Jama Masjid Mosque in Delhi (Kodak Ektar +1EV Noritsu)

ColorPrecision Review

July 5, 2025

A FRESH TAKE ON KODAK FILM EMULATION FOR LIGHTROOM

INTRODUCTION

What is it that draws photographers to film, despite its somewhat outdated nature? I've written at length on this blog about the tactile, emotional, and aesthetic qualities of analog photography — and I still believe that digital can rarely replace the joy of loading a roll, advancing the film lever, hearing the satisfying shutter sound, and embracing the beautiful uncertainty of results.

Still, digital photography is often more practical. That’s why so many film photographers — myself included — look for tools to emulate the feel of analog film in a digital workflow. Over the years, a number of companies have emerged in this space: Mastin Labs, RNI, The Classic Presets, Dehancer — and now, a new contender: ColorPrecision, developed by film enthusiast and colorist Owen Markham.

A SILENT JOURNEY THROUGH VENICE

February 7, 2025

Exploring the Floating City with a Canon AE-1

Venice in the fall. The city breathes differently when the summer crowds fade. The soft, diffused light reflects on the water, casting subtle ripples on ancient facades. The damp air carries the scent of salt and history. I arrived with no fixed plan—just my Canon AE-1 and a few rolls of Kodak Vision3, ready to capture whatever unfolded in front of me.

The Ultimate Way of Digital Film Emulation

September 7, 2024

DEHANCER FILM LIGHTROOM PLUGIN REVIEW

A personal take on one of the most popular film emulation tools

This isn’t your typical review! Instead, it’s a report on my hands-on experience with Dehancer Film, breaking down the key aspects of the software. After experimenting with its interface and creating a range of looks, I wanted to see if Dehancer could complement my digital workflow, especially since I primarily shoot analog film.

No. 24 — A Visual Journey

July 3, 2024

Introduction On many of my travels, I often seek out architectural gems: small houses that are iconic and stylistically significant but lie off the beaten tourist paths and aren't featured on every influencer's account. One of these significant masterpieces is the Alvar Aalto House in Helsinki, a place where architecture and light form a poetic symbiosis. During my visit, I was impressed by the thoughtful spatial design and the warm, natural lighting. The flowing forms and organic materials tell the story of an architect who masterfully knew how to direct light. To view the rooms undisturbed and in peace, the Alvar Aalto Foundation limits group sizes to a small number of participants. After a very knowledgeable and engaging tour, I had the opportunity to explore and photograph the house on my own. I will elaborate on the specific photographic techniques later, but first, let’s take a brief look at who Alvar Aalto

Camera Scanning Part IV

May 12, 2024

If, like me, you've been captivated by scanning over the years and simply enjoy digitizing film, it's clear that you follow the market and the countless options available to you. I've written several times about the possibility of building your own small scanner setup. By now, my own setup has changed significantly and what started with a few simple components has grown into a very precise tool. I get a lot of joy from it and can finally scan films the way I want. However, to get this far, I had to overcome several hurdles. But let's start from the beginning.

Exploring the Heart of Venice

March 8, 2024

A Late Winter Afternoon Stroll through San Polo and San Croce

As I embarked on a late winter afternoon walk through the enchanting districts of San Polo and San Croce in Venice, I couldn't help but feel captivated by the city's timeless allure. Venice, often referred to as the "City of Canals," is a place where every corner tells a story, where history and beauty intertwine effortlessly.

Virtual Darkroom Printing with SmartConvert

November 22, 2023

A new tool on the horizon that could the tool you have always been looking for

I tested the new film conversion software from Filmomat called SmartConvert and checked if it would fit into my scanning workflow. The new tool is mainly designed to work with camera scans but I wanted to see if I can also use it for scans from a regular Epson flatbed scanner like my V700.

ARTIST INTERVIEW - TRISTAN KRESS

September 14, 2023

Hello Tristan, it's great that you're taking the time and have agreed to share with me about your photographic work. Your images can currently be found mainly on Instagram (@gelsenfoto), and they delve deeply into your hometown of Gelsenkirchen. How would you describe your pictures?

