Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: gerafotografija on December 15, 2012, 12:04:15 pm

Title: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: gerafotografija on December 15, 2012, 12:04:15 pm
I posted a similar question and a couple photo examples on my blog before realizing there was a poll option here.

http://gerafotografija.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/kodachrome-usage-poll/ (http://gerafotografija.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/kodachrome-usage-poll/)

As i've been finding some of the Alien Skin filters too intense (haven't found a use for Vevia yet, for instance), I am trying to decide what subjects benefit the most from this type of color treatment.

Here's one that seems to look pretty good as a Kodachrome simulation. Nice classic car too!

(http://gerafotografija.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/20121214-224105.jpg)
Title: Re: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: digitaldog on December 15, 2012, 12:19:55 pm
IF you the image creator think it looks like (fill in the blank film type), job well done. Doesn't mean anyone else will accept it nor does it mean that the image will in any way match what you would have produced if you shoot film at the same time. IOW, I've yet to see anyone or any product prove that the digital manipulated image colorimetrically matches a piece of film. I find the film look discussions a bit of a rabbit hole of an issue.

If you really want the look of (fill in the blank film type), shoot film.
Title: Re: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: bill t. on December 15, 2012, 02:09:09 pm
The best subjects are ones that are presented in some sort of context where the viewer understands that retro-ness is being invoked.  Like, umh, Instagram.

To my memory circuits that looks entirely too color-managed and post-processed to be Kodachrome!  Not enough roll off in the bright areas, too much granularity in the mid tones, and the color balance is too neutral, even though Kodachrome itself had an uncanny resistance to color castes.  The red is properly clipped, but maybe not sufficiently CocaCola-esque.

The best digital Kodachrome simulations I ever saw were from my pioneering 2mp DC-210 digital camera made by Kodak itself, in about 1999, when the digital market was owned by Kodak to lose, and they did.

It's so easy to be an expert on things that aren't available anymore!  :)

Hard now to imagine that there was a time when "color" and "management" were rarely used together.  It was so liberating when everybody had to put up with the same in-your-face color problems, which could be conveniently re-labeled as "creative tools."
Title: Re: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: Tim Lookingbill on December 15, 2012, 04:46:03 pm
This thread has real Kodachrome sample scans in all its varied appearances...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=50508.0

No one finalized an official look in that thread.

Some had notorious cyan blue color casts and some didn't.

However, I believe Pfigen's posting in that thread of a Kodachrome slide off a Howtek scanner I'ld say should be the official look.

Title: Re: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: bill t. on December 15, 2012, 06:50:53 pm
There were many different Kodachromes.  I was in it for ASA 10 Kodachrome, Kodachrome 25, Kodachrome 64.  K64 is the closest to "digital" and had technically the most accurate color and tonality.   K10 had this wonderfully painterly, romantic color quality, it was perfect for the Grand Canyon.  K25 was kind of soulless by comparison.  And good luck with the results from those "economy" labs that advertised in Popular Photography and Modern Photography.  So all those variations together give us license for pretty much "anything goes."

For the heckofit, here are some Kodachromes from older times, when it really had some character...

http://www.junipergallery.com/large_format_kodachromes

(http://www.junipergallery.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/vacation_1960s_00.jpg)
Title: Re: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: Benny Profane on December 17, 2012, 07:55:30 am
Easy. Oversaturate a little, up the contrast, clean the whites, deepen the blacks.
Title: Re: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: AFairley on December 17, 2012, 09:29:48 am
Easy. Oversaturate a little, up the contrast, clean the whites, deepen the blacks.

And add different color casts in the highlights and shadows.  ;)
Title: Re: Kodachrome PS simulation?
Post by: digitaldog on December 17, 2012, 10:02:58 am
And add different color casts in the highlights and shadows.  ;)

And make an action or preset and be SURE to call it Kodachrome <g>