I tested the new film conversion software from Filmomat called SmartConvert and checked if it would fit into my scanning workflow. The new tool is mainly designed to work with camera scans but I wanted to see if I can also use it for scans from a regular Epson flatbed scanner like my V700.
Read MoreAgfa Scala 200 faded plus
Is buying a set of film presets worth the money and will it improve your images? A question raised many times and just recently it became a topic again on social media. Basically I am very restrictive with presets for two reasons: First, I don‘t want to copy another photographers work and second, often presets are very unprecise and don‘t work the way I want. A preset is never a one trick pony. I consider a preset a starting point, a small push into the right direction and a baseline for a cohesive look when editing a series of images. When the London based art & technology company RNI, which stands for “Really Nice Images”, asked me if I want to check out their freshly released RNI All Films 5 presets, I knew already that it would be at least interesting and enjoyable to do so. But in the end, it was even more, I was quite impressed by the quality and potential of these film simulation presets.
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Normally we need to work hard to have our dreams come true and even with the biggest effort, we are often just not able to fulfill them all. So it is even sweeter when a dream becomes true and you not even expecting it. This is what happened to me a couple of days ago. OK, not a dream that changed my life, not a million dollar lottery win, but something that could significantly simplify my photography and home scanning workflow.
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I have written about MeinFilmLab before and I personally have a lot of respect of what the team around Jörg Bergs has achieved over the last two years. The lab was literally established from scratch and what began in his basement has now grown to a already renown photolab that offers a complete workflow for the modern analog photographer. I don´t know the exact numbers but I would not be surprised if the MFL already handles the big amount of analog film development in Germany. But who cares about numbers. As we all know, the photographic workflow needs a final output which is in most cases a print. While we are often happy with displaying photos on our smart phones and tablets, there is a certain fascination of a physical print.
Read MoreEverybody who is developing film at home knows that dust is your worst enemy and while it is surely the best practice to avoid getting dust on your negatives, it seems like a fight that we cannot win. In the end there are always small dust particles on the film which we need to be cloned out during post-processing after scanning. If you print in the darkroom you have no other choice than cleaning your negatives carefully before putting them into the enlarger. Canned air and dust blowers as well as small brushes are your best weapon if you want to avoid the elaborate manual retouching process. Digitally we have other tools available. Among the clone and healing tools in Photoshop we can also work with filters. These filters target defects and blend these defects into the surrounding pixels. Photoshop has its own "Dust & Scratch" filter which already works nicely. Of course you cannot expect magic and manual retouching with the afore-mentioned tools is always required especially for larger defects as the filters have a harder time to deal with them. LaserSoft Imaging, the company behind SilverFast has recently released a Photoshop plugin for this task. Everybody who is using their scanner software might have noticed a new filter which is called SRDx. This filter especially targets defects that cannot be detected by hardware based infrared dust and scratch removal.
Read MoreChoosing a workshop is not easy. Many photographers and self acclaimed photo experts offer workshops these days and I suggest that most of these workshops are either ineffective, boring or aim at beginners. The most important aspect to look at when choosing a workshop is obviously the photographer who is conducting the workshop. This does not necesseraily mean it should be one of the big names, but it should be a person that has something valueable to tell. I don´t attend workshops often, but when I learned about the workshop conducted by Jesse Struyvelt happening during the Summer Festival of the MeinFilmLab, I was immediately hooked. No doubt I wanted to join.
Read MoreWhat is it about film, that makes our heart sing? Why do people still shoot film, when digital is so convenient to use? There must be something that goes beyond detail, sharpness, precise color reproduction and this probably the "soul" of photography!
Beautiful grain, stunning tonality, bright and vivid colors, beautiful skin tones and subdued elegant shades of gray, all these attributes belong to certain type of film and wait to be explored, not only by the nostalgic enthusiast who is still drawn to the real medium, but also by the interested digital shooter, who is looking for a way to introduce the magic of film into the digital workflow.
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I have tried many mounting solutions for my Epson flatbed scanner and I was never happy with the results. Some solutions use additional glass and all of them reduce sharpness by a certain level. They deal with curled film quite nicely, but the loss of sharpness is not acceptable in my opinion. This is why I continued to use the original holders for quite a while. I still think they are the cheapest solution for good results. Handling can be a bit difficult though. By coincident I stumbled upon the Digitaliza 120 film mask and as I used a 35mm Digitaliza before I thought I would give it a try. After some experimentation I discovered that I can increase scan sharpness by increasing the distance between the scanner glass and the film. I made a 2mm thick rubber support for the Digitaliza and my scans immediately looked much better. It took me several test scans to find the optimum height. The 120 Film Mask is now my go to solution for mounting 120 film on a flatbed scanner.
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