RB|Design

A quick follow up to my post about VSCO black and white. Someone shot me a question about VSCO film pack 03 in the context of that post - specifically how fade-y and blurry and effect-y it might be considering it is probably the most extreme of the three film emulation packs they produce. As I have said a few times - yep, can be all low dmax, effecty, old-crappy-instgramy if you want it to but it doesn’t have to. That’s why I like it. Actually why I like all of them. Not a couple of one trick ponies.

Yet another follow up to the VSCO thing I wanted to throw out there to counter some biases that a lot of people have towards those particular presets. I swear this will be quick. I may as well show you what VSCO film 02 looks like from a feel point of view. Specifically because this just came up on twitter for someone that owns 01 and 03 wondering if 02 was worthwhile.

A couple of thoughts on VSCO black and white presets, black and white in general, as well as approach to a particular project. You might think from a lot of the work that you see published on the web that VSCO black and white film looks are all attempting to look like horribly under exposed, badly developed, and poorly printed film at it’s worst with blacks somewhere around dark gray. I don’t want to be prejudicial towards that look specifically - not really my thing. Well at least so far for anything I have gone out and wanted to make. For the most part I think it looks like shit and it not appropriate for the subject matter. My black and white never looked like that unless I screwed up badly. I do have to say I have seen a few things where it seemed to fit and the whole body of work looked great done in that style - rare but I must admit that it exists.

Today I would like to announce the official launch of the second eBook in my Lighting Field Guide series. This one is a bit different than the first one. It’s a bit more technical and it uses a strobe. I have made some changes and improvements since publishing a guide to window light but before I discuss those I want to tell all of you exactly what this field guide is about. If you just want it now - grab it here.

So… very shortly we will have the new Ricoh GR. No numbers at the end just the GR. At first glance I wouldn’t pay this camera any attention. The new Nikon A wasn’t something that I thought about buying. It’s a step in the right direction from a size point of view. The Ricoh GR is pretty much the same camera at first glance but then again it’s not.

Seems my first impressions of the X100S was not just me. After someone commented that there was some sort of firmware change I did a bit of research and guess what…

Someone asked me if I still shoot film the other day. I guess that’s because I don’t write much about it here. Short answer - Yes, I still shoot film. I haven’t done any large-format work in quite a while. Probably because I don’t have a suitable project as of late. I do shoot a roll of 35mm here and there as well as some 120. I fear that those of us that still love color film will be high and dry sooner or later. My guess is that Fuji’s announcement that it’s out of the movie film business is really an announcement that it’s out of the film business. As soon as current stocks are gone I bet 400H will be no more along with whatever else is still available from them.

Finally. Finally, finally. After what seems like an eternity my brand spanking new X100S is here. Actually it came Monday but I have let things settle a few days before I wrote my initial impressions. They are initial impressions since I have not done any real work on real subjects with the new camera. The reason for the delay of even my very first thoughts is that I wanted to make sure they were balanced and had a few days to settle.

Sorry for the lack of activity around here. Trying to finish the next lighting field guide as well as doing a few things to keep the lights on. I hate when that interrupts things I feel like doing at the moment.

I wanted to wrap up the week relaying a short but illuminating (for me) conversation I had on twitter earlier this week. Specifically a conversation regarding a personal project I referred to in my last post on the magic of the Fuji X100.

It’s only been a little while since I slipped on a banana peel and accidentally ordered my Fuji X100S. Visualize that for a moment. I already am impatient in waiting for it. Frustrated actually. Not because I think it will somehow revolutionize anything I am doing or going to do. Heck I don’t think it will do anything except remove some minor irritations I have with my current X100. It’s really because I feel a little in limbo now that I really am getting to know my X100 intimately. I am assuming it will be a little learning curve and a little muscle memory retraining to get up to speed and I want that to happen now.