The Importance Of Colour, Tone & Texture
Isn’t film magical?
The right film for the right scene will add emotion and memory to the light that shaped it that a digital camera by default will never do, and it’s a vital ingredient in evoking a response by the viewer.
Interstellar, the Star Wars sequels and even Justice League, cinematic blockbusters laden with visual effects throughout their entire runtime were still shot on film because of the image characteristics that the directors wanted from their cinematography. If they needed a high-resolution digital scan to do anything with it, why would they still use film?
Deep blacks and soft whites, gorgeous ochre sands, energetic reds, lush greens and pastel blues are what you'll experience with photographic film, not a sterile reproduction of the exact wavelengths of lights that funnelled through the lens of a digital camera. These types of images are great for digitisation of existing images or art where accuracy is required, but it’s not where art itself lives.
Art is interpretation, and film is perfect for this. Film interprets light through the imperfect nature of chemistry and subtrates trying to record light. Add interpretive colour science and you have Kodak Portra 160, the rich nostalgia of Kodak Gold 200 or the grainy goodness of Ilford HP5+.
The reality, however, is that we live in a digital world where it is much more convenient and cost effective to shoot with bits and bytes. We also share on digital screens and print with digital inkjet printers.
So what can we do to bring our photographs to life when they're entirely digital from start to finish?
Film isn’t magic, although it may seem to be when you look into it a little closer. It’s a physical process. Negative films are like sponges for light. They can saturate with brightness, but they don’t exactly “clip” like a digital camera will. They can also glow or bleed as the density of light overwhelms an area of the film. The intensity of the grain responds as a function of the brightness of the image area as well as the developer used to process the film. Colours aren’t perfect because they’re chemical in nature. It’s science, but it’s science for artists.
Tom Webster, 2017. Nikon D810 with Sigma 50mm ART F1.4, B&W processing using VSCO Film (Ilford HP5), grain in Silver Efex Pro.
This is one of my favourite black and white portraits of a musician. The lighting, framing and pose makes the blueprint for the photograph, but the way it's processed creates the final piece of work ready for publishing.
In this portrait, the B&W conversion from VSCO Film's Ilford HP5+ simulation preset emphasises the skin tones in particular, the blacks are deep and the highlights are pleasant and soft, but not too dark to feel underexposed. Another thing you'll notice (it's subtle) is the texture or dithering from the added grain simulation in Silver Efex Pro. This is where your own personal preference for subtlety will alter the outcome. For me, I tend to go for this general look.
Digital sensors are linear — add light until you hit the roof then it's stuck at white. Film is different. Add more and more light and it will approach white as it becomes fully saturated. It's more like a sponge than a bucket.
A digital image can often look simply like an almost perfect reproduction of the light hitting the sensor. I’m not in this artform to reproduce reality. I want to make images that portray mood and spark an emotion with the way the colour is altered or the tone is represented in monochrome.
In the digital realm, colour and B&W tone curves along with subtle use of grain can go a long way to adding a feeling of density and texture to an image that quite often doesn't exist in a JPEG produced by a camera or by Lightroom on its own. For example, the forest photograph below (before and after) is processed using VSCO Film 01's Fuji 800Z simulation, which makes highlights soften into a cream-white and injects green into the colour palette, and finally deepens contrast which in turns increase saturation in a natural way.
Lightroom using the embedded Leica M colour profile. Only lens corrections applied.
Mount Mitchell forest trail at sunrise, 2015. Leica M Typ 240 with Summarit 35mm f/2.5, processed using VSCO Film (Fuji 800Z).
Technique in camera is extremely important but you can never just leave it there if you are striving for a polished outcome. This is where it starts to become highly subjective. I go back and forth on exactly how I want my photographs to feel with each passing year. And truth be told, many people just don’t want to do so post-processing on a computer.
And yet the original photograph above is quite complete in its own right. The golden light is beautiful and the green foliage soaks it up, but for my eyes, it's not finished. The feeling I had when I was there hasn't quite come through without the adjustment to the exposure and the Fuji 800Z colour profile applied. The drama isn't quite there for me and it still feels like just a representation of the scene.
Here is another example of a before and after, this time with a portrait at golden hour. The lighting and pose are great (thanks to my subject, Alyssa!), but it's a little too blue and the colour is a little too "normal" for my tastes. Using the VSCO Film Kodak Portra 400 preset for Nikon softens the tonal range and, with an exposure adjustment, represents the feeling of the afternoon more effectively.
The most important first choices in post processing for me are the white balance and the exposure adjustment. Altering the white balance and tweaking the exposure by even a half-stop can dramatically alter the mood of a photograph. I always start there and if there's no retouching to do, this is the only thing I need to beyond applying the colour or B&W preset to add the tonal shifts.
The above photograph is an example of this, with no processing other than using VSCO Film's preset and an adjustment to the white balance and exposure. The improvement is quite noticeable.
There are a myriad of subtle ways you can alter the feeling and goal of a photograph by adjusting it's exposure, white balance and tonality, and it pays to explore those and discover what you prefer and what makes your photographs feel more like what you envisioned when you took them.
Cinema and stills photography share a great deal of concepts such as exposure, composition and post processing that can't be ignored if you are to create beautiful work. Research what you like to see in an image then try to find out how those people achieved the results they have and experiment from there.
