Digitizing Film Without a Scanner (pt. 3)

And it was close, but no cigar…

As you flip through the pictures below, note a couple of things: 1) the warp in the film; 2) the focus (or lack thereof); 3) the color.

So my cardboard-and-tape film duplicating contraption failed to keep the film flat. Additionally, it was just a bit shy of the minimum distance needed to focus, even with the (admittedly slight) extension.

Sort of a shame, really. There are a couple of pictures of Olive and Ivan on the roll, and a couple of selfies, a few random snapshots around the Grigsby, and some shots from a few photowalks. The out of focus ones I’m sharing today came from the Dallas Blooms walk and the downtown McKinney photowalk. (That reminds me: I never shared anything from the roll of Ilford that I finished up just before starting the roll that these came from… maybe one day soon.)

In fact, I shot some of the same shots (or shots from a very similar vantage point) with the D7000 and Sigma 30mm f/1.4… Just for fun, let’s compare them…

digital
digital
previously unreleased|29|©JamesECockroft-20140914
Film
Ohne Titel
Digital
Film

A few things to note:

  • my vision and color sense have changed a bit…
  • the 35ZF has a light leak
  • the digital version looks a bit glossy, detached, clinical (the change in my vision/color sense, and the addition of monitor calibration have something to do with this, but still… maybe I should reprocess the digital ones when/if I get the negatives scanned a bit better)
  • the film version has some character, a more physical quality, some soul. Sure, the pictures aren’t sharp,* but they have a character that just isn’t in the original.

Assuming you made it this far, which do you prefer? Why?

I want to shoot more film… Continue reading “Digitizing Film Without a Scanner (pt. 3)”

Digitizing Film Without a Scanner (pt. 2)

So yesterday, I went through the rationale for this project (apologies for the long-windedness of that article), and the first evening of tests. Today, we’ll look at some examples from my first attempts with 35mm color negatives and their foibles.

While hunting through my film archives, I came across a color roll that I didn’t remember. It’s not cut or sleeved, and not wrapped around a cardboard tube like the b/w film from that pro shop that doesn’t handle pro film stocks any longer. I had no immediate recollection of it, and it was only later that I realized where it came from. Yep, it’s was shot and developed over 2 years ago, and I’d never seen the pictures off of it (and still haven’t, for the most part).

I had some early missteps, but with missteps come happy accidents:

At the top of the frame, you can see edge of the holder I created… good times. And except for forgetting to set the white balance on the camera to compensate for the orange mask on the film, I was sure I had it. Continue reading “Digitizing Film Without a Scanner (pt. 2)”

Coffee

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Continue reading “Coffee”

Hair Studies, part 4 (1)

In the last week of testing/playing with Olympus C-5050, again with the “macro” filter.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

There’s something about this that feels very 1970s to me. I’m not sure what it is. Maybe the slightly desaturated color, maybe the mix of browns and blues, with just that hint of purple and orange, maybe the slightly off-kilter composition.  Continue reading “Hair Studies, part 4 (1)”