December 4, 2024

Film and darkroom processes do make you think more about your photographer. But are they the right tools for improving especially for beginners? Probably not! But there’s a viable alternative.

You can also get the free Filmist presets here to see real film tones in your edits. Also actions like Emulsion were created based on darkroom processes.

Film has made a big comeback in the past few years as people tire of fakery and Ai and want more organic real experiences. But it’s also very expensive.

Whether it’s the magic of Instax or POloroids or whether it’s the subtle shadow and color theories you understand better using film. It does pay off. I just don’t think it’s the secret sauce for newer photography for the reasons I mention in the video.

Someone recently told me they liked my LIghtroom presets because they were not gaudy and pointless. A lot of that is that I’ve been making pro-grade presets longer than anyone on the market. But what I immediately thought of is film.

My film and shadow hacking studies have shaped the way I create tools and it’s a big reason why they are different from the others on the market. The way film helps you understand subtlety and tone and color versus just pushing a slider increases the more you use it. If you spend any time on analog I think you’ll understand what I mean.

If I plied film is not worth it that’s not what I mean. What I mean is that film is a tough tool to start on. It’s more something to work with once you are at that intermediate or advanced level where it’s nuance will mean more to you.

So yes, everyone. Get some vintage lenses. Shoot some film on the cameras that often come with them. But don’t think you need film to improve your photography. Slow down and let the shadow lead you.

Gavin Seim

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June 15, 2022

There’s a story here. But the real gold nugget is how to use GOLD tones with color photos. Here’s what I’ve learned…

My grandpa was always buying and selling antiques and taught me when I was young how to separate the value from the junk. At least he tried to teach me.

I remember him talking about the Curtis gold-tone prints long before digital was a thing. Little did I know that 3o years later I would still be obsessed with gold tones in the back of my mind as I developed my recipes. Maybe because they are so hard to get just right.

But today we’re in color, not re-creating early-era gold tones.
Enter the Gold-Chrome.

As far as I know, there was never a Gold-Chrome film. But maybe there should have been. Now even if you’re wanting to create other tones and mixes, the tips I’m going to share today will work.

Once we know the settings we create, but sometimes we use the slider in a very basic way. Decades later I still find myself discovering formulas. The sliders are a lot like chemicals. While it may be less messy and costly, those curves and up and downs are not any less subtle.

Mount Rainier by Asahel Curtis – Gold Orotype

Since the early days of photography, it seems people noticed the magic in a gold image. From the Platinum pallidum to the Curtis gold tones that were actually processed with real gold. The Orotone!

Maybe it’s the romance that early black and white created with its impure and often tinted results. Maybe it’s just because we love warm tones. It’s a color emotion thing. It’s why in cinema styles there are a lot of looks with orange and blue hues. Being opposite each other on a color wheel, they pair well.

So I recreated the early era darkroom and platinum looks in my Emulsions actions. They take that toning and make it easy to manage in layers. The platinum has a warm tone, not always Gold, but sometimes it actually feels gold.. In the future, I might add an authentic Orotone recipe into Emulsion actions as they can do more complex things than we create with presets and styles.

Here’s our goal…

  • Create dynamic gold tones that are not monochrome.
  • Try to maintain a gold that feels natural with other colors.
  • Make the gold tones versatile across many image types.

The perfect COLOR-Gold formula is NOT Selective color.

Rather than tinted black and white, these are created by how color is mixed and by the natural light in a scene. So if you have a backlit sunset, gold warmth comes more naturally and feels more at home. Don’t confuse this with ugly 90’s selective color.

You may have used the popular Classic Negative if you use Fuji X cameras. This is based on Superia 200 film, but it’s actually a very low saturation looks, while still retaining colors. I have a preset of Classic Negative that also you can download for free here. that I made to use on any field, like this Fuji XE3 street photo, since this model did not include that profile in the camera.

