Learning to Shoot Film: a comparison of digital & film

Yes. The allure of film got me. The promise of the perfect exposure, of harmony between light & dark, with exquisite colors straight out of camera like never before seen....it sounded too amazing not to experience it for myself. 

So after having only bought a Mark III for the price of a kidney I felt guilty wanting to now buy a Film camera at a similar price tag. But luckily I came across a Hasselblad that a friend sold to me for an excellent and then ended up doing some trade work a Mimiya. And now, to learn.

Here is a shoot where we went out and shot on film.

Film was Fuji 400h and it was developed by Richard Photo Lab.

Unedited film scan where you can see the way the blurred area has movement to it

(Left) unedited film scan, (Right) film scan developed with a Fuji 400h Lightroom Preset

Fuji 400h film scan edited with a Fuji 400h Lightroom preset

Fuji 400h film scan's edited with a Fuji 400h Lightroom preset

And as a comparison, I shot the following images on my Canon Mark III.

They were processed with film emulating presets that you can find here. 

Edit Digital to Look Like Film

Here's a quick video tutorial where I edited an image I took to look as close to Film as I could get. The thing about film & trying to emulate it is that it's hard. Lol. That's all. Watching this will give you an idea of my process & why I moved a few of the settings but ultimately you'll use some of this as a guide but depending on what camera you shot on, whether you shot in Raw or Jpeg, what lens you used & what colors are in the image etc etc etc, it will be different.

In this case I took the image as the sun was going down, we were running late getting to the location, my lights weren't firing because the triggers...well, they love to do that to me when I'm in a hurry & also everything else that could go wrong did. No big deal. I had talked my friend into coming all the way to Guadalajara to shoot in the first place, spent money on the dress & a ticket to get there & like 10 other things lol.

In a perfect world, I had planned on using my light with some warm gels to mock the sun setting behind her & then bounce that same light coming from behind her, off a white reflector in front of her to brighten her face. But anyways, the end result was ok & everything is a learning experience!

How to Make Your Pictures Sunny & Dreamy

Presets are such a huge time saver. If you don't know what they are just imagine if you swept your house once & you could press record on the broom & the next time you needed to sweep you could push play & it would do it again on its own. Presets do this same chore for editing. If you have a ton of pictures that you are wanting to edit the same or your trying to build a more consistent look for your branding, then these little suckers are lifesavers.  Now to clarify, Presets are the same idea as Actions but Actions are for Photoshop & Presets are for Lightroom.

I used to edit everything in Photoshop because I didn't really understand Lightroom yet & I also couldn't find any presets I liked but I had lots of Actions I really liked in Photoshop. BUT, while Photoshop is amazing & really gives you tons of control, I cannot tell you how much happier you will be working from Lightroom. It saves so much time! Let me say that again because I want you to know, IT SAVES YOU SO MUCH TIME! My god, you can have a life again! If you are editing Weddings in Photoshop for example, because those are the worst in terms of how long they can take....don't jump, there's hope, it's Lightroom.

So I made this golden colored preset (seen below) because I wanted to be able to make pictures feel dreamy & sunny & sometimes when your out shooting the weather is the exact opposite of that. You can find it here along with some other pretty presets.  If you want to do it yourself I recommend playing with the RGB curves versus just your white balance which is what most people do & then they end up with a yellow picture not a sunny one.

So if you didn't know about Presets, now you do but before you run off & get excited & buy a bunch of new ones then wonder why they look bad here's some advice based on doing just that myself & learning some lessons:

1. It's best to use presets on Raw Images. Clicking a preset onto a Jpeg will look not as great, don't ask questions it's just the truth.

2. Don't buy a Preset that looks great on objects & expect it to look good on humans. There's a lot of presets that show flowers or tea as an example of what the preset looks like but make sure they show it on humans because this is where I see most Presets go wrong. Purple midtones may look great on a flower but make a human an oompa loompa.

3. Don't take a terd & cover it in glitter & expect it to look good. Too harsh? Sorry, I just love analogies every once in a while. But seriously, start with a good image. Presets & Actions aren't miracles people. Mascara doesn't make an unattractive person attractive, it just enhances what they already have...same concept here.

I have some tutorials on my Youtube channel for using Presets if you have more questions & I can also show you how to use my Presets on your images to get the most out of them if you need help. I also make Presets & Actions for Photographers looking for something custom based off a look they seen in another picture so get in touch if you are wanting something custom for your brand.