Help With A Film Simulation

[Derrel]

"FIDELITY" is not the goal...the goal is to create a pleasing picture..."fidelity" is overrated, IMO...

 

[Tim Tucker 2]

Simulate a lower DR than digital, softer shadows and highlights, muted and slightly orange in diffuse light with more colour in brighter daylight, forget the *grain* at this size? I've not really used it so a guess:

 

[smoke665]

Perhaps I don't understand the point of these presets, but

Think of a preset as an express lane to get from point A to point B. You still have to drive the car, you have to have a knowledge of where you are and where you're going, but used properly they can save some time. Overused or used on the wrong image and they look cheesy, and amateurish.

In my case I'm looking for a certain "feel" to an image. Not necessarily the dreamy low contrast images you saw in the presets, but more a case of an ideal skin tone. Porta 400 as I remember had some nice creamy tones especially in the reds and greens. By mapping that I can transfer it's characteristics to my image thereby creating a more pleasing image.

 

[Designer]

Perhaps I don't understand the point of these presets, but

Think of a preset as an express lane to get from point A to point B.

Once again, I have failed to communicate clearly.

Yes, I know why people buy and use presets, but the examples shown in the website did not, in my opinion, make the photographs better.

Just my own personal opinion.

IMHO

 

[smoke665]

Simulate a lower DR than digital, softer shadows and highlights,

Interesting I had to look that up to be sure but there is a lower DR, that I need to take into consideration. I agree it seems there is a general consensus that the lower contrast creates softer shadows and highlights.

As to the edit the reds are a little higher then I was shooting for in my tone map. I sort of prefer my last edit, but in looking at it agree with Derrel on the yellow and green. Using some combined suggestion, I switched the LUT layer to Crisp Warm and changed the mode to color as per D7k's suggestion. Which helped to bring up the reds slightly but not overpower the contrast, brought the yellow to more of a warm sun amber. Using your suggestions I dropped the DR back slightly with level and curve adjustments, and limited the green in the highlights tone curve. I think it's getting close, now to try to convert all this to an action for future use.

 

[smoke665]

es, I know why people buy and use presets, but the examples shown in the website did not, in my opinion, make the photographs better.

Just my own personal opinion.

As in all edits, the ideal is to create a pleasing look, without detracting from the original image. To many times IMO people apply presets across the board without realizing that not all images work with all presets, and that editing actually begins before the shutter clicks, knowing the future of the image helps to build the basics from the ground up. Presets should never be used as corrections but rather enhancements to the bones of the image, IMO.

 

[Braineack]

these are VMCO portra 400 presets:

 

[smoke665]

@Braineack I actually have a few of the VMCO preset samples and I looked at their Portra offerings. Personally I believe Portra® Original presets by Mastin Labs offers a better option, though I haven't been willing to turn loose of the hundred dollars to find out.

It's interesting to note that in the HSL panel you posted the hue adjustments are following an "s" curve pattern. Coincidentally I was just reading an article on Lr edits where the author was talking about using an "s" curve to maintain a more even transition between color.

 

[bulldurham]

Tim Tucker once suggested doing a simple color cast removal and I applied that to your image with no other color adjustments. You can see by the color in the BG trees, there was a significant red/yellow cast. Perhaps this would be a good starting point.
Do it in the first iteration of your post work on a higher res file.

 

[smoke665]

You can see by the color in the BG trees, there was a significant red/yellow cast. Perhaps this would be a good starting point.

Thank you for commenting and the edit, but that's not really relevant to where I'm going. I correct WB on all my original files to a target at the start, before any editing. By definition a simulation is an "imitation of a situation or process", which would cause significant shifts from the original WB. In this case it was to imitate a particular film look, with a warm finish.

I'm still testing and tweaking the Action I recorded for this simulation, but it's getting close. I've also been working on a preset for Lr that follows a light and airy look.

 

[bulldurham]

Sorry I misunderstood your intent as to looking for a more airy, lightness. This image uses NIK's Analog Efex Pro and I think for a preset, this will give you more options.

 

[smoke665]

Sorry I misunderstood your intent as to looking for a more airy, lightness. This image uses NIK's Analog Efex Pro and I think for a preset, this will give you more options.

There you go. I had the NIK collection at one time, but somehow in the process of moving everything to a new computer I lost it. I'd been reluctant to pay for it when they switched to the pay version, because frankly I'd quit using it after Lr made so many updates that it became a unnecessary duplication.

Actions in Ps and Presets in Lr, lend themselves to batch type processing, a necessary time saver when you have a bunch of images to process and they all need to look similar. Even if I use a commercial Preset or Action I invariably find myself tweaking, adjusting and saving it to use. For the most part if I find a look I like I'll develop my own and save for the future.

 

[bulldurham]

This was all done in photoshop using color filters both warming and cooling with an added sepia on the cooling filter layer (on layer masks) and exposure layers which I've included. You could build yourself a similar type setup and then make it into an action and apply it as a batch edit. This is just one quickie idea but i found it pretty easy to dink around.

 

[smoke665]

color filters both warming and cooling with an added sepia on the cooling filter layer (on layer masks) and exposure layers w

That's one method, but it involves a lot of trial and error. The method I use allows me to sample a photo to establish color grading reference points. I can then use those to duplicate an almost identical consistent look in another image, without trial an error. Not at my computer, but I'll send you details of the process later.

 

[smoke665]

@bulldurham Okay, back again. The process I described works with any digital image you want to duplicate the color grading from. Rather then go in great detail I'll give you the simplified version (I can send you a more detailed version if you want to try it or an Action once I get it finalized). Using a sample image you first extract either a 3 or 5 color sample using the PS export for web function, and save it as a color table (5 is the max before it gets wonky). With your destination image open you then open a Gradient Map layer, using the eye dropper to sample the color table you saved earlier that tone maps the image. Then back in your sample image you use the brush tool to sample highlights, midtones, and shadows, drawing a sample of each on a blank layer. The blank layer with the brush strokes is pasted into your destination image. Now open a curves layer, and use the eyedropper to select the highlight color from your sample, then click on you image highlight. Do the same for midtones, and shadows, and you have the highlights, midtone, and shadows remapped to match the sample. There's a few other adjustments involved for fine tuning, but that's the gist of it. No masks, selections or filters involved, you're simply remapping the image to your sample.

The advantage of the sample method is that once I've created those samples they can be saved in a library for future use.