Street workers in a Mexico square, Fuji classic negative preset from Filmist
Not gold – Street workers, Filmist Classic Negative look on a Fuji XE3 RAW file.

You’ve seen this approach used in golden warm sunset photos but may not have even known it. These are not selective colors or black and white. They are shot and developed to focus on the golden warmth, but the color still remains.

I have tinkered with getting this look for over a decade in Lightroom, going all the way back to the first version of Power Workflow. More recently I had a great portrait-focused gold effect in the Muse preset pack called Gold Dust!

UPDATE – Get my Gold recipes as presets for Lightroom and Capture One with my finished Gold-Chrome pack.

Level 1 Gold toning
Warm like a sunset but maintains rich color.

Gold Dust – tone from the Muse presets pack. Sony FIle.

We want that look you see in iconic street photos or magazines. It always starts with light in the camera, but if you develop well, that gold can even be added to less warm images and still feel perfect.

Level 1 is gentle. It could almost be mistaken for White Balance but it’s much richer. Complicating matters more, each camera is different. Fuji tones lean redder, Sony more green etc.

We live in a world of internet marketers selling tools that leave people unhappy. I deal with the fallout of that, which is why I always guarantee my products. I am passionate and often obsessed with this kind of recipe. It cannot just work on one photo, it has to work on most of them.

In the Filmist pack I might spend an entire week focused on a single recipe to get it just right. Today I’ll show you progressively more intense gold recipes I’ve developed.

Don’t do this with White Balance!

Yes, it’s fine to warm or cool a photo a little with WB. It’s one of the secrets of making any6 color formula work for YOUR camera. But you can’t get a proper golden tone with a WB cast adjustment. White balance is often used for this, but incorrectly. Toning needs to come from the more subtle color channel and wheels.

Why? First, no WB setting will work in a Lightroom preset or styles for Capture One. They vary on a per-image basis. Second, you want more depth. When you use the color wheel and even more curves, you have dynamic toning that moves with the shadows and highlights.

Take all the colors away, then start from zero.

TIP: If you’re trying to make a color tone, go to the HSL colors and desaturate every channel.

This working in reverse will really well to help you find the goal. Pull them all down… Now start moving color back in a little at a time.

Next, you mix those with color wheels in mids, shadows, and highlights, then tones. As you progress you will see your effect come to life.

I kept thinking about how to explain more simply how to use advanced color features in Lightroom and Capture One. I’ll be making a channel a video and I’ll post it here in the future when I have

Elote Girl – Cine Soft Brown mi.

On the lighter gold side, we’re talking about a warm overtone that has hints of gold. Another level 1 like we see right here with the elotes girl happy over her corn. Yes, they love their Elotes in Mexico and they are always buying them on the street covered in mayonnaise and chili.

This gets more complex as we go to curves. You can do amazing things with the individual color channels in curves. But you can make a mess very fast. The adjustment in the color cruces, whether in Lightroom, Capture One, or Photoshop, is very finite but very powerful.

Level 2 Gold Toning
Softer color and more expansive warm tones.

But let’s go to level 2 gold. This is not about a vintage look. It’s about feeling good. I did these with what I call my El Dorado process. This pushes other colors down a bit more and focuses on the gold tones and color wheels. But it’s still a full-color photo.

El dorado process

A Gold-Chrome has colors from every channel.

We’re trying to empathize with a tone and feel of a scene that complements the real-world light. Even at level 2, we have a full-color spectrum, but golden warmth is all over the frame here. Level 2 done right, is actually very versatile.

This works great in atmospheric street scenes. But also fashion portraits and beyond. What we’re doing is using color to extend the existing emotions but in a way that doe snot feel like a fake color. If all color is equal, the image looks rather boring.

The parking garage, San Juan Del Rio Mexico -El Dorado tone

Now it’s starting to go GOLD!

