Folks, I’m having trouble. I just can’t stop making diptychs. And it’s only going to get worse, as I am inheriting a 5D from Amy Stein this afternoon. (I hope the camera comes well-versed in Amy Stein-esque composition and general brilliance)…
But here’s the thing; as much as I like making these pictures, and as much as I enjoy the ease of digital, I just do no know how to properly process my images. See that little surfer, above? He looks too punchy, too digitized, if you will. How do people figure out how to make their pictures look the way they want them too? I mean, I can color correct and adjust curves and such, but I just do not have it down perfectly.
Here’s what I started with:
I played and played, at one point going way too far:
eek. So I pulled back a bit. And ended up with this. Better, I think. But still not like film. I have started reading the Ken Allen blog for help.
I am going to consult some additional experts and get back to you on my progress. Let me know if you have clever tips.
Also, now I no longer like this picture.
Anyhoo, enough about surfers. I got a lovely email from Emily Nathan today, which alerted me to three things:
1. Ryan McGinley’s Moonmilk pictures (which I had seen but not really pondered.)
2. Some gorgeous Emily Nathan pinhole shots. (rarely seen!)
3. Some v cool Mt Fuji pictures.
Let us start at the beginning. Mr. McGinley:
I love this one.
This appears dangerous.
Onto Ms. Nathan‘s pinholes:
whoa i want to go swimming.
And finally, Mt Fuji:
Have the most pleasant Tuesday.
Rachel, you might want to try a different Raw converter. When I was unhappy with what I perceived as the digital look of the files from my D700 I had no idea what to do – by chance I tried Capture NX2, and right away it gave me a much more film like look. Since you are receiving a 5D I suppose you are a Canon shooter, I read that some people are very satisfied with Capture One. Good luck, by all means let us know how you are making progress, and thanks for the tip about the Ken Allen blog.
Lovin’ your blog. I’ll be coming back to check on your processing skillz. I’ve pondered over the same thing on how to make digital look more film-like.
Great blog. You have some great shots on here.
Film “feel” in a digital world is always an interesting discussion.
I’ve added your feed to my reader.
Cheers,
Glen.
rachel
just a thought, but try these ideas out.
http://www.dpmag.com/how-to/image-processing/double-process-raw-for-better-tonality.html
http://www.robsheppardphoto.com/download/pdf/TOMDblProc8-06.pdf
http://www.photoblog2.com/images/pd/Photoshop%20Darkroom-Sample.pdf
my website is undergoing changes
Laurence
Hey Rachel,
I shoot with a 5D as well.
What program are you using to process, and are you going from Raw to Tiff or Raw to Jpeg? Makes a difference because converting to jpeg isn’t just compression, but there’s also some loss of data, in turn affecting the detail. For a while I used Adobe Bridge, but now I’m using Adobe Lightroom and love it. The programs, including Capture One, produce files with different color temperatures depending on which you use. You may have to run your files through the different programs to see which produces results you prefer, if any. I do very little color correcting before the processing however. I mostly do it in Photoshop once the raw files are processed and never add sharpening. I’ll maybe make an exception with correcting in the processing stage when I have over a hundred files to work with and the the light and exposure for each is fully consistent throughout. I also make sure my screen is properly calibrated each time. Digital is convenient when you’re shooting. But, when you want to make your pictures the absolute best, post production can be time consuming. And, there is definitely an art to it. No plug and play.
Hope this helped a bit.
Chad
You might want to talk to Elizabeth Weinberg. Her digital work is beautiful, she has a great sense of color and her processing is spot-on.
Have you ever tried using a half-frame 25mm camera? You can get some interesting diptychs when printing/scanning using a standard 35mm frame.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhintlian/2400294674/in/photostream/
I use a Canon Demi EE17, Olympus also made a model called the Pen.
http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/demi.html
Lomography also just announced a Diana half-frame!
http://www.lomography.com/magazine/blog/2009/08/19/lomography-introduces-the-diana-mini-half-frame-and-square-format-on-35mm-its-a-first
Invest in post-processing software like Lightroom or Aperture. It will help you organize your thousands of images now that you’re all digitized n’ stuff and you can try different techniques on images and view them side by side. I use Lightroom and it’s completely changed the way that I do my post production.
[...] There’s some nice new stuff by Ryan McGinley over on Tiny Vices. Check it out. [via What the Jackanory, A Photography Blog] [...]
yeah, you oughta look into lightroom. shooting with the 5d is only the beginning – you can go in a million directions with the images — in fact, it never ends, you’ll be at your computer FOREVER trying this and that…
so so so many lightroom tutorials on line, many of em free…. have you ever surfed over to
julianne kost? THE very best
http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html
check it!
That red picture is amazing! I am speechless.
I’m a big fan of Alien Skin Exposure. Mimics the look of different films, then you can customize and tweak from there.