In September we took a long-anticipated and much-needed break on the North Yorkshire coast. A place that we've both enjoyed visiting since we were young, and somewhere we've revisited several times over the past few years. My partner and I both have family history in Yorkshire (I was born there, for a start) so given that we met in Cambridge, and she actually grew up near London, we are lucky to both have fond childhood memories in this area.
I took a lot of photos, of course, as I always do. I took three cameras with me - my Canon R10 with RF 28mm prime lens, my little Nikon Zoom 310 AF point and shoot camera, and my Holga 120N. For 35mm I packed Lucky C200 exclusively. For 120, I had Ilford HP5+.
I have a lot of images to share, so I thought I'd split this post into different parts. I've also separated film photos from digital - they have such a different look to them, that I don't think they work together. Over the years I've tried many film emulation presets for my digital photos, and some of them I quite like, but I've always found it hard to match the soft, warm tones of film.
I'd also mention that in digitising the Lucky C200, I tried three different negative conversion apps/plugins, and all gave wildly different results. The idea that a particular film stock has a certain look might hold up in terms of darkroom printing, but when you digitise the negatives, it all depends so much on how you process them. In summary, I found Negative Lab Pro gave quite inconsistent results, which would require a lot of tweaking using the plugin to achieve a kind of harmony across each of the rolls. Filmomat SmartConvert was much more consistent, but the colours came out kind of brownish by default. In the end I liked the results from Negmaster Negsets the most - not only were they consistent and pleasing to look at, but the process was so simple. Apply a profile, adjust the exposure and intensity, maybe tweak the white balance slightly, and you're done. I like that kind of simplicity.
One other thing to note - and I think this might be a Lucky C200 issue rather than a conversion issue - is that bright yellows came out quite 'interesting'. There was a tendency for them to become a deep orange. It did vary slightly between the different conversion plugins, and Negsets probably gave the most true-to-life result with the yellows, but it was a feature across the board. I've never noticed this before with Kodak Gold, so I think it's a quirk of the Lucky film. Which, by the way, I do love, and would definitely use again.
Anyway, here are some images. Brace yourself, it's a long one...
1. Whitby views
/ Nikon Zoom 310 AF and Lucky C200 /
2. Walking back along the coast to Whitby
/ Nikon Zoom 310 AF and Lucky C200 /
3. Views from and around the 199 steps
/ Nikon Zoom 310 AF and Lucky C200 /
4. Intermission: seagull
/ Nikon Zoom 310 AF and Lucky C200 /
5. Walking Whitby to Runswick Bay
/ Nikon Zoom 310 AF and Lucky C200 /
6. Staithes
/ Nikon Zoom 310 AF and Lucky C200 /
7. Runswick Bay again
/ Holga 120N and Ilford HP5+ /
8. Staithes again
/ Holga 120N and Ilford HP5+ /
9. Walking by the North York Moors Railway, Goathland to Grosmont
/ Canon R10 and RF 28mm /
10. Walking back on the coastal path to Whitby
/ Canon R10 and RF 28mm /
11. Monochrome on the West Pier
/ Canon R10 and RF 28mm /
12. Walking between Sandsend and Runswick Bay
/ Canon R10 and RF 28mm /
...and that's it! If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. I hope something in there was interesting, or enjoyable, or inspiring... or just not boring.
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