Cinestill 800T, before and after

I’ve been thinking about Cinestill 800T again recently, mostly because of seeing how other people are using this film, and I wanted to chime in a bit more.  Going back to my writeup from last month, I just wanted to make it clear that a lot of the time, this film doesn’t look very good right out of the scanner, so be encouraged.  I’m seeing a lot of people posting Cinestill images raw, and they just don’t look right.  Remember: adjust the curves.  Here’s what I mean:

 
before                                               after

Just a bit too much blue.

I almost never get images I like right away with this film.  It’s not so much of a problem, as long as I’m willing to take a few minutes to adjust some things in Post.  What it means however, is that knowing ahead of time that I’m going to have to tweak it after scanning, I’m only going to shoot it for projects where I’m willing to put in that extra time to get it looking right.

One more thing: this entire roll needed adjustment except for the absolute last exposure.  For some reason, that one came out looking fine, despite the fact that the shots right before it, taken literally one foot from each other, are as blue as everything else.  Out of the entire roll, this one was fine:

Too bad I fudged the focus

The guy at the camera store said maybe the color temperature of the lights was different, I don’t think that’s right.  I think it has to do with this camera (Pentax SF-1) having a plastic window on the back that I forgot to tape over.  If that’s the case though, just look at how well I was able to salvage those shots!  If you’re shooting the 800T (or any of the Kodak motion picture film being repackaged by Cinestill or other companies) and it doesn’t look right, don’t be discouraged with the results you’re getting!  Pull it into Photoshop, Lightroom, whatever you can get a hold of and start adjusting curves or color balance, add some contrast maybe.

That’s all I have for now.  Merry Christmas to everyone, I probably won’t be back on until next year.

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More like odds and ends than anything else

Fuji Superia does it for me again.  I started this roll right after finishing another one, and sort of used this as the backup body just to have around, so there are a few outtakes thrown in.  I started this roll on Oct 17 and finished on Nov 30, so I kind of shot this roll the way I used to do it back in the day, taking my time and not using a whole lot of film.  I don’t feel like there’s anything all too wonderful here but I just love the color.  Fuji Superia really is like an old friend that I can always count on.

Looking up

an update:
It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this for almost a year now.  I’m running out of pictures from my back catalog (that I’m OK with people seeing, that is) and it seems a bit like I’m running out of steam, but there’s still more to come, it will just be a bit of a transition from what I’ve been doing the last few months.

I’m planning on investing in another film scanner early next year and will be able to show a bit more of my work from the Intro to Photography class, primarily done with a Minolta SRT-MCII.  I’ve also signed up for another photo class, Alternative Processes which I think will cover things like pinhole photography and things like caffenol.  There’ll be a lot of black & white coming next year.

Besides that I have one more roll of film to get back from processing, and I also received a commission to make some family portraits.  It’s not going to get quiet any time soon.

Made in USA

This is part of the Mead paper mill in Chillicothe, Ohio.  I snapped this from the car window as we were driving along (you’ll see the door frame in the top left).  Since going back to college I’ve always tried to buy Mead 5-star papers/binders when getting school supplies.  It’s nice to be reminded from time to time that things are still made in my country, and to have a part of that so close to where I grew up.

edit: It might not be Mead anymore, but it’s still around.  I found this article.

Not a trickle, but a flood

Esther Sparks & the Whiskey Remedy

Kodak Tri-X pushed to 1600.