Garden on Film

[mbrager]

These were shot on Kodak Portra 400 color film in a community garden behind our public library. When I invert the negatives in Photoshop with the Invert command, the colors are beautifully washed out and cool, (characteristic of Portra) but inverting using Color Perfect software makes the colors more natural. Sometimes it's hard to decide which I prefer. These are my favorites from the roll:

1. Sunflowers


2.


3. Ripe tomatoes (Color Perfect inversion)


4.


5. Bee and pollen

[Runmonty]

These certainly have a unique look to them MB. I understand that there is a certain appeal to many for the effects of various film types and its processing, however I will be honest and say that to my eye I find the colour cast a little distracting and it doesn't really work for me on this occasion. Don't be offended though, I am the first to admit this is just a personal thing and it may not be universal.

[mbrager]

I appreciate your thoughtful, honest comment. And you are right when you call the color cast "distracting". Which is the point in my using it in some of the photos: to distract the viewer to feeling or thinking "something isn't quite right in this photo: the colors are off and appear unnatural" and then maybe to ask why this is so and if it likeable or not so much. You are also right that the reaction is highly personal, not to everyone's liking. My bias is towards thinking that everything I do photographically is cool and fantastic, which I know is certainly not the case. But when I first saw the color cast in these photos, I found it kind of cool and unique in some of the compositions, so kept it.

[Runmonty]

But when I first saw the color cast in these photos, I found it kind of cool and unique in some of the compositions, so kept it.

I get that. If you like it - you keep it.

My bias is towards thinking that everything I do photographically is cool and fantastic

This effects us all. I think that if people dont like it - they just dont get it. Although I will admit it is not uncommon for me to go back to a photo much later and say to myself "what on earth was I thinking ?!!"

[Robert1950]

I like this work. I've used scans of Kodak Ektar 100, but not to the extent that you have. I also shoot infrared, so I appreciate what you are attempting.