I appreciate those shots of the building filled with windows. Really cool in my opinion as well. Glad you went for it with those shots and discovered a film that captured what you wanted to convey. Well done.
Thank you for your comment :) Exactly! didn't think the photos would come out this good on this film. I was worried that I shot too many, cause I tend to snap one quick photo and move on, but I was stunned when I saw the scans and glad I took multiple !
For decades I shot with Kodachrome 64 and 200 and eventually Fujichrome RVP . Once youve shot with Velvia, nothing else will do and it is now too expensive. I've switched to Black and White and have my 6x17 Fujichrome transparencies in safe storage, grateful to have lived and photographed with such gorgeous film. Color neg is not a sufficient nor satisfactory replacement.
Oh man.. the Velvia is indeed super expensive, but I do want to try it. I haven't shot slide film yet, slowly gearing up towards that. So lucky that you got to photograph such beautiful film, it's a shame how many have disappeared. But hopefully with the renewed interest in film photography one or two will come back some day. crazier things have happened 🤞
Love the video and photos. I shoot Ektar in both 35mm and 120. Amazing film for outdoors and bright colors. Have several rolls ready for the fall colors.
@@exploring_analog Its clearly similar to 35mm in my opinion. It loves bright clear sun and colors. I shoot 35mm and the 120 at 50 iso. Its a film that loves light. Its a preference but I worked in the photofinishing business for 22 years. I prefer the results of my shots being a full stop over. Try a few rolls and see how you like it at box speed and a few at 50 iso.
i love ektar. my go to color films are ektachrome and ekar. portra is boring, ektachrome has a narrow dynamic range, but ektar is forgiving to overexposure and warm with amazing reds. you're right, for people it can be weird to skin in sun, unless it's melanated skin then omg it's beautiful. use it tons in medium format too.
I really want to try in medium format soon! I was blown away by how beautiful the colours were 🤩 I completely understand that it is your fave! And you're so right, I can really see how it would be stunning with deeper skin tones 😍
I have seen some beautiful portraits shot on Ektar, at the end of the day I think it comes down to the skill and if you know how to work with it (which is not my case yet after one roll, I must say!) But I don't doubt that your portraits on Ektar are stunning, I hope to shoot it again soon, and maybe get some better results :)
thank you for new video! I'd seen that the quality of the video increased a lot! the orange light is adorable, with a blue light on the other side would be perfect! 😁👍Good job with the photos 👌
I watch so much youtube, so with the amazing production quality most creators have I am a bit self conscious about the video quality :D so this comment really warms my heart, hopefully in a few more videos I can step it up a bit more. the light is just a small lamp, but looking into getting some more coloured lights for the background, because they really do make a big difference! 🤍🤗
@@exploring_analog Long and hard is the road towards the success on youtube...🙄 Maybe you will not ever reach it...maybe yes...anyway you will have fun! 😁
I agree with your sentiments on being pleasantly surprised by Ektar. I normally prefer to shoot slide films like Velvia and sometimes Ekatachrome, so I was quite surprised to find Ektar as pleasing as it was, I don't shoot portraiture as much so I don't mind the richer colors. While the look is not really similar, the overall effect is kind of similar to Velvia, where many would not use it for portraits but it's great for everything else, and I don't mind taking the occasional portrait on these color-rich films too.
I haven't shot slide films myself (stuck in my CN comfort zone haha!) but I do see how the Ektar can be quite close as far as the overall effect goes. Shooting the Ektar made me very impatient to dip my toes into slide films too. Thank you for your comment, it is great to have input from someone who is very familiar with slide film!
@@exploring_analog it’ll be the same size grain in medium format. The format is just bigger. The only grain finer then Ektar i found is b/w Adox cms20. Ektachrome is the same grain.
It's worth using and heralding as the best. The price is ridiculous, I think its shot up 100% since 2021. I have receipts from 2020 where I regularly paid £30 for a pack of 5 120 rolls.
No, ridiculous is that people pay high prices for obscure filme of shit quality. So increasing price for a quality product is only normal, not ridiculous at all. Unwanted? Yes. Or better said no, as long as people are willing to pay ridiculous money for shit, experimental, unreliable emulsions.
I do think the comparison shots for portrait use were a little misleading. The Ektar example had the subject lit by fill in light reflected from the green grass.. wheras the Gold film shot had the model receiving fill in light off the warm brown wood of the bench. Scanning correction for the green content in the Ektar shot may well produce unflattering rendition of the skin in more directly lit areas of her skin.
