picture style

Cinematic Color Negative Canon Film Simulation + Steampunk Photos

Steampunk on the Bricks - Dave Lawrence

In my latest YouTube video, I test out several film-like Canon Picture Styles to see which of them can give Canon photographers that Fujifilm-like simulation experience.

Preslav Rachev left a comment asking for feedback on a Picture Style he recently developed, Cinematic Color Negative, and offered it up for a free trial. 

Last weekend, I loaded up Preslav’s filmic emulation onto my Canon M6 and shot for an artist friend of mine at his Steampunk on the Bricks event here in Jackson, Michigan.

Overall? It’s good. I like the colors and contrast – it fits my style of shooting nicely. 

The reds pop, and the greens are muted. That’s just what I’m looking for in my Canon film simulations. And in good lighting, skin tones are natural.

However, testing it out on our new baby niece, and in mixed lighting, the skin tones were a bit overpowering:

Baby Iris

Everyone else’s skin tones looked okay, but poor Baby Iris. She got the neon orange treatment. It could be a combination of jaundice and a reddish skin hue.

The baby is an outlier. For the most part, Preslav’s Cinematic Color Negative Picture Style worked well over a weekend of shooting. 

A few more RAW vs JPG shots for comparison (RAW is on the left):

Cinematic Color Negative - RAW on left, JPG on right

Cinematic Color Negative - RAW on left, JPG on right

My eye notes the subtle desaturation of the greens and blues. The top comparison makes that clear with the plants and the blue sky.

The bottom comparison is a little more subtle: contrast is up, and the house appears whiter in the JPG. Again, the sky in the back loses a bit of blue. Whites are whiter, blacks are blacker – both help increase the contrast.

Head to Gumroad, throw Preslav a buck or two, and try out Cinematic Color Negative yourself (and check out his photography too). 

Thank you, Preslav! 

, , , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Canon + Kodak Film Styles

Fujifilm X cameras are known for their film simulations. Fuji owns and creates several film stocks, so it only makes sense that they build those film emulations into their family of cameras.

As a Kodak film user, however, there’s nothing like Fuji’s film emulations for other cameras – like my own, preferred Canon lineup.

That’s why it was great to learn that Canon’s own Picture Style options can be adapted to loosely match other film stocks out there. With that, I learned Thomas Fransson had created a series of Kodak film styles for Canon cameras. In this case, I downloaded Thomas’s Crowdak film simulation and applied it to a Canon M6 with an EF-M 28mm lense for a quick test.

Some initial thoughts:

  • With lots of greens and blues on my quick walk during my lunch hour, it was hard to see how the film simulation captured other colors and lighting conditions
  • Overall, very muted colors – more than I’m used to with my own style
  • Contrast was almost perfect for my style of shooting

I’m eager to try out Thomas’s other film styles, and several more from Cinescopophilia. 

 

, , ,