Happy Accident
I had stopped into my favorite film lab here in Miami, Palm Film Lab, and went on with my routine. I always drop off my rolls for development and scanning, and buy one or two to try out next time. The last couple of rolls I had shot that weren't my usual FujiColor 200 had been some CineStill 800t that I took with me to Walt Disney World specifically to make some photographs of Magic Kingdom's Main Street, lights aglow with that nighttime Disney magic. I had loved the results. So when I saw the CineStill 50D sitting on Palm Film Lab's shelf I figured I could try CineStill in the daytime. I don't know what I was expecting, but I know it wasn't what I got out of that roll.
When Memorial Day came around and we decided, as we usually do on such days, to visit with my grandmother and hang out in the pool, I decided it was finally time to load the CineStill 50D in my favorite film camera and shoot it. I loaded it in my Leica R4s, decided on the Elmarit 35mm specifically because I wanted to spend time with a lens I don't use often enough, and we took off for some time with Oma, my grandmother.
I did not fire off all 36 exposures that day. In fact it took about two weeks to work through them all - and I can usually squeeze 39 frames out of a 36 exposure roll so it may take even longer - but I promptly dropped the roll off back at Palm Film Lab for development and scanning. What I got back blew me away.
One of the first frames was a portrait of my wife, glammed up like some 70's movie star with a wide brim straw hat, fashionably large sunglasses, and golden hoop earrings. Now, film choice aside, I love making portraits with fast, moderately wide angle lenses because focusing close, but not too close, will give amazing subject separation while providing enough context to place the subject in a distinct location without completely blowing out the background in bokeh (I love some beautiful bokeh, but also think it can detract from a photograph as easily as it can add to it). And the Elmarit 35 is renown for its ability to focus sharply in the center of the frame while giving beautiful bokeh in the background. But the overall look is what really set me aback. The way 50D balanced shadows and highlights was astounding. Steph was mostly backlit, with the sun lighting only half of her face, and yet her skin tone was recreated beautifully. In fact, at this point I had never shot Portra before, but was left wanting after shooting it shortly after, finding 50D's skin tones to be more pleasing to my eye. Pair this with its overall pastel color palette and I immediately set about to have more rolls on my shelf at home for any situation I might possibly need it. We left for a family vacation soon after, followed by a work trip to England, but I found the right situation for CineStill 50D again shortly after. Steph and I were going to Mexico for almost a week with some friends and I knew exactly what film I wanted to take with me.
Riviera Maya Calling
I simplified my camera bag for this trip. I had just spent two weeks in England with my R4s and SL Typ 601 with four lenses between them. It was...a lot. So I wanted to think less and enjoy myself more. I packed my R4s with one lens, the Vario Elmar 28-70mm f3.5 zoom, and Q Typ 116. Some day I'll have enough self control to travel with only film, but until I get my instant-gratification needs in check, I'll always travel with film and digital.
We stayed at the Unico 20/87 resort right on the beach at Playa Del Carmen. It's an all-inclusive and I was definitely more interested in relaxing and enjoying myself than I was in making beautiful photographs, but I found the resort and the beach so beautiful that I made short work of getting through a 36 exposure roll of CineStill 50D throughout our stay.
The first frame from that roll is a perfect example of the sort of magic to be found here. Steph was sitting under the shade of an umbrella with the sun low on the horizon peeking through and providing backlight at an angle. despite this high contrast, 50D balanced the shadows and highlights impossibly well, with all the detail of the sky preserved, as well as the color detail on Steph's face. The colors are of a beautiful, muted pastel palette that is almost painterly. Present here, too, is the red halation in highlights that CineStill has become famous for. It is harder to see as this film is designed to be shot in daytime, but it is present and more subtle than in 800t.
Where I found that I benefitted from using flash with FujiColor 200 on a recent trip to Saint Augustine, Florida, I don't believe this portrait would have benefitted from a fill flash. The natural shadows, light as they are, create incredible depth on Steph's face and provide a natural white balance that is very flattering. I also stopped the lens down to f8 for this portrait, to give a deeper depth of field and provided some necessary context for where we are as well as adding contrast and deepening colors a bit while giving me a sharp and clear image.
These two exposures show off the film's color palette even better, and work as exemplars for how you can use light to work with you. The sun was setting quickly and was about to drop below the roofline of the hotel, and the palm trees in the direction Steph is looking towards were diffusing much of the little harshness left in the light. This gave me the magic found in that first of these two exposures. Thanks to 50D's amazing reproduction of skin tones, Steph's skin, not yet tan from the days of sun soaking to come, is bathed in the golden light of magic-hour sun and is positively radiant. I also nailed focus on that one (SCORE!) and she pops right out of the background like a bit of 3D art. But in that beautifully bokeh'd background are some beautiful golden colors that really show how this film shines.
