Aside from the fact that this is a great introduction to film photography, it's probably the best post processing tutorial I've seen. Can't wait to see more in the future!
I just watched all 4 videos, saved them, subscribed to your channel, and bought a film camera (despite my 5D Mark 3 & 4). Just wanted to let you know the influence you have on photog enthusiasts! Thank you deeply!
Cindy Diana Aw that made my day, thanks for the nice feedback! I hope you enjoy getting into film, share some links when you have your first results! I’m off to Whitehorse later this month on another film shooting adventure that I’ll share photos from! Excited to be making more content :) thank you for watching and taking time to comment.
I just came across your channel. Enjoyed the content as I was looking for some scanner information. I have a bunch of old 1950s era family b&w negatives. I hope you’ll consider adding content. Film Fridays is a good idea.
Absolutely excellent! I wish I had picked up your videos sooner. To explain something simply you have to have a complete understanding of the topic and you sir most certainly do. Keep up the great work
Wow thanks for the nice compliment! I'm really looking forward to getting back into making more content soon, and this is encouraging to hear. I'm happy this was helpful!
Thank you so much for this video! In my opinion one of the hardest parts of working with film is the actual digital post-processing, which I never could get hold of even after countless hours in Lighroom. This was super helpful!
a great series re film. always was a film snapper, even after digital took over. have digital cameras, but, my heart has always been for basic film photography. In all its basic ways. The way digital killed old style photography was, a lot more than just shooting. We all remember those horrid shots in the news media prints. Then came the way the professionals where all cheated from earning a living by dropping incomes. Easy ways to sell images came next. Photo agencies all went. Well I am now very happy about ordinary photographers are hungry for the old ways again. In the end digital just made it lt easier for learning old style ways .Poetic justice. Look forward to more film stocks, and traditional film cameras now demand is there. Watching shots made by yourself appearing in the dev dishes is still a great satisfying way. Long live film.
Another great video, again everything explained really well. In the last 4 months you’ve done 10 videos around analogue photography. Without any gimmicks, but just sound advice well explained, you have 2.1K subscribers. That’s amazing growth and shows how good your videos are.
Thank you very much for this video, while researching for my film workflow, you've helped me learn a bunch of things I was missing in editing digital RAW photos, and the difference was pretty amazing.
@@JamesStevensonPhoto So basically, I ended up reediting some photos that I took and the came out better than how I originally edited them, here's a link, I just reopened my flickr account, flic.kr/p/PSdq8r
Came across your channel two days ago and have watched all of your tutorial videos. Thanks and congratulations on making such brilliant content - it’s informative and for me, it’s pitched perfectly. I’m only starting into film, but you’ve bumped up my enthusiasm and I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve still got to come!
Niall thanks so much for the kind feedback, this is very encouraging to hear and I look forward to sharing more :) Great to hear you're shooting film and I hope you'll share your own photos.
Thank you for sharing your workflow and all the super helpfull tips. I would love to see a film photografy intro about color film. particularly with the scanning and editing part. Keep up the good work James!
Thanks for the kind feedback - a colour film scanning tutorial is most certainly on the way as it's the most requested video I've been asked for! Hold tight for lots more new content that's in the works right now and coming soon.
James, just watched your series of Introduction to Film Photograpny and all I can say is they are excellent, presented well and very informative. Thanks, looking forward to watching other your future you tube videos and learning even more. Good job !
James, great film tutorials! Just wanted to thank you for making this videos. I found your tips very useful, specially for developing and scanning. The results I got were beyond my expectations. Keep up the good work!!
Wow, awesome videos to help film photographers. I started out in film almost 30 years ago and a Pracktika fully manual camera. I recently bought some film cameras to get back to the basics after using digital for the past 12 years. I really looking forward to following your videos to refresh my film skills.
Thank you for the kind comments. Great to hear you'll be dusting off the old film skills! Like several of my friends, I find that do enjoy both film and digital photography... but there's just something about shooting film, like a day out fishing or something. It's a process, and you're often not sure what you are going too get til it's complete, but that's part of the fun isn't it!
