My last post on presets showed some of the results possible on VSCO 00. Today, I’m featuring emulations of two of my favorite films: Kodak Ektar100 and Kodak BW400CN.
Before we go to what the emulations look like, here are a few film shots on Ektar 100 and BW400CN:
Above: All Ektar 100 (1- Hannah, 2- Rafael, 3- Coffee Grinder at the St. Frank Roasting zone, 4 – SFO).
Below:
(1- Rafael awaiting Fries, 2- Hannah, 3- Hannah’s pancake, 4 – Hannah with Crinkles in a Box).
You may notice that the blacks are not as deep in some of the images above, which I surmise is a result of some over-exposure (my Nikon FM doesn’t have a working light meter. I set exposures to what seems right to my eyes). If you wish to achieve that look on purpose, you may try shooting up to 1 stop brighter. From experience, BW400CN is very tolerant of over and under exposure up to about 2 stops. But this entry is more about the emulations (presets), so here they are:
Ektar 100 🙂
Hannah and Raf at Fisherman’s Wharf
Hannah at Fisherman’s Wharf
Polk Street, SFO
Hannah in the Morning.
BW400CN:
St. Frank Coffee!
Intricate Brew
Trusted Grinder.
Market Street, SFO
Some thoughts on the emulations:
Since I didn’t prepare this entry with a controlled set of subjects, we don’t get to gauge empirically if the presets truly emulate the film’s light and color capturing properties. Others have done this already and have concluded that VSCO’s tech is solid. For myself, after comparing the results over many rolls of film and many emulated images, I’m satisfied with the product (VSCO FILM 05). I do think that you could home-brew your own results to mimic specific films even without presets, but if time is an issue, VSCO’s offerings are about the best you can get. They are also pricey (59 USD I think, per pack).
Next post, we’ll have VSCO* square off with Luxe* Presets (cheaper than VSCO but not free) and some completely free presets (VSCO 00, VSCO mobile, snapseed, Iphone, etc). It’ll be fun!
*I don’t get anything for featuring these brands, and I think they’re completely unnecessary to produce quality images. If you’re thinking about buying them to improve your post-processing skills, consider saving your money and focus on mastering the base programs (lightroom, photoshop, or even just snapseed on mobile) with free resources instead. Cheers.