Excelsus Photography

I love film. I am not saying that digital photography is bad. In fact, I have seen a lot of really good digital photography. However, the type of digital setups that I like are usually at a price-point that I am not prepared to go to at this time. But, lower price setups are getting better, and better. Nevertheless, the look of film is still somewhat different than what you get with digital.

That is because each film has it's own look, and it's own way of reacting to light. It's unique way of reacting to certain colors. I am certain that an expert at an image program like Adobe's Photoshop can simulate these effects very well, and I have heard that some cameras even have settings to emulate certain films. However, I doubt that it is very easy to emulate the effect of certain films. And I rarely see any digital photo, even the very best, that makes me think that it was film when it was digital.

Now, before I go much further, I will confess, I am not a film purist. I shoot with film, and scan the transparency (either negative or slide) digitally. So I am more of a hybrid. At some point I would like to play in the darkroom but not now. However, I feel that my view of the look of film is still valid.

Before I go into the specific film brands that I use, let's go into a quick discussion of film types in general.

Color slide film tends to produce images with a low grain (although print (color negative) film of the recently released Ektar 100 may challenge this notion). It also can produce images with high contrast and high resolution. However, its light latitude is pretty low, typically about 1.5 stops under to 0.5 stops over. This means that you need to nail the exposure and in your exposure, to get all the detail you want, the brightest detail should not be more than 2 stops from the darkest detail you want. Exposure latitude varies by brand (and also does for color negative, and black and white negative films).

Color negative (print) film tend to have grain. Some films have more, and some have less (some a lot less). However, it has a more generous exposure latitude than color slide film. Typically 1 stop under to 2-3 stops over. This means you could have a latitude of up to 4 stops. Color print films (C41) are usually cheaper to buy and process than color slide (E6).

Black and white negative (print) film is in it's own world. They typically have a very high exposure latitude. For instance, some types, rated at ISO 400 can be treated as ISO 50 - 800. Usually 5 stops and up of latitude for this type of film. Although drum scanning can come close, digital scanning and printing of this film type usually can't compete with traditional development of a print. However, the digital results are still great if scanned correctly. The process to develop the film is simple and can be done in the home fairly easy.

Ok, now for the films, first the slides:

Kodak Ektachrome E100VS
VS is for Vivid Saturation and that is an understatement. If there is yellow, red and orange someplace, it will find it and send it to over 9000 (highly saturated). Therefore, this is NOT the film for portraits or images of people that you don't want to look sunburnt. However, this IS an excellent film for sunsets, sunrises, fall foliage, and many many natural landscape shots.

FujiFilm Fujichrome Velvia 50
A great film for modest to low light. It is VERY good for extremely long exposures such as shooting with only the light of the moon since the rate of exposure for each color layer doesn't vary much when taking VERY long exposures. Although I think it leans towards blue when you as far out as 20-45 minutes, but for moonlight shots, it isn't a bad thing.




FujuFilm Fujichrome Astia 100F
Great for images with lots of blues and purples. Twilight is my favorite time for this, in which it really brings out those pastels. Under modest but higher light, it seems to behave more closely to Velvia.

Now the color print films:

FujiFilm Fujicolor PRO160C
Fine grain and scans well, but I wouldn't call it grain free. I like to call this a "what you see is what you get film". It has 4 stops of latitude and it is a great film when you have a lot of light. However, I have shot some fine long exposures in low light with it.

Kodak Ektar 100 (latest release)
I find that it has extremely fine grain, just as Kodak claims. To the point that it is close enough to slide for me. This film saturates color a lot, and it is very hard to control under high light. However, under modest light situations, it produces great results. You might need to do a color profile of this film for your scanning software to get good results.

The black and white print films...I don't do a lot of black and white, but I have been satisfied with the results of these:
Kodak TMAX 400
It is a great film and I love the contrast of it. I would say more, but I haven't shot enough yet.

Rollei IR 400
This film is great with no filter. Produces very nice images. However, it is more than twice as expensive as most B&W film. Now with a 720nm IR filter (such as a Hoya R72), and you can produce some really nice IR shots. I took the advice I found on the internet, and assume it is ISO25 with a R72 filter and then shoot several additional shots increasing the exposure each time(like 6 shots, adding +2.0 EV each time). When shooting IR, always err towards over-exposing.

I'll likely keep adding to this, as I love to try new film.