The second of these is quite lovely too, with some very accurate colors. I positioned myself in a way so that the lines from her knee and chest slowly come into focus, leading to her smiling face. With her face bathed in the same golden light, we see the cooler tones of the hotel and palms behind her, with an even shallower depth of field than the first thanks solely to the swath of background shrinking away from her. Above it all, in both photographs, the gorgeous and pale blue sky that retains all the detail and information that we saw with our eyes. These are the kinds of photographs that are hard to make with digital cameras because of the finer exposure latitude. CineStill 50D excels here, providing an immense exposure latitude and gorgeous color palette with true to life skin tones.
And what of our friends, Brian and Carolina? Thankfully they were cool with me photographing them too! And I'm grateful they did. Because now we can do some real analysis of 50D's skin tones. Caro is decidedly darker than Steph or Brian. And we can see here, taken on the second day of our vacation, that her skin indeed appears darker and every bit as pleasing as Steph's in her portraits. Because of the angle and position of the cup, we also get some red halation coming from the highlights on her hands and glass. It is even reflected up into the shadowy bill and the white embroidered logo of her cap. We also see an amazing rendition of different shades of green, with her bathing suit, leaves, and volleyball net all vividly unique in the photo.
Brian's portrait further demonstrates a point I made earlier, one that can also be seen in Caro's: CineStill 50D balances contrast in a beautiful way. His face was dark to my eyes and we can see that with the sun directly overhead, his hat is casting a deep, dark shadow over his face and shoulder, and yet no detail is lost here. Not only is there no detail lost, but thanks to the way CineStill handles contrast, we actually get some nice red halation around the cord hanging from his hat. Brian's skin is milkier than Steph's, with more of a red undertone to it. But likewise, it is represented beautifully on this film. While this may not seem like a big deal, standing all three side-by-side we will see that this emulsion loves skin tones equally. If that isn't a perfect portrait film, then I don't know what is.
Not Just for Portraiture
The third day brought about a desire to get environmentally friendly. So while Steph, Caro, and Brian partied it up in the pool I took the R4s to the beach. I found a secluded little spot under some palms and a pathway leading to the beach chairs and umbrellas that gave me some beautiful scenery. If only I could fine some...hey! look there's some people! I ran over and snapped some shots of the beachgoers. These are some of my favorites of this roll. They have a very true-to-life color recreation, but there's a hint of nostalgia to them. This was what I was chasing after that first roll back on Memorial Day. But it is an accurate nostalgia. This isn't some instagram filter than desaturates all the colors and adds some bloom to the overall photo, or some lens filter that casts an odd haze over the image, making everything appear soft in an artificial way. No, this is what the prints I got back from the lab when I was a kid looked like. And that, that's magic. Is that worth $15.99 for a 36 exposure roll? Well, everyone will have to answer that for themselves. But for me? Hell yeah it is!
And no shot exemplified that quite like this one. In my opinion, this photograph could very easily be confused for one taken in 1973. Beachwear hasn't changed much since then either. Playa Del Carmen probably looks pretty close to what it did back then. Everything looks exactly the way I saw it on the beach that afternoon, only more timeless.
The other great thing about this photo is that we see many different skin tones. These sunbathers are as varied as the greens in the palm trees and yet every person's skin tone is recreated uniquely and beautifully. That isn't something that is easy to do. I have photographed scenes in which I have to make an artistic decision to either create masks to edit specific people differently than others or to favor one subject over another. CineStill 50D is doing all the heavy lifting for me here. No one is too dark or too light. Everyone's skin is beautifully recreated on this emulsion.
Final Focus
If it wasn't clear already, I am head-over-heels in love with this film. I still have a few rolls on my shelf, waiting to be loaded into my cameras. Is it due to the fact that I live in Miami, where the sun is always out and the heat index isn't sky high? Well, that probably does have something to do with it. If I lived in New York or Chicago or somewhere like that I might favor Kodak Portra 400 or Fujifilm Superia X-Tra 400. But for those in similar climates, I can't see why this wouldn't be the first roll you think of when going out for a good time. It isn't as inexpensive as FujiColor 200 or Kodak ColorPlus, but damn if it isn't more fun to shoot.
I will still likely rely on FujiColor 200 for everyday film photography. Why? Well, you can't beat that price. I can get a three-pack of 36 exposures for $22 on Amazon all day. That's the price of one and a half rolls of CineStill 50D. But I can tell you that I plan to shoot CineStill 50D more often than I initially thought.
One of the biggest complaints I had read and heard in reviews of this film was that frames were often blurry or out of focus due to the low ISO. And while this photograph here shows Steph posing seductively with an ice-pop, many of the photos I've displayed here are not posed, but taken on the fly. The ones on the beach show action frozen in time, without any blur or motion. I don't understand that complaint, nor do I see any evidence of that in my scans of these rolls.
So, I have a new favorite film emulsion. It gives me beautiful, vibrant colors with a hint of nostalgia and some 70's glam glow that works for me in a big way. To date, all paid portraits have been for digital photographs, but if anyone asked for film photos, this is what I'd reach for. It is that good. And if I wanted to be sure to capture a special moment in color, this is definitely the film I'm making sure is loaded in my camera.
More CineStill 50D
All images © 2020-2024 David Ulloa Studio. All rights reserved.