Thank you so much for this comment, this is actually super insightful. I am not used to shooting portraits at all, so I don't think I have given this a fair shot, and didn't take into account these factors. You are right, just having the same model in the same spot does not mean the conditions are the same. Really appreciate the explanation and will keep this in mind next time :)
As someone who has been shooting film for over 50 years, I give you an alternative question, is any film worth the asking prices these days? My answer is a resounding no. Even the cheap low quality stuff like Foma have increased nearly three folds in the last 5 years. Kodak pricing is now absolutely ridiculous. As far as I know no new research and development into new emulsions is taking place anywhere, so our latest films are nearly two decades old, and even then they were just reformulations to decrease the silver content and replace them with dyes. But we do carry on. What else can we do but pay the asking prices or ditch thousands of £s or $s of precious film camera, lenses and equipment and put our fate in the 'digital' or in a better word computer imagery? PS: It was reputed that Kodak formulated the Ektar after the outcry of stopping the production of Kodachrome transparency films. Take that as you wish, but the punchy and staurated colours of Ektar and in particular the very mild magenta cast does remind me of Kodachrome 64 Pro of the same era, but the Ektar has the advantage of a couple of extra stops of dynamic range. What it doesn't have is the archival qulaity of Kodachrome as Kodachrome in essence was a triple layer emulsion each sensitive to a primary colour and to which dyes were added at a later stage. I know it doesn't exist anymore, but if you ever saw well executed Cibachrome print of a Kodachrome transparency, you would never ever look at digital again. A thing of extraordinary beauty that is sadly no more...
There is a new Ilford B&W? I just saw the new colour film but that one I do want to try! I hear it's not actually by Ilford but it looks really nice so I really want to test it!
I appreciate those shots of the building filled with windows. Really cool in my opinion as well. Glad you went for it with those shots and discovered a film that captured what you wanted to convey. Well done.
Thank you for your comment :) Exactly! didn't think the photos would come out this good on this film. I was worried that I shot too many, cause I tend to snap one quick photo and move on, but I was stunned when I saw the scans and glad I took multiple !
For decades I shot with Kodachrome 64 and 200 and eventually Fujichrome RVP . Once youve shot with Velvia, nothing else will do and it is now too expensive. I've switched to Black and White and have my 6x17 Fujichrome transparencies in safe storage, grateful to have lived and photographed with such gorgeous film. Color neg is not a sufficient nor satisfactory replacement.
Oh man.. the Velvia is indeed super expensive, but I do want to try it. I haven't shot slide film yet, slowly gearing up towards that. So lucky that you got to photograph such beautiful film, it's a shame how many have disappeared. But hopefully with the renewed interest in film photography one or two will come back some day. crazier things have happened 🤞
Only shot Velvia from around 1997 to 2010. You will never see such rich, vibrant colors from any other film stock. Treat yourself.
Love the video and photos. I shoot Ektar in both 35mm and 120. Amazing film for outdoors and bright colors. Have several rolls ready for the fall colors.
Thank you so much ! :) How did you find the 120? I am really looking forward to trying that!
@@exploring_analog Its clearly similar to 35mm in my opinion. It loves bright clear sun and colors. I shoot 35mm and the 120 at 50 iso. Its a film that loves light. Its a preference but I worked in the photofinishing business for 22 years. I prefer the results of my shots being a full stop over. Try a few rolls and see how you like it at box speed and a few at 50 iso.
Thank you so much that is an amazing tip! I will try overexposing it by a stop :)
i love ektar. my go to color films are ektachrome and ekar. portra is boring, ektachrome has a narrow dynamic range, but ektar is forgiving to overexposure and warm with amazing reds. you're right, for people it can be weird to skin in sun, unless it's melanated skin then omg it's beautiful. use it tons in medium format too.
I really want to try in medium format soon! I was blown away by how beautiful the colours were 🤩 I completely understand that it is your fave! And you're so right, I can really see how it would be stunning with deeper skin tones 😍
Everybody says not to use ektar for portraits but it’s my favorite portrait film stock. All of my best portraits are on Ektar
I have seen some beautiful portraits shot on Ektar, at the end of the day I think it comes down to the skill and if you know how to work with it (which is not my case yet after one roll, I must say!) But I don't doubt that your portraits on Ektar are stunning, I hope to shoot it again soon, and maybe get some better results :)
Ektar was reputedly formulated to mimick Kodachrome 25, which it didn't TBH, not even close. Ask Steve McCurry if he used Kodachrome for portraiture?
