The whole reason I like to shoot film, is because it isn’t verbatim. For instance, Fuji Velvia film has a massive blue colour cast in the shadows. Kodak Portra is overly warm / reddish in hue. Each film has its own palette which adds its own character to the scene.
Just recently I bought a very old digital camera - a Leica M240 - (which I am loving by the way) to experiment with. It has lovely colours and I think it almost (note “almost”) has a film like quality to it. I have been wondering of late, if it is possible to impart a filmic look to the images, and I think the straight up answer is no. If one wants to have a film like look: shoot film.
I realise that this is an ancient argument, and these days, most folks don’t care. Except for a very small number of folks.
I’ve been playing with introducing a colour cast to the images above (top row, as shot with minimal RAW editing), bottom row - myself playing with trying to impart a sense of filmic look to the work.
What I have noticed, is that most films have contrasty blacks. There is often a bluish cast to some films, or even a greenish cast. Kodak’s Portra has a reddish cast to it.
I don’t think I will be substituting my film cameras for digital ones any time soon. But I must admit that I have been enjoying playing around with digital. I am around a decade too late, but I have never been keen to jump into something new when I am working with something that works quite well already.
However, it’s nice to be able to shoot scenes in low ISO that I couldn’t before, and I’m enjoying working with a rangefinder system again. I have always loved rangefinders - my first ‘proper’ camera being one: the Mamiya 7II. Which I used exclusively for the first decade of my medium format photography.
The thing is: film and digital just look different. With a little bit of nudging and massaging, you can get your digital files to look sort of like film, but not the same. Applying a curve preset does not work, as I have often found film seems to react to different light in different ways. But as I said: this is no longer an issue for most. If it were, digital camera manufacturers would be trying to make their sensors more filmic and they’re not.
But, I am enjoying working with a 12 year old digital camera. Perhaps this is becoming a thing also? Is there such a thing as ‘retro-looking-digital-capture’?
It’s fun to play with different mediums. I am currently thinking of taking a digital system along with me on my trips, so I can capture ‘behind the scenes’ shots. I think that would be a nice thing to offer - some additional insight to what it was like to be there, in addition to my finished film images.