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.
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Oh gosh, thank you! I’m happy to know it resonates with you.
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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.
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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.
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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. :)
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If everybody else is going to like this photo then I guess I had better too!
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Darn right! Hahaha :)
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The Photo is FAB! Grain is not always a bad thing………and it does have that old fashioned look…..
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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.
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