Exposure X5 – Up Close And Personal

For a very long time, I’ve been somewhat dissatisfied with my digital black and white photos. They never had the tonality I could expect from a negative scan or a print. I asked someone on flickr, who had a tonality in his digital B&W images that I wished to achieve. He pointed me towards Capture One and DxO’s Silver Efex Plus 2 (in fact the whole DxO package). I’m not sure if Capture One and I agree with each other, more experimenting is needed. The DxO package though, is bloody brilliant. All of a sudden, I’m starting to get tonality I’m happier with.

It’s not just that though. I actually enjoy using the DxO plugin/software. And not just for B&W. There are plenty of ways of playing with colour too!

That said, I think Exposure X5 still has a place in my workflow. It’s fine for initial RAW processing and quick edits.

All of these shots were from this morning’s dog walk.

Anyway, today’s photo editing music is provided by Fatboy. What a find on spotify!

Now I’ve started scanning film, I’m having trouble stopping. The other day I found out a file of old negatives in my darkroom, shot mostly with my old Mamyia C330 on 120 Tri-X. I’d forgotten they existed, so it was a nice surprise. I’m now in the process of scanning and editing them. This should keep me busy for the most of lockdown, at any rate!

Here are a few so far, all of which were shot in 2008:

Old man at the bottom of the steps.

I like this old tree, it has plenty of character. It’s at the bottom of the steps, up to Mnt. Joy. 2008.

Mamiya C330, 80mm lense,
Kodak Tri-X 400,
Xtol 1+1, 8 minutes with 4 minute pre-soak,
Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64,
Edited in Exposure X5.

Steps… lots of bloody steps.

These are the side steps up to Mnt. Joy. 2008.

Mamiya C330, 80mm lense,
Kodak Tri-X 400,
Xtol 1+1, 8 minutes with 4 minute pre-soak,
Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64,
Edited in Exposure X5.

Parkhurst Trees 1

Mamiya C330, 80mm lense,
Kodak Tri-X 400,
Xtol 1+1, 8 minutes with 4 minute pre-soak,
Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64,
Edited (barely) in Exposure X5.

Also, today’s film scanning music is provided by The Black Keys 🙂

Tag: Exposure X5

A Revelation

A lockdown plan, for the expulsion of boredom.