Tuesday 6th of December 2022

Apart from a couple of outings specifically done for photography reasons, this month’s output was pretty limited, consisting mostly of pictures of Emily and Zoe. As far as I can remember, this will be a common theme for much of 2019, but hopefully there’ll be enough material to keep this series going.

Emily standing on a chair, in a sunbeam

On the plus side, the fewer pictures I have to select from, the quicker this backlog can be brought up to date.

tilted sign with bird feeder hanging from it

Lowestoft church with scaffolding over the roof

Following on from February’s post, I thought I’d try some more ultrawide aspect ratio pictures, and combine them with the Fuji Eterna film simulation, to try for an even more cinematic feel. I applied the film simulation to the vertical shots too, for consistency.

Another thing I mentioned in February’s post is how the wide ratio can make even ‘normal’ shots look longer than they really are. The two examples in this post were both shot with a 23mm lens (equivalent to 35mm full-frame), which is a sort of neutral middle ground between ‘wide’ and ‘normal’, and yet in both of these pictures it looks significantly more telephoto. That, I think, is a another large part of what makes shots look ‘cinematic’: movies are often shot with longer lenses and tight framing, which works better on the large, far-away screen of a movie theatre. Actual wideangle pictures would look strange and somewhat disorienting in such conditions.

Emily standing on the shore

Some of this ‘cinematic’ impact is obviously dampened when viewing the images on a small screen like a phone’s, and I have a feeling that it wouldn’t work so well on even a 19” wide print (the largest my printer can make). I haven’t tested this yet though.

There’s another thing I’ve enjoyed quite a lot about this series: revisiting old photos and processing them in a different way, going for a different look and feel. Some of them, such as the one below, I originally processed in black and white, just because that’s what felt right at the time. But now, the ‘cinematic’ look fits the mood I’m in better, and I find it fascinating how different a feel it can give a pictures.

event caution sign on Hoylake beach

This last one is an exception to the Eterna look, although it still feels like it fits here; it’s using a Kodak E-200 emulation that I chose specifically for the dark, cyan-tinted sky and pale, pastel greens, both of which contrast superbly with the red berries.

tree branches and berries against the blue sky