This past week I decided to get the VSCO films presets for Lightroom.  These presets emulate the look of a variety of specific films.  I've just started playing with them, so there is still a LOT to learn.  I have the standard pack because the color profiles of my camera are not supported with the Pro edition yet, so this is the 'one size fits all' solution.

In any case, I'm finding that the presets react differently on different photos, so it's hard to get a sense of what to expect at this point.  I've had some success trying to feel out how the different presets function while practicing on this photo of Heather.

The first image is the original.  All I did to this was bump the exposure by .15 of stop.  Normally, I would do quite a bit of tweaking to get it exactly where I want it, but I decided to pretty much leave it alone for the purposes of this experiment. :)

For the second image, I applied the Kodak Porta 160 preset with the orange skin fix.  I decreased the contrast a tad and bumped the exposure by .08.

The third image uses the Ilford HP5 preset.  I think this is going to be my new favorite BW conversion... I love that you really get the elegance of the Ilford feel with this preset.  I did knock the preset down one step and then bumped exposure by .15.

The fourth one has the Fuji 800C preset on it.  The only tweak I made to this was the exposure bump by .15.

The last one is with the Kodak Porta 800.  I applied the auto black preset as well and then added a little fill.  I bumped the exposure by .15 on this one as well.

So it's been interesting to see how these presets work.  I'm excited to try them out some more as I have time.  I'd love to hear about other folks' experience with them, so if you use them, please feel free to comment on this post with how you like to utilize them.

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The last bit of my 30-day film challenge happened when I was out in California, but I hadn't gotten the film back until yesterday.

Weird things seem to be happening with this film and camera... most things are not coming out as I expect them to at all, which makes for some interesting images.  On a number of the early-morning sunrise photos it looks like there were some shutter issues that blacked out portions of the images.  I'll have to do some research on curtains and film... I don't ever remember that happening in all the years I shot film before, but this is a different camera so who knows?

Anyway, enjoy the surprising weirdness :)

So... I had to stop shooting for a couple days because I couldn't get the camera open after I finished a roll of film.  O_o

Everything is fine now (thankfully) and I'm excited to show you the first round of results.  It's interesting to see what came out of the camera because it's not what I was expecting.  Some shots in the same light are different colors and it seems that the plane of focus is different from what I see through the viewfinder.  This is very grainy film as well.  Makes for some crazy stuff, but I like it.  Maybe now that I know what I'm working with I'll be able to use it to my advantage :)

For the record, this film was a 400 ISO Sensia slide film and most of the shots were taken with a 50mm with a macro extender ring.  I have not modified these digitally at all - I had the film developed and scanned at a local lab.

Here's the scenario going in:

- me

- a nice old film camera (a la 1965)

- the camera does not have a functioning light meter

- the camera may have a light-leak problem

Here's the scenario as it now stands:

- me

- a nice old film camera (a la 1965)

- the camera does not have a functioning light meter

- the camera may have a light-leak problem

- the film in the camera that may be black and white OR color, i can't remember (ok, even more challenging than first anticipated because you shoot differntly because of the kind of film in the camera)

- the first roll is shot and taken to be developed.  turns out it's blank because it didn't catch right when I first loaded it into the camera (the camera tries to show me who's boss, clearly it is not me)

- the second roll is loaded properly, shot, and dropped off to be developed.  it's color, by the way.  hopefully there are actually exposures on it.

- the third roll is loaded (properly, I hope) and just started.  also color.

- i forgot to buy more film today while i was at the photo lab, so now i'm officially out of supplies

The more challenging challenge seems to be increasing in challenging-ness almost daily, but I'm going to fight through it and post some images in the end, damnit!  Watch out world!  And please be patient.

:)

Some of you may recall my 30-day challenge back in January when I posted a photo each day for 30 days.  It was a good exercise for me and I felt like some learning and growing happened in the process.  It has been decided that it is about darned time that I do another 30-day challenge.  This time, however, will be with film in a camera without a real, functioning light meter.  Hence the more challenging aspect of this challenge.  I have been meaning to get back into film for a while (it has been quite a long time... since before digital cameras were the norm...) so this seems like a good way to do it.  Of course, I will only be able to post after the film has been developed, so I'm guessing about once a week.

Today is day 1... wish me luck!

And because every post needs a photo... enjoy this one of the interior of a century plant/agave/maguey: