p.2 #2 · Mastin Lab's Real Film Emulation Presets?
VSCO really doesn't look like film at all. It looks like a digital image with the blacks and whites clipped and curves adjusted. Sometimes it's fun but it's pretty easy to spot. Most, if not all clients aren't going to know the difference as they rarely see how you shoot, just what you shoot. As for using any preset including Mastin, it's just a quick fix for not taking the time to fully understand how to do toning of digital images yourself. I'm not saying that's a bad thing and in no way trying to detract, but that's what it is and I personally don't need to spend $59 to test something out but I wish him the best of luck with his product line. I think photographer's skills skyrocket when they take the time to fully understand the entire photographic process including the nuances of post production because it can adjust how they light and expose. Personally, on jobs where the client wants film, I'll shoot both film and digital depending on the light. I found after practice I was able to emulate film scanned with my Nikon 9000 almost to the point that the digital looked better and better (and a Nikon 9000 is capable of ousting the Noritsu/Frontier scanners). I was able to retain highlights and shadow detail better with digital. Although the digital lacked nuanced chaos theory but again, that's something I just have not found to make a difference with real world clients.
I find that these emulations mostly emulate film behind a certain scanner like the Fuji Frontier. That scanner does more to impart a certain look to film than the actual shooting of film itself. After scanning lots of ultra high resolution scans myself, film looks more digital on it's own than it does after being run through a Frontier. I also found this to be true with cinema when viewed on an HDTV, it looks way more digital than the same film shot movie on a standard def tv.