By separating color and focusing on a specific range, we control the hues of a scene. In the case of Gold, it tends to give a warm sunset romantic vibe

IN going further we’re going to take a queue from the Curtis Gold tone. Because gold was part of the chemical process, it results in highlights being ultra gold. We’re still working in color, but let’s curve down those highlights and go further.

El Doroado gold chrome process. Level 2 still retains color well.

Going to level 3 – Ultra gold chrome color

What we’ve done is push curves and colors and how they respond more and more without selectively reducing any one color. The sensation of color is soft, leaving you with gold and warm rays. But the influence of the color is still there.

The boy on the dock. Ultra Gold tone. The color is there but the gold is more intense. In some photos, it feels perfectly natural.

In this photo on the lakeshore where it;’s clear sunset, it feels almost natural, but looking at the original file, you see just how much gold we added. I think with any process this should be the goal. Adding your recipe, while maintaining a feel that does not distract and feels right.

Original RAW file from a Fuji X100V

And yet we’ve all seen an image like this. Radiant golden rays that are intense, but feel natural. Like they convey an emotion that we might have felt in the real place. That’s the goal of photography. We have to convey that shadow, the sensation and to me, that’s what a great color formula is about.

A good Gold process is such that you don’t think about it being processed, yOU think about the feel and the story of this boy standing at the end of a dock waiting for his ship to come in. Or maybe something else.

Yes, Use RAW files and presets!

With any of the deep edits, you want RAw whenever possible. It’s especially popular amount street shooters to shoot JPEGs. The Fuji camera for example has great in-camera profiles. But you throw so much away in JPEG and if you want to deep deep recipes like this, you will be glad you have a RAW file to start from. Take a look at my video… Raw vs JPEG 2022.

It’s also important to have these as presets. We talking about adjustments that take hours. Especially when you refine them. So whether you buy presets like mine or make your own. Save at each step so you can use and compare easily later.

Ultra Gold color in a night street scene. Highlights are deeply affected giving this scene a vintage vibe.

Don’t be afraid to level up and do more.

By being progressively bolder, we’ve created a look that can be intense and still feel right. This post was about creating color gold tones. But it’s also about pushing developing settings.

I admit usually start with a presets or action to help kick me in the right direction.

If I see ten variants of a photo, it’s like adding visualizations to my brain and those adapt to create new ideas that I otherwise would have not discovered.

The level 3 process tends to look natural in photos where there is already a natural gold glow on the boy on the dock. Note the extremes in the highlights where level 3 pulls the upper curve down and fills it with warmth. This can work in other scenes like the night shot above, but it tends to bring a vintage vibe that is clearly a color effect. That’s not good to bad, just be aware.

My Gold Chrome Conclusion.

I like this look, which is why I have chased it for so long. How to edit and tone an image is a very personal choice and often there are many approaches that will look good. But if we become less timid, will draw out shadows and tones in new ways.

This has perhaps been an overly intensive look at gold chrome toning. But I’ve been chasing these tones for over a decade, and really ever since my grandpa talked with reverence about early ere Curtis Gold-Tone prints.

As these formulas are refined enough to work in most scenes, you may see them come out in my presets packs. The first level 1 Gold Dust tone is also part of my Muse Collection so if you have them play around and make your own variants.

20 years later I feel like I am starting to understand what needs to be done to make gold work. I have failed many times to get it right. A really good process is one you will come back to. If I am not there yet, I am on the way and I wanted to share with you and I hope you will share what you have found in the comments below.

Gavin Seim

L3 Gold Chrome church in the square. This takes extreme measures on highlights to give a very darkroom-like gold flavor.
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November 3, 2019

With the Fuji Xpro 3 came the Classic Negative look. It’s based on Superia 200. But older cameras and other brands don’t have this film style. As part of the Filmist Project, I started creating classic Fuji-like presets for Lightroom and Capture One. This is my Classic negative film simulation!

So I made Classic Negative Like, a Free Lightroom Preset, and Capture One Style that’s like shooting it in the camera, but better.