Thanks for the video! I kinda' take the attitude while scanning negs of making them look how I might imagine a raw file looking before editing in LR or PS. I do however tweak the sharpening just a wee bit in order to give LR a slightly better starting point. Not sure if this is really necessary though. I am not a digital techie and am now having issues with my scanner (software) producing small scans! I don't really understand how sizing works -- gonna have to see if I can find a video explaining the basics of sizing. Cheers!
Just discovered your channel and subscribed! It's great to see proper informative tutorials without stupid music and without watching you walk around from every angle😂 keep the format and most of all keep them coming👍
Thanks for the feedback Ian, good to know these are being well received! I do plan to do a lot more in-field stuff showing breakdowns of approaching trips and finding good locations, but I'll always try to keep the content on track. It's great to get feedback so I hope you'll keep watching and commenting. Lots more coming very soon! I have stuff in the works.
Jorge Venegas such a nice comment! Thanks! I’ve only making content properly for a few months, I’m really hoping to grow my interaction with the great community of photography enthusiasts out there. I have lots of new videos coming including on-location shoots and interviews with inspirational people, as well as more tutorials. Hope you’ll stay tuned!
bartgoossens1982 thanks for the feedback! I’m enjoying the interaction with a lot of passionate photographers and I’ll definitely be adding more very soon. Plan is to add weekly content from next week onwards 😊
Bosco Serrano Velasco Thanks very much! There will definitely be content covering that very soon, it’s a good idea and great to hear suggestions for future videos :)
Thanks for the kind comment. They do take a long time but I enjoy making them and I've long wanted to join in with the wider film photography community online. I'm happy it was helpful! If you have friends who are interested, please do share :)
Andre Domingues - Timeless Streets thanks for watching! Certainly I’ll be uploading a video on colour work flow. The procedure with Epson scan is pretty much the same; only now I’ve personally switched to using VueScan alongside a small photoshop plugin called ColorPerfect - I find that this gives really great, consistent results. Epson scan can do a good job though, watch this space as more is coming! Weekly content will be going up in the new year with a short break over the upcoming holidays.
In order to help the web platform's compression process, I guess you should've also decreased the resolution value to 72ppi, which is the standard screen resolution. 240ppi, is quite a lot of pixels that don't even exist in the medium of screens and make the file unnecererily heavier.
Hi Giovanni! Essentially, input is where you trim the range of tones that the scanner 'sees' in the preview scan; the full range is looking for values of 0-255 across the full width of the slider, full black value to full white. Here you can see that there is no full black 'seen' in my negative where there's almost full white. By pulling in those trim markers, the range of 81 to 249 is taken to be the 'true' black and 'true' white in the image without losing any value. The 'auto' settings are often too strong, actually losing data but cutting into the histogram which is not good. The output range is one I never touch; moving that controls the depth of black and the brightness of white that is output to your final scanned image. By default, wherever we set our our input values are translated to full black and full white on the output slider. If we adjust the output markers, blacks are made brighter (showing as greys), and whites are made darker (also showing as greys). Its sounds complex when explained in writing, but if you move the output trims yourself you'll see what I mean in practice!
Hi - Thanks for these step by step tutorials. I am a seasoned film photographer with some digital knowledge gaps. A question though, how do you get rid of of product or water streaks , like the one at the top pf the Vancouver picture. one have to be very subtle with that and I must say I often end up making it worst... any recomendation ? thanks again
One of the reasons I enjoy shooting film is that other than perhaps a crop, dust removal or horizon adjustment, I don't have to spend time adjusting levels, sharpness, etc.. and it's very easy to make it look like a digital image, instead of a photo. Too much post processing is missing the point on film photography a little, it's not supposed to be pin sharp perfection, there is supposed to be grain, imperfections. Better film and/or lenses can bring sharper, finer results if that is required and with less time spent in front of computer screens.
