Everyday Photography with “The Rewinder”
A FS RECIPE based on CLASSIC Neg.
The Beginning
“I’m coming home!” I heard my daughter shout into the phone before her beaming face appeared on screen – smiling from ear to ear.
She called to let us know that she had managed to free up some time in her busy schedule to fit in a trip back home before returning to her student life in the Netherlands.
It had been a year since her last visit and there was obvious excitement at the thought of her being home for a couple of weeks. Cherishing the prospect of the precious time we were going to spend together, I was inspired to create a new FS RECIPE that would be fun to use and great for creating awesome looking family photos.
The Backstory
Family photography holds a special place in my heart and is very important to me in my work as a professional photographer and also in my private life.
I grew up in the 80’s, in a home filled with printed photographs – whether they were framed and hanging on walls or carefully crafted into photo albums to tell the stories of my family’s adventures, holidays and everyday activities – all of them safeguarding years and years of memorable family moments.
My father was an enthusiastic photographer in his spare time and spent most of his weekends capturing our everyday family life on negative and slide film. I have fond memories of him falling behind, dare I say getting lost on family outings while on the hunt for that special photo. Or seated in the lounge surrounded by an assortment of analogue photography gadgets, framing and sorting his slide film collections. His impromptu slide show evenings were somewhat legendary amongst family friends.
Luckily for me, my father’s passion rubbed off on me and started to make itself known in my teenage years when I used every opportunity to take photos of time spent with friends, at home and on holiday. As I grew older and my fascination for capturing light matured, I started to experiment with various film stocks and filters – analogue ways of tuning the looks of photographs in those days. I am convinced that this exposure to film photography during my formative years has played a vital role in how I see light and colours and has shaped my deep affinity for vintage aesthetics in photographs.
It is no surprise now, that I am drawn to Fujifilm cameras and Film Simulations and inspired by the creative process of fine-tuning them into FS RECIPE.
The FS RECIPE
While planning my daughter’s visit, I kept reminiscing on those family photos my dad used to take. It prompted me to create a FS RECIPE that would emulate a printed photo look worthy of celebrating family while honouring my dad, the influence he has had on my photography and how I value capturing everyday life in my photographs.
So I set out to create a look that’s contrasty, full of colour and warmth, yet slightly desaturated, like printed photographs that have been stuck in an album or stored in a box for years.
The FS RECIPE is based on the CLASSIC Neg. which produces contrasty images with rich, saturated colours that are full of character – the perfect base to complement a look with an analogue vibe in everyday photographs.
I left WHITE BALANCE on AUTO to keep it versatile for grabbing shots on the go in pretty much any setting. To add a warm colour cast and an overall nostalgic mood, I used WHITE BALANCE Shift.
A little bit of GRAIN EFFECT introduced “imperfections” to the digitally processed image to feel more pleasing to the eye. It aims to mimic the character of real film stock, especially when used with HIGH ISO NR settings.
To enhance the desaturated look, I toned down COLOR and opted for a negative SHADOW setting, just enough to make the blacks feel somewhat faded but without upsetting the overall contrast.
By dialling back SHARPNESS and CLARITY, the images have a smoother tone, look softer and less processed – a quality that is much more apparent in film photography – to complete the look.
“The Rewinder”
This FS RECIPE, affectionately named “The Rewinder” and used to celebrate my daughter’s visit, has served very well in capturing a variety of memorable moments. I recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for rich and contrasty images with a distinct analogue vibe.
It performs really well in everyday situations and I have tested it for lifestyle photographs indoors and outdoors, landscapes, scenes with and without people, in bright daylight and overcast conditions and have even used it with studio strobes.
FILM SIMULATION: CLASSIC Neg.
MONOCHROMATIC COLOR: N/A
GRAIN EFFECT: WEAK, SMALL
COLOR CHROME EFFECT: STRONG
COLOR CHROME FX BLUE: OFF
SMOOTH SKIN EFFECT: OFF
WHITE BALANCE: AUTO/ R +1, B -5
DYNAMIC RANGE: DR400
D RANGE PRIORITY: OFF
TONE CURVE: H +0.5, S -1.5
COLOR: -1
SHARPNESS: -2
HIGH ISO NR: -4
CLARITY: -2
Best Qualities
What I like most about this FS RECIPE is the overall tone and the quality of the colours, despite the muted look. Thanks to CLASSIC Neg., reds pop and shadow areas tend to have a greenish tinge. The colours render differently depending on the quality of light and the amount of exposure compensation applied, which makes it exciting to experiment with.
Pay Attention
The FS RECIPE isn’t at its best in very low-contrast scenes or dark environments. I have found that most images benefit from increasing the exposure slightly by between 1/3 and 2/3 of a stop.
Pro Tip
The FS RECIPE renders images with a warm colour cast. Change the WHITE BALANCE Shift to R0, B-3 for a cooler look. This works really well in bright and sunny conditions, but might render images that are a little flat on cloudy or rainy days and in dimly lit areas.
It’s Your Every Yesterday FS RECIPE
This FS RECIPE lends itself for almost all everyday scenes, indoors and outdoors when you’re in the mood for a muted, nostalgic look.
But, its secret power is transporting your images to a time gone by.
Photographs taken with this FS RECIPE have a distinct aesthetic of yesteryear. They show off the unmistakable qualities of grain and muted, contrasty colours that are found in analogue photographs – the key ingredients of memories. It’s an excellent choice for creating analogue-looking memories straight out of camera.
If you’re keen on already giving your images a nostalgic feel, one that will age well with time, this is the FS RECIPE for you.
