One Answer…

…to my post of last sunday!

First I’d like to address a comment from Kris. I did not use the iPhone for the digital shots but a Fuji X-E1 with my Canon FD 28mm lens, making a nice perfect normal 42mm equivalent on the APS-C sensor.

What’s more, the old glass gives a less clinical look to the digital files, less than the near perfect Fujinon lenses.

And then, to get you off the scent a bit, I treated the digital files to a bit of digital grain in Lightroom…. yes I know, Despicable Me, hehehe…

Now the compression the files went through while posting on my blog, both film and digital gives artefacts on both types. And of course, the film photos were scanned so they are essentially digital too. But nonetheless the film character normally shines through.

Anyways, a lot of you got it right! Congratulations, you earned yourselves a virtual… digital… shoulder pat!

Here they are again:

Number ONE is FILM (sorry verzbilovska…)

Number TWO is then obviously DIGITAL. Notice the washed out highlights…

Among these I personnaly prefer the film photo as it renders the scene more like I saw it that morning. The sky was not that dark blue color and the red of the dress is warmer on film,

The next two were a bit more obvious I must say. One thing gave the film photo away…

Number THREE is FILM! It’s not so much the color of the grass that gives it away, it’s the color of the sky! That greenish hue. And I won’t blame Fuji for their cheap Superia 200 film! It’s rather my unprofessional development technique that got me the off color.

Number FOUR, the DIGITAL version!

Digital  of course profits from the very good white balance of the Fuji camera and renders the sky as seen that day.

So most of you got it right! Great!

Which do you prefer? The imperfect film rendering or the more clinical digital photos. My choice is made, it is film. I wouldn’t miss the good (and sometimes bad) surprises I get with film. It’s limited by film grain, by color temperature shifts and of course by my incompetent developing technique but it remains my favourite.

Here are two more for you, and no quiz this time, and no artificial grain! I was amazed how well the colours came out on film for this one. There’s little difference in the tones of the green sweater and even the suit is nicely rendered under the artificial lights. I did not shift any color balance while scanning and developing the photo.

Thanks a lot for playing along and see you soon on this  blog!