Ugh...A creative crutch

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 19, 2013

A plug-in to mimic instant film. Reminds me of those junky Polaroid type 55 edge plugin for photoshop.

http://www.petapixel.com/2013/02/18/vsco-film-03-is-like-a-desktop-instagram-for-pro-photographers/

horacekenneth · Feb 19, 2013

They look nice to me, a lot nicer than standard digital output color scheme

jp498 · Feb 19, 2013

You really don't need a plugin for that; just be inept with the curves control and you're there. Oh wait, this is an analog forum.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

jcoldslabs · Feb 19, 2013

jp498 said:
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

+1!

Jonathan

thegman · Feb 19, 2013

I think it looks nice. I don't like the sheer lack of authenticity or originality it encourages. I just don't like the fakery.

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 19, 2013

They need to have to recreate that Polaroid smell when the run the filter on your computer.

vpwphoto · Feb 19, 2013

I agree that you don't have to buy the "filters". I get "looks without the label" that I like easily in Adobe Lightroom. (verboten).
Heck of a lot easier to DIY digitally rather than messing with tea, coffee, wine, Dektol, and the rest in the darkroom to narrow in on an effect.

StoneNYC · Feb 19, 2013

Does it have a REAL Kodachrome look? Since you can't get that... I would like a plugin that ONLY provides RETIRED films, that say I could be authentic with digital but not a sell out

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 19, 2013

There's a random quality of analog that digital doesn't have. Each Polaroid print is different because of processing temperature, how the photographer pulls the film the batch of film etc. The music of chance is missing in digital photography. These image processing filters creates imperfections perfectly every time!

kevs · Feb 19, 2013

Why 'fauxtographers' can't find an aesthetic for their medium rather than imitating media they consider inconvenient, inferior and outmoded is beyond me. You don't see watercolourists trying to make their paintings look like charcoal sketches, do you?

Anyway, shouldn't this thread be in the Lounge?

vpwphoto · Feb 19, 2013

+1 Kevs

horacekenneth · Feb 19, 2013

What if Polaroid or Portra have color schemes that people like? Is it "fake" now to shoot digitally and then edit your photos to make them look better? This whole thread is stupid.

thegman · Feb 19, 2013

horacekenneth said:
What if Polaroid or Portra have color schemes that people like? Is it "fake" now to shoot digitally and then edit your photos to make them look better? This whole thread is stupid.

I think colour balance is one thing, but to set out to make a digital shot look like film is by definition inauthentic. If that's what a person likes, then fine, no problem, but I like the idea of authenticity. For example, I really enjoy Lagavulin whisky, it's 16 years old, matured in barrels. Sure, you could probably create chemicals compounds in a lab to create the same taste, but it would be inauthentic. Sometimes there is a pleasure in doing things in the genuine manner, even if it's not a necessarily logical choice.

Athiril · Feb 20, 2013

I would like my digital shots to match my Portra shots in colour, but to do that. I need to shoot a colour chart on Portra, and make a profile for it. Profile the digital camera to get it to neutral. Then take that neutral profile and subtract the Portra profile from it, a lot of work!

Then that doesn't account for the masking effects, I'd rather just shoot Portra.

I wouldn't say inauthentic, I like the colour scheme of Portra, I wouldn't try to make it look like Portra for the sake of it, but for the sake of making it look like what I really really like.

And of course, I may want my work to match across cameras/mediums, I dont want to profile both and neutralise both, I want to stick to the Portra look. So I'd have to match everything else to that.

horacekenneth · Feb 22, 2013

thegman said:
I think colour balance is one thing, but to set out to make a digital shot look like film is by definition inauthentic. If that's what a person likes, then fine, no problem, but I like the idea of authenticity. For example, I really enjoy Lagavulin whisky, it's 16 years old, matured in barrels. Sure, you could probably create chemicals compounds in a lab to create the same taste, but it would be inauthentic. Sometimes there is a pleasure in doing things in the genuine manner, even if it's not a necessarily logical choice.