Getting film presets to work on any camera takes time. The classic negative-like simulation was no exception. I don’t like camera-specific color profiles that limit you. I use a preset like this “Classic Negative”-like preset. I also made a Classic Chrome preset and you can read about that here.

In action… Classic Negative film recipe Preset and Capture One Style.

– DOWNLOAD my new 2024 V2 Fuji Classic Negative preset FREE.

The improved Gen.2 2024 classic neg film simulation in my free pack on the Filmist 3 film presets page. It includes Classic Negative as a Lightroom preset as a Capture One Style a LUT for video, PLUS a couple other presets from Filmist.

For years, I’ve been expanding my Film presets project, creating presets such as Porta, Fuji 400, Fujifilm black and white, and others. So I created a mini-free pack from my complete Film presets collection You can get the Seim Classic Negative look for free.

I’ll add the link above so you can get my latest version of the Classic Neg-like look and try it out. Feedback has been great on this and the new 2023 version is even more dialed in,

Fuji Classic Negative Like Lightroom Presets and Capture One Style
In-Camera JPEG beside my 2023 Classic Negative, Like Gen.2 presets for Lightroom and Capture. This new version of my classic neg film simulation is better than ever.

Film-inspired recipes and presets bring out the magic.

Film is a secret weapon most photographers don’t realize. It brings a nuance and atmosphere. It helps us balance shadows in a digital slider world that is often overcooked. See my post… Filmic Lightroom presets and styles ground your edits.

That’s why Fuji is the only camera brand people love for its color profiles. They are inspired by film and they have years of understanding how shadows and colors alter our senses.

Fuji Classic Negative look was inspired by Fujifilm Superia, a negative film from the 1990s. There are zero technical reasons to make color profiles work only on the latest cameras, it’s just a marketing trick. That’s why I set to work and made filmic presets/styles and Luts for this process.

Fuji Classic Negative lightroom preset
Classic negative Like applied to a RAW file.

Don’t stop at the Classic Negative film presets.

People can get stuck on these Fuji colors. They are good, but they are just film-inspired looks. I’ve included a few more film presets for Lightroom and Capture One in the Filmist Sampler download, like Portra 160, start extending out and trying the films, and the more you do the more control you will have over the tone and atmosphere of your photos.

My free classic neg preset works for Capture One, Lightroom CC, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom Mobile, and has a preset for older versions like Lightroom 6. Go here if you need help installing presets.

I hope you enjoy this Fuji Classic Negative look. Please let me know what you think or if you have questions. You can also subscribe to my YouTube photography channel.

Gavin Seim

Fuji Classic Negative Preset and Style from Gavin Seim
Classic negative look recipe on Sony and other cameras
Classic Netagive like on a Sony RAW file brings the same look to my non-Fuji files.
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October 11, 2019

Get started with the stunning look of film!

Filmist beings the look of real film to digital. You be thinking you’re not interested in buying the the complete pack. So we made this Filmist Lite collection so you can get started with the beauty of film in your edits. These 8 presets are just the start of what Filmist can, but they a lot.

  • AgfaFlex RSX
  • ColorPro P400
  • EternaFlex A
  • FUJIPRO 400 H
  • KODAChrome 1964
  • Natura e400
  • PORTRA 160
  • Silvex DELTA 100

Download Filmist Light!

 

If you like what you see check out Filmist Complete with over 50 emulsions. You can also learn how to use Filmist by watching the training videos for Lightroom here and for Capture 1 here. Aldo if you have any questions just email us, effects@seimstudios.com enjoy!

Gav and Nate

 

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September 27, 2019

We just uploaded the hands-on workshops for filmist! One for Lightroom, and 1 for Capture One! Check’em out below! I’ve linked the images directly to the videos on my YouTube channel so you can watch full screen in 4k. While your there give us a subscribe.

If you don’t have Filmist yet, get it here.

Gav


 

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