Portraits on Kodak Portra 400 - Tips in Negative Lab Pro

[@erwnalejo]

Thanks for tips man! Just what I needed before I shoot my first wedding on film!

[@torreymerritt]

Really glad you found this one useful man, have a blast shooting that wedding on film that's amazing!

[@markcoffiekenneth]

Happy to be the first comment on this view. One day your channel will blossom and i will be back to comment again. This video is great and educational

[@torreymerritt]

Thanks so much for the first comment, and the kind words! I'm really looking forward to seeing where the channel goes and hope to encounter lots more kind people like yourself!

[@stevenev74]

Great video, very useful, thank you.

[@torreymerritt]

So glad it was helpful!! Thanks so much for taking the time to watch

[@glowingeye]

That was helpful, thanks! I‘m struggling to find out what the „real“ colors of the film are, which in and of itself is already problematic - film, developer, paper, paper dev… All this influences the final image. Same with scanning which I‘m now trying with a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE and Silverlab. I‘ve got some color film by Kodak, ISO 200. And that‘s all I know and I just get weird magenta shifts, sometimes sort of dead or very very flat looking greens, it‘s horrible. So in the end, I‘m not gonna switch to Negative Lab Pro just jet. I‘ll try to use the profiles in Silverlab (actually, they have specific ones for many films that seem ok, not for my film, though) and lightly edit the TIFs in Lightroom. I cant get any RAW files this way but whatever. If I like the colors of the final image, f*ck everything else, it‘s all that counts 😂 I‘m jut starting with analog photography and this was my first color film. Before I only shot B/W, which is awesome but sometimes color is just a necessity.

[@torreymerritt]

So glad you found it helpful! I think you're wise to mention the question - what are the real colors of film... all of the points you brought up summarize why this question isn't an easy straightforward answer. There are so many variables to that final output. I'm definitely hoping to cover more on this topic in upcoming videos! You'll have to update sometime on how the Plustek + Silverscan is going. But like you said, if you like the colors of the final image, that's essentially all that matters! Thanks again for the comment

[@MaximOttevanger]

Nice video man!

[@torreymerritt]

I really appreciate it man! I've been super intimidated to get on camera in the past but I'm enjoying pushing past that and just getting this channel off the ground. Thanks again

[@kaneda8625]

bro thank you a lot for this video. It will be amazing to watch a tutorial about the emulation of film look but for digital images. I like a lot that look but i'm not able to emulate the perfect film look :/

[@torreymerritt]

Hey thanks for tuning in man! I actually have a video coming up exactly about that topic so you're in luck!

[@kaneda8625]

@@torreymerritt waiting for it bro!

[@ciscognz]

Great work! What’s the cam and lens setup ya shooting?

[@torreymerritt]

Thanks so much, Francisco! Right now I'm using a Canon Elan 7 with a Sigma 35mm EF Mount and the Canon 50mm 1.4 - the autofocus is really hit or miss so far so I'm considering going back to something like a Canon AE-1 or getting into medium format. For portraits, I love having autofocus and some speed but I'm finding that the Elan 7 is not quite accurate or reliable enough to justify for the long term, especially with current film prices. I'll try to make some comments on this in another video sometime!

[@wado1942]

My biggest problem in recent years is labs not following my instructions. Also, most labs don't even have optical enlargers, they scan/inkjet your stuff. I wound up switching to reversal film a few years ago so if anything goes wrong, it's my fault. The down side is the images are softer and more contrasty.

[@torreymerritt]

I hear you on that for sure. I've been quite disappointed almost every time I've tried labs in the past, up to even recently. I have a ton to learn about film but I'm really enjoying the ability to tweak things at least in a simple way. Reversal film looks really cool! I've yet to try it but I can see why it's super useful in cutting out the necessity of the conversion side of things.

[@wado1942]

@@torreymerritt I don't manipulate my images. I never even digitized my slides from Australia a few years ago. They came out gorgeous but in order to see them, I need to bust out a projector. I think that helps keep it special in a way. That said, slide film is a lot easier to accurately scan than negative.

[@torreymerritt]

That's such a pure way to view them, I think that's fantastic and is becoming pretty rare. Film photography in Australia sounds incredible!

[@isaiaho8227]

Do you also develop your film as well or are you sending it to a lab just to be processed

[@torreymerritt]

So glad you asked this, forgot to mention it in this video! I just use a local lab mostly for two reasons: 1) That part of the process is mostly scientific and not subjective or artistic, so I don't feel an extreme need to be involved and 2) I just don't have the time to develop my own film - it would be really cool to be involved in the full process but I don't think I could justify the added time to the workflow. However, at some point I would like to learn how and try it because I think it's probably a very enriching and valuable experience!

[@relaxwithme3266]

@@torreymerritt IT only takes 15 minutes to develop 2 rolls of film!

[@viewfinderthis]

Thanks for this.

[@torreymerritt]

My pleasure!