The Natura 1600 look is amazing in digital when it is formulated perfectly.

So in today’s video, I want to show you the latest film I created for the Filmist project. You can get the Lightroom Presets and Capture One Styles here.

The truth is Natura 1600 was included in Filmist from the start. So I went back to the drawing board studying every Natura and Superia 1600 resource I could find. I wanted to make it perfect for the Natura 1600 gen.2 updates. Much like I did for the Portra gen.2 presets a few months ago.

Filmist is a project I always come back to. I love authentic film looks on digital and  I always find ways to make them better. Emulsion film is the hardest kind of edit in Lightroom and RAW editors. The nuances and making them work digital are subtle. I spend hours trying different files, comparing them to real films. Then when I take it to Capture One, I have to go back to the halfway point and start again because C1 rebounders so differently. At the end of all my gen.2 film presets I end up with a Lightroom preset, a Capture One style, and a LUT that represents the film, and this nature 1600 look is second to none.

Natura has this bright warm feel with a fairly grainy look. But that grain does not overpower and I think this formula really conveys the feel of Natura/Superia film.

Gavin Seim

This week’s channel video is something I discovered about contrast and its related tools that you need to know.

Because in an era of sliders and algorithms it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of what we are really doing to a photo when we edit it. So today I’m going to show you how contrast actually works and how you can get the exact effect you want in Lightroom, in Photoshop, IN Luminar, Capture one etc.

A tool is just a tool. you are the one that makes it work. So when I design classes, Lightroom presets, Capture one Styles, and actions, what I’m really doing is finding unique ways to combine these tools, and today I’ll show you how.

Think of contrast as the primary ingredient in every photo.

When you do that, your perception shifts and you see the tone and light in new ways as I talk about in my Exposed workshop using Zones and other exposure guides.

This may seem like a blip on the radar, but once you start to apply it it will change everything about how you make photos.

Gavin Seim

This is a primer to my Shadow Hackers workshop. If you have not yet signed up for Shadow Hackers do it HERE.

Photography is all about tone, but not how people think.

In today’s primer video, I’ll use Black and white photography as a reference and we’ll start hunting shadows. This still applies to color because with this you can learn to people’s attention ONLY where you want it.

You can’t just have BLACK but you need black!

I love shooting in black and white to help me see tone better, even if I return to color. That tone-based sight makes you see better. It makes you plan your image to amaze.

My mentor Ken Whitmire died about 5 years ago now but I will never forget one of the most important lessons he taught me. Today we’ll look at some basics and histograms and in Shadow Hackers, we’ll go deeper.

“Tone” Ken said – “It’s the least used and least understood aspect of photography”.

That knowledge has driven me to discover something more. What I learned from that is that tone is complex but also simple Photographers are not using tone because they are afraid of it.

There are histograms, exposure charts, tools for luminosity making and tone, and RAW and actions. I even make some of them like

I realized that a rich tone starts with blacks. Zone 0, Zone 12 for you Ansel Zones Fans. If you stop being afraid of blacks, it changes the way you see and builds photos everywhere because you start seeing that contrast

Shoot shadows a bit and watch what happens…

Take the time to watch this video till the end. If you apply what’s shown here your blacks, your tone and as a result, your entire photography game will level up.

I’ve also been focusing on the latest editing tools I make to make finding shadows easier. Tools like Blackroom and Lumist. completely change how I can manipulate the shadow.

I also uploaded a FREE sampler pack from my Silver 4, the black and white Lightroom presets. Play with those or the Capture One Styles are also included. Watch how blacks are being used to do what we’re seeing in this video. See tones first, regardless of whether you’re photographing in black and white or color.

Don’t miss Shadow Hackers because in it we’ll go deeper and I’ll show you the entire process to master this – Gavin Seim