Get That Kodak/Fuji Film Look Within Your Nikon Camera Using Picture Control Editor

I was tired of spending time in Lightroom post processing my images to look like ‘film’. I spent a lot of time creating a preset in Lightroom to try and make my photos look like National Geographic . On a side note when I was a child we had a subscription to NG and I’m sure that had some impact on me and why I like photography so much. But I digress. 

It felt like work after spending hours in nature shooting then coming home to the daunting task of culling, then processing all my photos that were shot in RAW.

I was in the deep end of thinking I had to shoot RAW to get the best amount of data in my file rather than a pleasing picture. I subscribed to the ‘make it the best after you shoot’ method. This literally would take hours of touching up and tweaking in Lightroom. 

I found some articles and forum posts that led me to: https://nikonpc.com/ - a site that someone created and uploaded Nikon profiles that mimic all our favorite film stocks.

You simply browse the examples and download the ones you want to try. Copy the file to your SD card then load it into your camera. VOILA! Film stock settings that manipulate the color definitions, contrast sharpness etc. 

 Now you have more options besides (vivid, portrait etc) in your camera.

It shoots only JPG with these profiles – but I think that’s a positive as it saves space. 

The other great thing as well is with the newer Nikons (like my D5600) is SNAPBRIDGE. Snapbridge  now allows me to connect to my camera to my phone and grab a copy of the pictures which I can then easily put into Instagram and Facebook. I think for this point in time I’ve learned what I can from Lightroom and I just want to spend more time shooting and less time editing. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments. Hope this helps those film enthusiasts that shoot digital! Don't forget - you can now order my prints or canvas at my store: https://adamsabaz.darkroom.tech

Ice Skating on a Frozen Pond

Learning some lessons from my first use of my new camera stabilizer, I made some corrections to my setup and took the ice with my kids skating outside.  The park we skated at is a very scenic spot surrounded by mature trees and monuments.    I swapped out my Tamron with my less heavy kit lens, went full manual and well, I think it went pretty good!   Still have to tweak and nail down exposure via shutter settings but overall I'm very pleased with this little project.

 

Morning Sunrise Content Creation Project

 Got my self a camera stabilizer and had the opportunity to try it out. There was a bit of learning curve and  I definitely will be taking a lost from this initial test.   The main takeaways:

-my Tamron lens is just too heavy and i'll have to use my kit lens
-the heavier lens also forced me to slot the camera in slightly off balanced position so all my shots appear to swoosh up a bit-Aperture priority just won't cut it in low light situations, will need to go full manual to avoid the compensations 

A Quick Tutorial On Long Exposure Photography

A nice little video I made with some one of my favorite musical pieces.   I explain my workflow for long exposure photography - using an ND filter to knock down the amount of light hitting the lens so the camera has to keep the shutter open for longer.  In this case about 20 seconds.   

 

Sailing The North Shore of Lake Superior

 

A Case For Shooting In Aperture Priority Mode

I've really enjoyed shooting these past few months with my Nikon D5600. I proved to myself that yes - i can shoot in manual mode but have finally told myself that it's okay to shoot in AP. I used to think it was cheating or being lazy. Truth be told - it is way easier and I've shot some of my best stuff lately in AP and really started enjoying the art of photography again. 

Skating In Thunder Bay

What an awesome group of people running the Eclectic Skate Shop and Skate Park. After introducing myself they let me photograph a session. It was so great to reconnect with skateboarding again.