I do agree with Athiril. But I don't understand where inauthenticity comes in. It might come in, I really just don't understand. Isn't the very nature of digital imitation? Everything is 1s and 0s, right, and we write programs to dictate what that turns into. The normal output from digital cameras isn't "authentic digital", its just what we wrote the program to do. So why not change factors later to look like what you want it to look like? And if you like a filmy look, that makes sense. We've been perfecting it for a while.

StoneNYC · Feb 22, 2013

Athiril said:
I would like my digital shots to match my Portra shots in colour, but to do that. I need to shoot a colour chart on Portra, and make a profile for it. Profile the digital camera to get it to neutral. Then take that neutral profile and subtract the Portra profile from it, a lot of work!

Then that doesn't account for the masking effects, I'd rather just shoot Portra.

I wouldn't say inauthentic, I like the colour scheme of Portra, I wouldn't try to make it look like Portra for the sake of it, but for the sake of making it look like what I really really like.

And of course, I may want my work to match across cameras/mediums, I dont want to profile both and neutralise both, I want to stick to the Portra look. So I'd have to match everything else to that.

do you actually know how to do this? if so can you PM me some info? I have all the tools (scanner,lightroom,photoshop) that I should need but have no idea how to do that but would like to, I've created some slide film coloring techniques (by altering the time/temp of the color developer) to get some different color tones from chrome, and I would like to have the OPTION of knowing how to mimic that since E-6 is so expensive... (in comparison to Rodinal haha). Thanks.

StoneNYC · Feb 22, 2013

I've had a lot of time to think about this lately, between taking a photoshop class to catch up to the rest of the digital photographers today (who I'm loosing clients too because I can't do retouches like them that the clients demand) and I recently also saw this image...

I was asked what I thought of it, I was horrified... there should be some kind of new term for extremely modified digital art that isn't called a "photograph" because that's not a photo that's a digital rendering at that point...

Anyway I've come to the conclusion that for me, doing things like dodging and burning and color adjustments can all be done in the darkroom, even some basic layering could be done by masters, but something like this is just not ok... but it's the way the world works, people change, technology changes... but I think, for me, knowing how to adjust color tone and doge and burn some areas is about all I'll accept from myself and I think that's ok.

So as my previous post stated, I think it's OK to adjust color tones to match a film type. I especially think it's ok if that film is no longer available.

Anyway that's my take...

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 22, 2013

Any filter that reduces nipplage I'm against!

brucemuir · Feb 22, 2013

Mainecoonmaniac said:
Any filter that reduces nipplage I'm against!

Hear, hear.

IDK call me cynical but alot of those VSCO examples look like *hit, are they "emulating" spent developer or purposely underdeveloped film?
Who "designs" these looks and I wonder how much film experience they actually have.

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 22, 2013

Hope they're won't be a nipple filter. Nothing worst than silicon silicone. Now that looks like *hit.

kevs · Feb 22, 2013

Crikey, she needs a good meal. That's probably why her nipples went black and fell off. Somebody give her a big plate of steak and chips, followed by jam roly-poly and custard!

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 22, 2013

Being a Yank can you give me a quick description of your Brittish culinary delights mentioned?

horacekenneth · Feb 22, 2013

Bruce,

the vsco filters sampled are imitating polaroid which had a very unique and popular look, did it not, although not something you'd try to do with e6

kevs · Feb 23, 2013

Mainecoonmaniac said:
Being a Yank can you give me a quick description of your Brittish culinary delights mentioned?

Good thing I didn't mention Spotted Dick then... From teh wiki:
"Jam Roly-Poly ... is a traditional British pudding probably invented in the early 19th century.[1] It is a flat-rolled suet pudding, which is then spread with jam and rolled up, similar to a Swiss roll, then steamed or baked."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_Roly-Poly

Just what that there model needs...

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 23, 2013

kevs said:
Good thing I didn't mention Spotted Dick then...

Spotted Dick is when you print dusty negs of Dick.

Ugh...A creative crutch

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