Hi disarmsox, thanks for watching and taking time to comment. I agree that its easy to go too far with processing, rendering all of the soul out of a film image and making it too sterile. I've seen this a lot and I'd definitely recommend restraint. However what I would say is that really what I'm trying to show here is how to get the very best from your medium; certainly I'd never promote removing film grain, rather to mitigate the losses that happens when you scan. With zero post processing, detail present in the original negative - especially with 35mm - can be lost for good, highlights are clipped by the scanner's default settings, fine details can be very soft and tone is often lost in the shadows. By showing how to remove dust, sharpen with control and repair scratches, the same techniques can be used to restore old photographs which might be damaged or torn in distracting ways. I personally do like to leave imperfections in, but will remove if they're a dominant feature in an important part of the image. I love shooting film for its organic nature but I also love trying to get the true characteristics to shine in a print. This will always be a subjective stage but I'm hoping that sharing this provides some useful insight so that people can use as part of their own recipes... seasoning to taste as it were!
chicano forlife th-cam.com/video/YRIOE4QfU0Q/w-d-xo.html thank you! This is the monitor, i bought it in 2012 so it’s on the older side but I still really like it 😊
Definitely a version on colour film coming soon. My workflow is a little different with colour so I wanted to go into more detail with that as well as showing additional software I'm using (VueScan with a photoshop plugin that is really useful for colour film conversion called Color Perfect). Watch this space my friend, coming very soon. I've had a little bit of time out overy the Christmas and New Year holidays but will soon have new content every week. All the best!
Very nice and informative video Sir. I have one question: If I want to print a film photo, do I need to bring the brightness a little higher? Because unlike looking a photo on the computer (the light source comes from the back of computer), the print photo needs a light source outside comes to the photo.
Hello and thank you for watching! The short answer is yes you are right: in almost all cases your backlit screen image is going to appear brighter than your print. I'm definitely going to be making episodes on this in the near future as it's a topic with lots of depth but here are some steps I suggest would be helpful! 1: Invest in a screen calibration too, research Datacolor Spyder or X-Rite Color Munki models. These will ensure accurate tones and colour - all monitors display incorrectly without correction - some are way worse than others! 2: Make a curves or Levels adjustment layer on top of your master image in photoshop. Create a new document using some narrow 'test-strips' of your image which include the brightest and darkest sections. Use the paper and printer settings you intend to for your final print and put several strips alongside each other - for example original - brighter - brighter still - brightest. It's often a real surprise just how far you need to push things. 3: Sharpness might also need a boost. You might find that by increasing the radius of your sharpening tool to a higher level than looks right on screen results in a sharp print, the printer needing a little more help in this area at times. It's ultimately a process of trial and error but by limiting your ink wastage to small test strips it'll save you having to repeat print a full sized job over and over. Look out for more info in future videos - plus I'm going to be interviewing my local print professionals and posting their advice as I move into making more prints in 2018! Hope this helps!
Is that an English accent? Im from Ilford in Essex (I remember the Ilford Film factory) and have been gone for so long (now in Oregon USA) that when I hear what I think is an English accent I sometimes have a hard time placing exactly where it is from. Sorry for the non-photo related comment.
Yes English accent, I'm from the south of England but now living in Vancouver - you've still got the ear for the accent! It's great that the Ilford factory is still going, I really enjoy shooting with their films and buy new to support them whenever I restock. HP5, FP4, Pan-F, XP2... all really nice film stocks!
![[ TEASER ] เงาะป่า - วงL.กฮ. | TMG RECORD](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/M4ObdFfcPww/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you a lot for this really interesting video!
Thanks for watching, I'm happy you enjoyed this!
Aside from the fact that this is a great introduction to film photography, it's probably the best post processing tutorial I've seen. Can't wait to see more in the future!
Alexander Corne thanks for the kind words! I’m excited to add more tutorials, and on location guides very soon.
Hands down the best video regarding film post processing. Thank you!
Thomas Popple wow thanks sir!
Brilliant series! Thank you for your efforts and information. Liked and subscribed.
James. Thank you grasias. Very good and simple.
An excellent tutorial. Thank you.
Excellent tutorial.
Thank you, Dave!
I just watched all 4 videos, saved them, subscribed to your channel, and bought a film camera (despite my 5D Mark 3 & 4). Just wanted to let you know the influence you have on photog enthusiasts! Thank you deeply!
Cindy Diana Aw that made my day, thanks for the nice feedback! I hope you enjoy getting into film, share some links when you have your first results! I’m off to Whitehorse later this month on another film shooting adventure that I’ll share photos from! Excited to be making more content :) thank you for watching and taking time to comment.
Thank you. Looking forward to the next video. Nicely done.
BRILLIANT thanks !