Hi Sebastian! I'm really excited about the opportunity to talk about my photographic work and your interest in it. I would describe my photos as a melancholic yet always benevolent perspective on my hometown.

We live here in the poorest city in Germany, with numerous and profound problems that are evident in the urban landscape. I try to counteract the pessimism and negative perception of the city and the region that is inevitably generated on a creative level through my photos. Of course, my photos won't change the often depressing local reality for many. Nevertheless, it's an attempt to show that even here, one can experience moments of beauty, even if it's just a sunset that happens to cast a lovely light on a rundown building. It's often not what the majority would label as aesthetic, but that's exactly what appeals to me in my photographic work and in exploring the city. Anyone can photograph the Cologne Cathedral.

The large glass surface is perfect for creating digital contact sheets

Retrodigital Love — Creo Scitex Smart 340

January 1, 2023

Working with a “monster”

It’s massive, it’s huge and it’s heavy. Super heavy! Most definitely an impressive machine, a marvelous piece of vintage digital equipment and I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of this excellent scanners which were once used in big agencies for all kind of scanning and reproduction tasks. When digital was not yet standard, agencies used a reliable scanners to produce print ready files. This scanner can do it all and was a workhorse in offices around the globe. It scans both transparent and reflective media in excellent quality up to a fantastic resolution of more than 5000 pixel per inch. In this article I will talk a little bit about my love and hate relationship with the Scitex Smart 340. Even though I really adore this machine and I truly love to work with it, it also drove me to desperation. It’s a steep learning curve and it seemed like with every step forward and new problem came up which I had to solve. Meanwhile I have solved most of them and I can say that I managed to wrap my head around the somewhat quirky scanner software. But let’s start from the beginning.

Give your film scans the real analog vibe

July 20, 2022

Printfilm LUT for Photography

A cinematic way of interpreting film scans with the help of Film Print Emulation

I am starting this blog post with some new terms that maybe doesn’t sound familiar to a photographer, but don’t worry I will get you covered. We are going to explore how analog film is used in Hollywood and try to see what it has to do with film scanning and analog photography. Analog film has been used in cinematic film production over decades. Let’s see what we can learn from this knowledge and how we can use parts of this workflow to enhance our personal scanning results.

Freiraum - Nopo Pano Pinhole

March 13, 2022

Autumn in Paris! Sounds like a great plan and it was indeed. I decided to leave my heavy Hasselblad at home and had a very small pocket size wooden pinhole camera with me. The Nopo Pan135 bestowed to be a fun tool for this late afternoon walk along the River Seine.

Camera Scanning Part III

February 23, 2022

This is going to be the final part of my intro post on camera scanning. Once I have covered all the basics and concepts of camera scanning I will have closer look on the workflow itself.

In the last part I talked about the six main elements of camera scanning and I have covered camera choice, lens options and light source. Now it is time for the oremaining three items which are copy stand, the film holder solution and finally the required software for negative conversion.

Camera Scanning Part II

February 9, 2022

A CLOSER LOOK

In my previous post on camera scanning I gave a first impression of my scanning rig and some initial thoughts on why I decided to give this technique a try. While I still believe that dedicated film scanners might give you the absolut best results when it comes to image quality and even mood of a scene, the artistic freedom provided by a process that is totally under your control is phenomenal. In this post I will talk about my own rig and I will explain why I have chosen certain pieces of equipment and compare their downsides and benefits. I even give an outlook of how my system could be upgraded in the future.

Rose-Red City in Jordan's Desert

January 12, 2022

Petra Jordan

It is probably the most famous place in Jordan and one of the most spectacular ancient sites on the planet. Nobody really knows when exactly this magical and legendary city was built but its history traces back to thousands of years ago when this place used to be a thriving metropolis. Today it belongs to the "New 7 Wonders of the World".

Camera Scanning

December 28, 2021

Establishing my own setup

Introduction

What a year! Probably everyone had different plans for the last months and so did I. But here we are and I have new ideas and topics for upcoming blog posts which I want o share with all of you.

