Studio Portraits on Film and DSLR for Victorian Noir imagery

A few weeks ago I had a chance to experiment with using Kodak Ektachrome in the studio for a shoot themed around "Victorian Noir".

The final images are available at https://www.oscura.space/victorian-noir-2/, this post is a comparison between using film and digital for this style of image.

In summary, think using the DSLR with tethering is a good way to test the lighting, posing and exposure ... but the final look from the film is more to my taste I think.

It is a real pity the low cost supplies of re-spooled Ektachrome are becoming much harder to find - I will need to return the world of colour negative film I suspect as the cost of slide film per roll bought from Kodak and Fuji is just too expensive.

The next test is to exteriment with Kodak Portra 160 for a shoot inspired by the fin de siecle imagery of Sarah Moon - the pastel colours should suit the look. I have some in the freezer and will use them up alongside some Kodak Vision 3 before returning 100% to Vision 3 for future projects.

Images using slide film

The images straight from the scanner were rather good and minimal post-processing was needed to set the atmosphere I was after: some cropping, using Nik EFEX for skin smoothing and adding some "glow" to the face, and then dodging and burning to create lighter focal areas.

I used a Tiffen 812 filter to take away the green tinge that Ektachrome has _ at least to my eye.

The first image below is the final version after the limited post-processing, the second is straight from the scan.

Images from digital camera

In contrast, the digital frames needed a significant amount of work to achieve the look I was after: colour grading, skin retouching in Photoshop, Nik EFEX effects, dodge and burn.