I just came across your channel. Enjoyed the content as I was looking for some scanner information. I have a bunch of old 1950s era family b&w negatives. I hope you’ll consider adding content. Film Fridays is a good idea.
Amazing videos. I do film photography for 3 years, but now I'm on the next level. Please keep going with videos, they are so helpful
Absolutely excellent! I wish I had picked up your videos sooner. To explain something simply you have to have a complete understanding of the topic and you sir most certainly do. Keep up the great work
Wow thanks for the nice compliment! I'm really looking forward to getting back into making more content soon, and this is encouraging to hear. I'm happy this was helpful!
Thanks. Very useful!
Thank you so much for this video! In my opinion one of the hardest parts of working with film is the actual digital post-processing, which I never could get hold of even after countless hours in Lighroom. This was super helpful!
Thank you for this useful Series. You are really a good teacher and you share your knowledge with us.
a great series re film. always was a film snapper, even after digital took over. have digital cameras, but, my heart has always been for basic film photography. In all its basic ways. The way digital killed old style photography was, a lot more than just shooting. We all remember those horrid shots in the news media prints. Then came the way the professionals where all cheated from earning a living by dropping incomes. Easy ways to sell images came next. Photo agencies all went. Well I am now very happy about ordinary photographers are hungry for the old ways again. In the end digital just made it lt easier for learning old style ways .Poetic justice. Look forward to more film stocks, and traditional film cameras now demand is there. Watching shots made by yourself appearing in the dev dishes is still a great satisfying way. Long live film.
Another great video, again everything explained really well. In the last 4 months you’ve done 10 videos around analogue photography. Without any gimmicks, but just sound advice well explained, you have 2.1K subscribers. That’s amazing growth and shows how good your videos are.
Thank you very much for this video, while researching for my film workflow, you've helped me learn a bunch of things I was missing in editing digital RAW photos, and the difference was pretty amazing.
Great to hear Christopher and I'm happy this was helpful for you. Share some of your scans if you have links, I'd love to see how they turned out!
@@JamesStevensonPhoto So basically, I ended up reediting some photos that I took and the came out better than how I originally edited them, here's a link, I just reopened my flickr account, flic.kr/p/PSdq8r
Thanks exactly what I was looking for and very clearly explained.
The Way Out West thanks very much, I’m happy this was helpful :)
Came across your channel two days ago and have watched all of your tutorial videos. Thanks and congratulations on making such brilliant content - it’s informative and for me, it’s pitched perfectly. I’m only starting into film, but you’ve bumped up my enthusiasm and I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve still got to come!
Niall thanks so much for the kind feedback, this is very encouraging to hear and I look forward to sharing more :) Great to hear you're shooting film and I hope you'll share your own photos.
SO MUCH GOOD WORK IN THIS SERIES! Thank you James!
Thank you for sharing your workflow and all the super helpfull tips. I would love to see a film photografy intro about color film. particularly with the scanning and editing part.
Keep up the good work James!
Thanks for the kind feedback - a colour film scanning tutorial is most certainly on the way as it's the most requested video I've been asked for! Hold tight for lots more new content that's in the works right now and coming soon.
Thanks! Simple and precisely explained :)
I like the content you're producing. Thanks for sharing
James, just watched your series of Introduction to Film Photograpny and all I can say is they are excellent, presented well and very informative. Thanks, looking forward to watching other your future you tube videos and learning even more. Good job !
M&G Scoops Thanks so much for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed these!
Great tutorial!
Thank you for watching, I'm happy you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for this tutorial series. It's so helpful!
Great tutorial James!!! Thanks!!
James, great film tutorials! Just wanted to thank you for making this videos. I found your tips very useful, specially for developing and scanning. The results I got were beyond my expectations. Keep up the good work!!
Wow, awesome videos to help film photographers. I started out in film almost 30 years ago and a Pracktika fully manual camera. I recently bought some film cameras to get back to the basics after using digital for the past 12 years. I really looking forward to following your videos to refresh my film skills.
Thank you for the kind comments. Great to hear you'll be dusting off the old film skills! Like several of my friends, I find that do enjoy both film and digital photography... but there's just something about shooting film, like a day out fishing or something. It's a process, and you're often not sure what you are going too get til it's complete, but that's part of the fun isn't it!