For those of you who follow this blog for a little while now, I have always been a big fan of various ways to scan negatives. Home scanning with a dedicated film scanner or a flatbed scanners is a big challenge but if mastered correctly it can provide you the artistic freedom over the final image which a lab unfortunately cannot do, simply because they have to guess your interpretation of the negative. You can make choices that dramatically alter the scan like color and tonal correction. Nevertheless a good lab can do this job for you if you manage to clearly communicate ideas and artistic vision. Most labs do a brilliant job and deliver an outstanding quality mainly due to the fact that they own the best machines for this job like the Fuji Frontier SP3000 or a Noritsu HS-1800. But over the last years or so a new method became more and more popular: camera scanning!

Bildschirmfoto+2020-09-11+um+14.14.45.jpg

PhotoKlassik Interview

September 11, 2020

I am super proud to announce that I was interviewed by Marc Peschke and this Interview has been published in the latest issue of PhotoKlassik. It is all about my latest series “Tomorrowland”. You can read about my interest in night photography, some technical background as well as some more information about Googie architecture. Unfortunately the interview is only available in German at the time. If you are still interested you can read the full interview here.

Bildschirmfoto 2020-06-19 um 15.01.46.png

Using Negative Lab Pro and SilverFast 8 for great Color Negative Scans

July 5, 2020

One of the biggest problems when scanning color negatives is, to get the color and contrast right. While scanning software often addresses this issue, I know many users struggle to get colors right. There is a very good Adobe Lightroom plugin for a while now that helps the user to create wonderful scans from negatives. It was initially introduced for converting camera scans, but it can also be very helpful for converting scans from your flatbed or dedicated film scanner. Nate Johnson the creator of Negative Lab Pro (NLP) has updated the plugin to Version 2.1.2 which now enables you to effortlessly combine the power of a real scanner with the beauty and handsomeness of a really cool plugin. In this short tutorial I go through the required steps to give you the freedom of a non-destructive workflow in Lightroom combined with a very solid negative conversion tool.

Tomorrowland Book arrived

June 4, 2020

Today I am super excited. Finally after about four years of work I have finished my Tomorrowland book. The first copies from the printer arrived today and they are now available for purchase on my website. This magazine like book will include 52 pages, a total of 35 plates and informational text for all shown venues. I decided to print this book with blurb. After trying some other print services I came back to blurb as they seem to provide the best value for money. They are certainly not the cheapest option out there but their quality surpasses other printers by far. I also think their customer service is excellent. They always have an open ear for my questions. So this book is a premium style magazine, printed on 115gsm paper. The color output is very natural and so close to my prints that I am very confident to provide a rock solid book that will hopefully enjoyed by the viewer.

RNI All Films 5 Review

January 22, 2020

Is buying a set of film presets worth the money and will it improve your images? A question raised many times and just recently it became a topic again on social media. Basically I am very restrictive with presets for two reasons: First, I don‘t want to copy another photographers work and second, often presets are very unprecise and don‘t work the way I want. A preset is never a one trick pony. I consider a preset a starting point, a small push into the right direction and a baseline for a cohesive look when editing a series of images. When the London based art & technology company RNI, which stands for “Really Nice Images”, asked me if I want to check out their freshly released RNI All Films 5 presets, I knew already that it would be at least interesting and enjoyable to do so. But in the end, it was even more, I was quite impressed by the quality and potential of these film simulation presets.

Night view from the lawns towards the main building.

Nebensaison

August 12, 2019

It was in winter 2016 when I first had the idea to document the small and very beautiful municipal outdoor swimming pool of a little town close to Stuttgart in Southern Germany. What initially began as a sudden inspiration soon developed into a real concept. I wanted to document the whole facility mainly when no people are around. I wanted to show the place around the year, abandoned and left alone on the foothills of a small forrest. It is a silent and quiet place with beautiful trees and wide lawns. Despite the work that is required, it is a valuable location and a visit is often part of the daily summer routine of many people living here. But what serves the community so well in the summer has a life all around the year which many quiet and solitary days during winter.

DEHANCER FILM LIGHTROOM PLUGIN REVIEW

A personal take on one of the most popular film emulation tools

TOP CONTENT

ARCHIVE

Recent Blog Posts