touching the past / graining the present

Let me guess. You have seen this composition many times and you are still impressed by that view. Oh-aye, everybody loves this panorama of Old Town as seen over the Dugald Stewart Monument. I like it especially at night.


The truth is that the image is example of what you should do in Silver Efex Pro 2 by Google (originally Nik software). If you like to have more grain in your picture or you are missing your darkroom. In these days we have a lightroom (in terms of LCD screen and computer) which providing the chance for the post-processing finish which you like or you would like to have.


Let me explain what I mean by today' s blip.


I took that picture at 7.30am in the morning like long-exposure shot. I used 125secs exposition at f/8.0 (setting up software ND filter).


Of course Canon Powershot S120 should be a powerful tool if you want and if you know how to use it. Important thing is shoot into the RAW format because you are getting better results after couple of corrections (sharpening, tones, lens profiles corrections).


I made this classical view so many times so today I decided to find the optimal combination of effects inside the post-processing in Silver Effect Pro 2.


I was really surprised by the results when I used the combination of VINTAGE filter "Antique Plato II" (never used that before) and FILM TYPE Illford PAN F Plus 50.


Hope that you like it ;-) or don' t like it ;-(


Because that' s how it works.


Of course, a lot of people (especially photographers) should agree or disagree with me about whole post-processing in the terms of iflm type simulation and adding the grain in post-processing. But I think that modern digital cameras are much more like the combination of optics and computer (processor, memory, buffer e. g. inside). And there is a potential which many manufacturers could see in the future, I hope. I ' m talking about possibility to simulate film types or sophisticated effects inside the camera menu (not only the funny effects and different 30 scene modes e.g.) . I would like to see that like the basic future in most cameras for the future. Or even better to have an option to choose the creative plug-ins which you like to use inside the camera.


Right now we could say that good example is FUJIFILM X-T1 or X-T2 or other CSC Fuji cameras which are including the simulation of Fuji film types in menu. I like that possibility but unfortunatelly I don' t have this feature in any of my cameras (Canon or Nikon) and I' m lacking that possibility. Unfortunatelly I' m not the guy who could spend 1000£+ only for body despite the fact that I would like to use somewhere in future the camera like FUJIFILM XT-1 because it' s waterproof and dustproof (very useful not only for Scotland).. So the only option for me right now  is exporting RAW file  into the Silver Efex Pro2 from my older cameras (dslr NIKON D7000 or compact CANON S120) and trying to enjoy the same feature like FUJI users have automatically.

And why I' m so sentimental about the film types. I could see daily hundreds of excellent and sharp pictures (20MPx or more) from the great photographers around the world (including you Blippers) and I feel that I don' t want to compete with the others in terms of sharpness and excellent quality to show my best results. All what I would like to have is not only about the simulation of film types is proportion of grain. Maybe in future we should expect firmware like Lightroom or Silver Efex pro like the camera menu feature but not right now. It ' s too early :-D


This opinion remind me one great exhibition in London in 2013. It was Sebastiao Salgado' s Genesis. The exhibition was full of beautiful monochromatic pictures in bigger size (format) and you had to chance to recognize that grain is something what Salgado was mastering by himself very well. Simply the pictures are not so clean but they are outstanding if you are looking on them. Even I heard the story that he is taking a photos right now with the DSLR but he is exporting the files (and printing them) like during his analogue years.

Oh well so engineers and firmware/software developers from Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Pentax and the others I' m waiting.


And for you who are stopping by or following me I have a bonus video. Enjoy ;-)


In Conversation with Sebastião Salgado

post scriptum : for Instagrammers I always recommend the Snapseed or Enlight app. today' s example is about the Snapseed finish ;-)