Thanks for the video! I kinda' take the attitude while scanning negs of making them look how I might imagine a raw file looking before editing in LR or PS. I do however tweak the sharpening just a wee bit in order to give LR a slightly better starting point. Not sure if this is really necessary though. I am not a digital techie and am now having issues with my scanner (software) producing small scans! I don't really understand how sizing works -- gonna have to see if I can find a video explaining the basics of sizing. Cheers!
Sir your videos are Amazing! Please keep up the good work!
thanks very much :) I plan to, lots more coming very soon
Just discovered your channel and subscribed! It's great to see proper informative tutorials without stupid music and without watching you walk around from every angle😂 keep the format and most of all keep them coming👍
Thanks for the feedback Ian, good to know these are being well received! I do plan to do a lot more in-field stuff showing breakdowns of approaching trips and finding good locations, but I'll always try to keep the content on track. It's great to get feedback so I hope you'll keep watching and commenting. Lots more coming very soon! I have stuff in the works.
I wonder why this channel doesn't have millions of subscribers. Great work man!
Jorge Venegas such a nice comment! Thanks! I’ve only making content properly for a few months, I’m really hoping to grow my interaction with the great community of photography enthusiasts out there. I have lots of new videos coming including on-location shoots and interviews with inspirational people, as well as more tutorials. Hope you’ll stay tuned!
I really like your videos. Keep up the great work!
bartgoossens1982 thanks for the feedback! I’m enjoying the interaction with a lot of passionate photographers and I’ll definitely be adding more very soon. Plan is to add weekly content from next week onwards 😊
Love the video. thank you!!
Would love to see more regarding your management of Flm photos in Lightroom
Really liked the video! It would be awesome if you do a video on how to prepare a film scan for print. :)
Bosco Serrano Velasco Thanks very much! There will definitely be content covering that very soon, it’s a good idea and great to hear suggestions for future videos :)
Thank you for this super helpful video. It must have taken a great deal of time and effort to make.
Thanks for the kind comment. They do take a long time but I enjoy making them and I've long wanted to join in with the wider film photography community online. I'm happy it was helpful! If you have friends who are interested, please do share :)
Thank you!
rozibern very welcome and thanks for watching :)
Great video, James. Do you have plans to make an equivalent version for color film? Also, how do the adjustments in Epson Scan differ for color film?
Andre Domingues - Timeless Streets thanks for watching! Certainly I’ll be uploading a video on colour work flow. The procedure with Epson scan is pretty much the same; only now I’ve personally switched to using VueScan alongside a small photoshop plugin called ColorPerfect - I find that this gives really great, consistent results. Epson scan can do a good job though, watch this space as more is coming!
Weekly content will be going up in the new year with a short break over the upcoming holidays.
In order to help the web platform's compression process, I guess you should've also decreased the resolution value to 72ppi, which is the standard screen resolution. 240ppi, is quite a lot of pixels that don't even exist in the medium of screens and make the file unnecererily heavier.
Great instructional videos! Have taught me a lot! In the "histogram adjustments" what is "input" and what is "output"? What do those two terms mean?
Hi Giovanni! Essentially, input is where you trim the range of tones that the scanner 'sees' in the preview scan; the full range is looking for values of 0-255 across the full width of the slider, full black value to full white.
Here you can see that there is no full black 'seen' in my negative where there's almost full white. By pulling in those trim markers, the range of 81 to 249 is taken to be the 'true' black and 'true' white in the image without losing any value. The 'auto' settings are often too strong, actually losing data but cutting into the histogram which is not good.
The output range is one I never touch; moving that controls the depth of black and the brightness of white that is output to your final scanned image. By default, wherever we set our our input values are translated to full black and full white on the output slider.
If we adjust the output markers, blacks are made brighter (showing as greys), and whites are made darker (also showing as greys). Its sounds complex when explained in writing, but if you move the output trims yourself you'll see what I mean in practice!
Hi - Thanks for these step by step tutorials. I am a seasoned film photographer with some digital knowledge gaps. A question though, how do you get rid of of product or water streaks , like the one at the top pf the Vancouver picture. one have to be very subtle with that and I must say I often end up making it worst... any recomendation ?
thanks again
One of the reasons I enjoy shooting film is that other than perhaps a crop, dust removal or horizon adjustment, I don't have to spend time adjusting levels, sharpness, etc.. and it's very easy to make it look like a digital image, instead of a photo. Too much post processing is missing the point on film photography a little, it's not supposed to be pin sharp perfection, there is supposed to be grain, imperfections. Better film and/or lenses can bring sharper, finer results if that is required and with less time spent in front of computer screens.
