LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by. In this blog I am going to be talking about how to get that filmic look to a photo without editing that much at all. There is a growing fade in the photographic community that showcases the filmic look from the early 1990’s to the late 2000’s. This is a look that I have been trying to achieve with my images because that is the time frame that I started really looking at photos. I grew up in that time period and going to high school in the 90’s really shaped my photographic eye.

I was loving the darker tones with the bright vibrant colors that were showing up in all the magazines at the time. The images that were being taken were with film cameras and while I don’t remember the stock that was used the look in something that is so hard to replicate when shooting digital today. I have come so close to getting the tones right in the photos after I take them but it is a style that you cannot truly replace with editing software. There is just something about how a photo looks straight out of camera that you will just fall in love with. The lens and camera body has a lot to do with how you want your images to look. There is a crispness that comes out of the camera today that you just cannot get rid of. The sharpness of the lenses and the sensors being able to pick up so much detail is something that we all want in our images.

The issue with that is there is no personality that will truly come from a image taken today. That is my opinion at least and the way that I have found to correct this flaw is to shoot with older camera bodies and older lenses. This combo will give you that vintage look to an image. The blooming highlights are almost perfect and the shadows are darker and give better contrast to the photo. The colors have a slightly warmer tone to them and they just pop off the screen. If you want that vintage look you have to use a slightly softer lens to achieve that look or do you?

I have found two combinations that will allow you to have that vintage look in every frame. The softness is just enough to make the photos have that blooming highlight look that you want. There is two camera bodies that you can use to get that look. The Canon 6D and the Canon 5D Mark ii are the bodies that will give you the colors from the film era. The actual features of the cameras are so good that you will not be able to get that look and feel from a modern camera.

The value that you get from the two bodies is just amazing. The cost of them can both be found for under $300 dollars. That is unheard of in today’s market. They are both full frame bodies so you will have that background blur that you want when shooting a portrait. The two lenses that I have found that really take advantage of the colors has to be the Canon 24-85 f3.5-4.5 and the Canon 70-300 f4.5-5.6. These two lenses are the ones that will render the colors as the sensor was meant for. The fact that you can buy both lenses for around $300 dollars is a great find as well. They are both super sharp lenses that will give you that softish look.

The one look that you are after with the filmic look can be had for dirt cheap if you look around for the best price. The one area that these two bodies fail is in the ability to focus in low light. Another area that both lenses fall short on is the speed of focusing. This means that they are made for day time shooting and slow paced shooting which is perfect for landscape photography. The fact is this setup will give you so much more ability to keep shooting with a look that you want. I have been looking for gear like this for so long and now it is a part of my photography to the point that I am not willing to buy newer gear because I will not have that signature look that I want with my photos.

The only thing that I can truly bad about all this gear is that you really have to look at the gear before you buy them. Both the lenses are easy enough to find but there may be fungus in the lenses because there is no weather sealing to them. The fact is that if you want to get that vintage look to your photos you have to use that older vintage gear that will produce the images that you want with very little editing. That is a area that the two camera bodies will really shine and show you that the colors will be perfect.

To wrap this up I need to tell you that when you want to have a vintage look you have to use the gear that is going to give that to you. The cost of photography doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg just to shoot. You can totally find the gear you want at a pro level will cost you the same as buying a entry level camera. The two bodies that are older pro level bodies actually have all the same features that the newer entry level bodies have as well. The art of photography is two parts. One is the gear that you use and the second part is the act of shooting the images that you want. Enjoy from St Johns AZ y’all