Film emulation for photography

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CashiWaku
UNATCO
Posts: 284
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 10:42 am

Film emulation for photography

Post by CashiWaku »

I’ve been interested in getting the film look on my images for quite some time now and have reached dead end after dead end. I think the reason for this is because it seems like the world of colorists (video) and VFX is very different than the world of photography. The knowledge colorists and VFX people have seems to be far beyond that of photographers as far as WHY a certain look is the way that it is. An example of this is grain. When photographers make a film emulation preset for Lightroom, they think the grain sliders are creating the same thing a film negative (or positive) has. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. LR adds a sort of generic white grain and real (color) film grain is made of color. That grain is also more apparent in some parts of the image as opposed to others. And it’s things such as that which have pulled me to the Lift Gamma Gain forum. After reading quite a few threads on here (and understanding very little) I began to realize that the things that are applied to video, can also be applied to photography. My hope, with this thread, is that we can finally begin to get a real working solution to achieving film emulation for photography.

where can I learn filmography and the art of making films and photographs with filmographic effect?
AnnaConways
Mole Person
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Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:38 am

Re: Film emulation for photography

Post by AnnaConways »

I always import all my stills from camera (or tiff scans, if they are analog) to Lightroom for initial organization and selection. Lightroom has really good tools for sifting through a lot of files and sorting and flagging clips to narrow it down to the ones I will actually work on. I use Lightroom CC, and the reason is I like the cloud sync so that I can go between my iPhone, iPad Pro, and my color workstation effortlessly and always have my work available. If I'm sitting on a plane or find my self with free time I'll pull up Lightroom and work on sorting or doing basic corrections.
LorenVags
Mole Person
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Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2023 12:14 pm

Re: Film emulation for photography

Post by LorenVags »

Thanks for sharing your experience with film emulation for photography. Your workflow using C1 and Davinci Resolve sounds interesting, and I'm glad to hear that the results were pleasing.
s much as we enjoy taking pictures, the post-processing work is essential to bringing them to life. I'm unfamiliar with the software you mentioned, but it's great that you're exploring different options to find what works best for you.
BTW, have you heard of the Prague Film Institute? They offer film emulation workshops and resources for people who want to achieve the film look in their digital work. Here's the link to their website: https://www.praguefilminstitute.cz.
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