thank you for new video! I'd seen that the quality of the video increased a lot! the orange light is adorable, with a blue light on the other side would be perfect! 😁👍Good job with the photos 👌
I watch so much youtube, so with the amazing production quality most creators have I am a bit self conscious about the video quality :D so this comment really warms my heart, hopefully in a few more videos I can step it up a bit more. the light is just a small lamp, but looking into getting some more coloured lights for the background, because they really do make a big difference! 🤍🤗
@@exploring_analog Long and hard is the road towards the success on youtube...🙄 Maybe you will not ever reach it...maybe yes...anyway you will have fun! 😁
I agree with your sentiments on being pleasantly surprised by Ektar. I normally prefer to shoot slide films like Velvia and sometimes Ekatachrome, so I was quite surprised to find Ektar as pleasing as it was, I don't shoot portraiture as much so I don't mind the richer colors. While the look is not really similar, the overall effect is kind of similar to Velvia, where many would not use it for portraits but it's great for everything else, and I don't mind taking the occasional portrait on these color-rich films too.
I haven't shot slide films myself (stuck in my CN comfort zone haha!) but I do see how the Ektar can be quite close as far as the overall effect goes. Shooting the Ektar made me very impatient to dip my toes into slide films too. Thank you for your comment, it is great to have input from someone who is very familiar with slide film!
Another great film review, thank you! 😊📷
Thank you, so glad you liked it! 🤗 🎞️
I love the colors of Ektar.
The grain is so fine it’s almost not visible under the enlarger with a grain finder.
The grain is practically inexistent. I think this is the finest grain film I came across ! I bet it’s even finer in medium format 🤩
@@exploring_analog it’ll be the same size grain in medium format. The format is just bigger.
The only grain finer then Ektar i found is b/w
Adox cms20. Ektachrome is the same grain.
Perfect thank you! Can't wait to try it 🤩
@@exploring_analog I hope you share your experience! 💪🏻
Will do for sure!! 🤝
It's worth using and heralding as the best. The price is ridiculous, I think its shot up 100% since 2021. I have receipts from 2020 where I regularly paid £30 for a pack of 5 120 rolls.
yes a single roll is 20e here in France... I saw some blog posts complaining that is was 13e from just 3 years ago 🥲
No, ridiculous is that people pay high prices for obscure filme of shit quality. So increasing price for a quality product is only normal, not ridiculous at all. Unwanted? Yes. Or better said no, as long as people are willing to pay ridiculous money for shit, experimental, unreliable emulsions.
I do think the comparison shots for portrait use were a little misleading. The Ektar example had the subject lit by fill in light reflected from the green grass.. wheras the Gold film shot had the model receiving fill in light off the warm brown wood of the bench. Scanning correction for the green content in the Ektar shot may well produce unflattering rendition of the skin in more directly lit areas of her skin.
Thank you so much for this comment, this is actually super insightful. I am not used to shooting portraits at all, so I don't think I have given this a fair shot, and didn't take into account these factors. You are right, just having the same model in the same spot does not mean the conditions are the same. Really appreciate the explanation and will keep this in mind next time :)
As someone who has been shooting film for over 50 years, I give you an alternative question, is any film worth the asking prices these days? My answer is a resounding no. Even the cheap low quality stuff like Foma have increased nearly three folds in the last 5 years. Kodak pricing is now absolutely ridiculous. As far as I know no new research and development into new emulsions is taking place anywhere, so our latest films are nearly two decades old, and even then they were just reformulations to decrease the silver content and replace them with dyes. But we do carry on. What else can we do but pay the asking prices or ditch thousands of £s or $s of precious film camera, lenses and equipment and put our fate in the 'digital' or in a better word computer imagery? PS: It was reputed that Kodak formulated the Ektar after the outcry of stopping the production of Kodachrome transparency films. Take that as you wish, but the punchy and staurated colours of Ektar and in particular the very mild magenta cast does remind me of Kodachrome 64 Pro of the same era, but the Ektar has the advantage of a couple of extra stops of dynamic range. What it doesn't have is the archival qulaity of Kodachrome as Kodachrome in essence was a triple layer emulsion each sensitive to a primary colour and to which dyes were added at a later stage. I know it doesn't exist anymore, but if you ever saw well executed Cibachrome print of a Kodachrome transparency, you would never ever look at digital again. A thing of extraordinary beauty that is sadly no more...
Nice work
Thank you so much 🤗
Are you going to test the new Ilford B&W ?
There is a new Ilford B&W? I just saw the new colour film but that one I do want to try! I hear it's not actually by Ilford but it looks really nice so I really want to test it!
@@exploring_analog it is a B&W movie filmstock but Ilford are making it available in 35mm still cassettes at a low price!
it's not pink, it is magenta dominant. Kodak Gold has a yellow dominant. From the color model: CMYK
Thank you for the rectification :)