Single tree flower
Nikon Nikomat FTn, 50mm f/2 Nikkor H-C
Fujifilm Fujicolor 200
2019
I had high hopes when I shot my Nikon Nikomat FTn again. I’ve learned so much about photography and using vintage gear in the last few years, and I expected all of that knowledge would come to bear in the images. Yet I felt disappointment as I looked at the scans. I didn’t like the colors the Nikkor H-C lens rendered on Fujicolor 200.
Maybe it wasn’t the lens, but the processing. Or maybe the film was funky. I don’t know. But I had to do a lot of work in Photoshop to remove a brown caste from nearly every image. I’ve seen green and blue castes before, but never brown. It was weird.
Because of a scanner snafu some of the images weren’t usable at all. The lab agreed to rescan the negatives for me, and I’ve sent them back, but not before I scanned them myself. This is one of my scans. It isn’t bad but it’s mighty noisy. It’s not a bad look but it wasn’t the smooth, crisp look I was going for.
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Oh, I love the grain of it. It’s so visceral. I’m sorry to read you were unsatisfied with most of the scans, but personally, I prize this one. It’s the kind of thing that would have made it into Time-Life photography books in the 70s for the purpose of illustrating some particular aspect or technique.
Oh gosh, thank you! I’m happy to know it resonates with you.
Jim, sorry about the disappointing results. For all that I like that picture a lot. That is one of my favorite lenses but I’m not sure I’ve ever used it for color film.
I’d always used it on b/w film too so this time I deliberately chose color. I’m happy you like the photo! It’s growing on me.
Sorry you weren’t a hundred percent happy, but I actually really like this picture! :) Love the darkness around the bloom – there’s a metaphor in there somewhere. :)
If everybody else is going to like this photo then I guess I had better too!
Darn right! Hahaha :)
The Photo is FAB! Grain is not always a bad thing………and it does have that old fashioned look…..
I’m so happy you like it! I think my gripe with it, now that enough people have complimented it, is that it doesn’t look like what I expect from Fuji 200.