Hi disarmsox, thanks for watching and taking time to comment. I agree that its easy to go too far with processing, rendering all of the soul out of a film image and making it too sterile. I've seen this a lot and I'd definitely recommend restraint. However what I would say is that really what I'm trying to show here is how to get the very best from your medium; certainly I'd never promote removing film grain, rather to mitigate the losses that happens when you scan.
With zero post processing, detail present in the original negative - especially with 35mm - can be lost for good, highlights are clipped by the scanner's default settings, fine details can be very soft and tone is often lost in the shadows.
By showing how to remove dust, sharpen with control and repair scratches, the same techniques can be used to restore old photographs which might be damaged or torn in distracting ways. I personally do like to leave imperfections in, but will remove if they're a dominant feature in an important part of the image.
I love shooting film for its organic nature but I also love trying to get the true characteristics to shine in a print. This will always be a subjective stage but I'm hoping that sharing this provides some useful insight so that people can use as part of their own recipes... seasoning to taste as it were!
Love the series of videos they provide so much information and help. What monitor are you using to edit on your pc?
chicano forlife th-cam.com/video/YRIOE4QfU0Q/w-d-xo.html thank you! This is the monitor, i bought it in 2012 so it’s on the older side but I still really like it 😊
James Stevenson Photography thanks ..... Im just getting started and on a budget so its fine. 👍
If possible, could you please do the color film version
Definitely a version on colour film coming soon. My workflow is a little different with colour so I wanted to go into more detail with that as well as showing additional software I'm using (VueScan with a photoshop plugin that is really useful for colour film conversion called Color Perfect). Watch this space my friend, coming very soon. I've had a little bit of time out overy the Christmas and New Year holidays but will soon have new content every week.
All the best!
B r a v o !
Very nice and informative video Sir. I have one question: If I want to print a film photo, do I need to bring the brightness a little higher? Because unlike looking a photo on the computer (the light source comes from the back of computer), the print photo needs a light source outside comes to the photo.
Hello and thank you for watching!
The short answer is yes you are right: in almost all cases your backlit screen image is going to appear brighter than your print. I'm definitely going to be making episodes on this in the near future as it's a topic with lots of depth but here are some steps I suggest would be helpful!
1: Invest in a screen calibration too, research Datacolor Spyder or X-Rite Color Munki models. These will ensure accurate tones and colour - all monitors display incorrectly without correction - some are way worse than others!
2: Make a curves or Levels adjustment layer on top of your master image in photoshop. Create a new document using some narrow 'test-strips' of your image which include the brightest and darkest sections. Use the paper and printer settings you intend to for your final print and put several strips alongside each other - for example original - brighter - brighter still - brightest. It's often a real surprise just how far you need to push things.
3: Sharpness might also need a boost. You might find that by increasing the radius of your sharpening tool to a higher level than looks right on screen results in a sharp print, the printer needing a little more help in this area at times.
It's ultimately a process of trial and error but by limiting your ink wastage to small test strips it'll save you having to repeat print a full sized job over and over.
Look out for more info in future videos - plus I'm going to be interviewing my local print professionals and posting their advice as I move into making more prints in 2018! Hope this helps!
Well put together video but I have never seen such liberal use of the sharpening tool
What about printers?
Is that an English accent? Im from Ilford in Essex (I remember the Ilford Film factory) and have been gone for so long (now in Oregon USA) that when I hear what I think is an English accent I sometimes have a hard time placing exactly where it is from. Sorry for the non-photo related comment.
Yes English accent, I'm from the south of England but now living in Vancouver - you've still got the ear for the accent! It's great that the Ilford factory is still going, I really enjoy shooting with their films and buy new to support them whenever I restock. HP5, FP4, Pan-F, XP2... all really nice film stocks!
pp film? aint nobody got time for dat.
Wow, this guy has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to Lightroom, and real photographers don’t use photoshop. Only hipsters do.