The desire to capture the unique aesthetic of film photography remains strong among photographers, even in our digital age. While the convenience and flexibility of digital cameras are undeniable, the distinct colors, grain, and overall feel of film hold a certain allure.
Coming to you from Samuel Streetlife, this insightful video explores the realm of film emulation using digital tools. The video dives deep into the world of Cobalt Image's film emulation profiles, highlighting their scientific approach to color calibration and the impressive accuracy of their film simulations. He emphasizes the value of these profiles for photographers seeking to achieve a consistent color palette across different camera systems or recreate the look of specific film stocks like Kodak Portra or Fuji Velvia.
Samuel demonstrates the application of these profiles using the Nikon Zf camera paired with a vintage-inspired lens, showcasing the ability to achieve a film-like aesthetic without the limitations of traditional film photography. He discusses the advantages of digital film emulation, such as the ability to experiment with different film stocks after the image has been captured and the freedom from the constraints of limited exposures and time-consuming development processes.
The video also touches on the debate surrounding film versus digital photography, acknowledging the appeal of the authentic film experience while emphasizing the practicality and creative possibilities offered by digital tools. Samuel explores alternative options like Dehancer but ultimately expresses his preference for Cobalt Image profiles due to their neutrality and versatility. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
The film look mostly feels like it's used as a kind of crutch to give a sense of authenticity, intentionality, and mystique to mediocre images. Anything can look real meaningful if it seems like you went out of your way and commited to spending finite resources on it.
In my opinion that's the only reason digital will never look like film. Even if it looks exactly the same visually, it's not got the context of meaning in the same way — The commitment and cost is not the same. Similar to how a small painting compared to the exact same painting except enormous has different contexts. The enormous one has a sense of commitment and resource cost that gives it mystique, intentionality, and greater authenticity as "art" through that.
Film look is nice though.
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Or just shoot film. People did it for decades...