think I will definitely get some ektar and maybe some agfa too! I have shot kodak gold before but didn't have that great results. I was told it is a consumer grade film so :/ maybe i'll give it another try!

EOS3 - this camera has a very quiet mirror/shutter? This film looks great IMO for the skin tones.

I'm not sure about the quiet shutter. I suppose its quieter than my mark iii

 

[xenskhe]

I got that wrong - seems actually it's very noisy . I was researching quiet slrs a while ago and I thought the 3 was a quiet one. Confused it with EOS30V.

 

[paigew]

Well I wouldn't consider it noisy by any means. [emoji12]

 

[jcdeboever]

Those are so nice.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[spiralout462]

Very cool set. I've been on a film binge myself. When I do shoot color it's been Agfa Vista or Porta. For B&W the Ilford films seem very nice.

 

[paigew]

Very cool set. I've been on a film binge myself. When I do shoot color it's been Agfa Vista or Porta. For B&W the Ilford films seem very nice.

Thank you! I'm shooting illford right now. I have a roll of tmax at the lab I'm waiting on the scans. [emoji7]

 

[Derrel]

Color negative film can bridge a wide dynamic range, and the issue is how that negative is then either digitized and then shown or sent to print, or how the lab does the printing of the file, or the negative. A huge part of how the final image look depends on the conversion of the negative to an image that people look at with their eyes. Color negatives lend themselves to extensive dodging and burning--they in fact, most color negative films are so low in contrast that they actually almost demand custom printing in order to get the kind of saturated, rich "color slide film-like" looks that d-slrs provide.

Saturation usually is best with a very generous, shadow-weighted exposure, and also a polarizing filter can help a TON with color neg film.

If you go here and click on the interactive tools, you can look at multiple source images, then see how they look with various film looks, as would be adjusted using Nikon's image handling software applications. Nikon Picture Control Editor This interactive, on-line image "developer" also gives an interesting simulated look in to the kinds of basic looks that different films tend to give.

You could also use other software, are recreate the tone curves that show up in the Nikon software (which can be downloaded for free), and tweak the images by applying those same curves.

 

[paigew]

Thanks for that site! I'll have to check it out on my desktop. It wasn't working mobile.

I know I *could* edit the scans but a huge point of me shooting film is to spend less time on the computer. Not touching these scans before I posted them was huge in terms of my control issues [emoji12].

The bw films I rated high and pushed two stops so I'm hoping for some amazing contrast with those. I think with some experimentation I can find out how to get the exact results I want. I really feel like I should have ordered ektar but so many raves about Portra I couldn't resist trying It out and I bought 5 rolls.

I'm using an amazing lab so I have no doubts there. Only thing is I'm not confident on what scanner I want used. These were scanned with a frontier scanner.

Digital will always have my heart but it's nice to fall back on film when I am busy or just want some technology free time.

Oh and I love my new camera. Using my af lenses has made all the difference. My last rolls were from a Minolta.