Digital imagery allows for such an unlimited array of styles and looks, why chain it down to mere forgery? Why not contribute to the myriad new paths that can be trailblazer in this incredible time of new technology and creativity? The first thought of many is "why pay the expense of film when you can have the same look for a fraction of the price and ease of workflow?"Īnd digital photography can be about so much more than just copying what has already been done. This kind of practice blurs peoples' idea of what is and what isn't film and furthermore, if people are lead to believe digital can actually look like film, the value of shooting real film will decrease in many peoples' minds. If you want the look of film, support it, shoot the real thing, else it will go away and you'll be left copying something that few people remember or know anything about. To me, this is an insult to both film AND digital. The next film stock Kirk's set his eyes on is from Ilford - there are great things ahead. If you're interested in picking up a copy of your own check out Mastin Labs or their Facebook page. Even if you replace one roll of 400H at every wedding / shoot over the course of a few weeks you'll more than make back your money - I have. But assuming I spend around $6 per roll of Portra (400H runs around $10) and another $10-$20 for processing and scanning, it doesn't take too many rolls to make up for the cost of the preset system. at a normal price of $119 (though Kirk has been known to offer presets at special, discounted rates) the Mastin Labs system runs around the same price as those from VSCO. When I first purchased the Portra 400 preset last winter I was slightly intimidated by the cost of the system. This doesn't mean that you can't use the system with cameras from these manufactures, it'll just take some more fine-tuning. With only Canon and Nikon options at the moment Sony, Fuji, Leica, Olympus, Pentax, etc.
This preset system doesn't have to be used to give a filmic look, recently I've been loving using it for portraits with subtle split toning. These are both really lovely and give grain that, to my eye, is more pleasing than the scanned film. The system offers two different grain types 35mm and medium format.
The grain that comes in these presets is to die for - truly, it's better than VSCO, ReallyNiceImages, and any other preset system I've tried. I'm a huge grain buff, it's just one of those things. The online tutorials have been incredibly helpful in getting the hang of editing with Mastin Labs. When properly dialed in it's really tough to tell the difference between the digital and film images - perfect for hybrid shooting. Once you dial in the exposure, temperature, it takes very little time to mimic film - even less once you get the hang of it. I'll display the image SOOC from my D610 (shot in NEF raw, auto white balance), digital images processed with the Mastin Labs system, then 35mm 400H film as seen below.
Over the weekend I was able to use the Mastin Labs system side-by-side with the real deal in several different situations and was very pleased with the results. As you'll see below, it's relatively easy to match the digital files to film, once you get the recipe right, batch editing will allow you to apply the preset to multiple images in similar lighting conditions.
Kirk has a great little tutorial on matching digital and film images on his website (accessible with a password from your purchase). Please be aware that these presets are not meant to be a one-click editing solution, in order to match the digital images to the film ones you'll need to manually adjust exposure, temperature, and tint to taste (matching digital to film precisely takes practice). With these presets you can "hybrid" shoot with 35mm /120 format and digital seamlessly integrating the film images you take with the digital ones. From my experience 400H excels in beautiful greens, pinks, blues, and has fabulous highlight rolloff - making it a favorite film stock for wedding shooters. The Mastin Labs system is unique in that it isn't meant to completely replace your film stock, rather it's designed to supplement it. With spring here, and summer right around the corner I couldn't think of a better time to try out the 400H preset system. Now Kirk Mastin, the mastermind behind the presets is gearing up to release his Fuji 400H preset system and I couldn't be more excited.
As a long time Kodak Portra 400 shooter I was thrilled to see side-by-side comparisons of Portra 400 against digital with the preset. Late last year, Trevor Dayley wrote an article which introduced me to the Mastin Labs Portra 400 film emulation preset system.