I don’t think it’s a big secret that I am a HUGE fan of Kirk Mastin’s work. If you don’t know who he is, he’s a an awesome hybrid film/digital shooter out of Seattle area. His work is so amazing that my wife and I hired him to shoot our own 10 year vow renewal.  earlier this year at the beautiful San Ysidro Ranch.  On top of being an awesome photographer, he’s just overall a great guy. I’m honored to call him a friend.  So in addition to being a great photographer, he also created a brand new Lightroom and ACR preset that had revolutionized my studio’s work. I’ve always been a big fan of film photography and my work has always been heavily influenced by some of the top film photographers in the world. And I do plan on starting to offer film photography services next year in 2015.  But until I do, I’ve always struggled to get that ‘filmy’ look just right. My work has come pretty close to it through out the years, but it’s not until I started using Mastin Studio’s preset that I believe I’ve gotten as close to film as possible with my Canon 5D Mark 3. Kirk has come up with a brand new set of film emulation presets that have proven to be game changer for my studio.  There is simply no other preset that even comes remotely close to what I can get from Mastin Lab’s film presets. Kirk released Portra 400 preset earlier this year, and you can read my full review here.  Although it’s a great preset & look, I have found myself falling completely in love with the new Fuji400H preset.  I was one of the lucky ones that got to beta test this preset before it became available to the general public. And I absolutely love the pastel/light & airy look I can achieve with this preset.  According to Mastin Lab’s website “Fuji 160NS is a versatile film with medium contrast, and beautiful blue and green rendering. Fuji 400H has an airy pastel look: great for for wedding photography and fashion.” And I have to say I completely agree.

Also, Mastin Lab’s preset is the ONLY preset I can apply upon import to every single image. It literally works in all lighting conditions.  Again, MIND BLOWN.  It has reduced my editing time by about 20% because of the consistent result I can get. In the image above, from left to right, are the progression of editing. And the entire editing literally took less than 2 seconds.  First one on the left is straight out of camera, middle is with Fuji400H base preset applied, then for the final edit. I used “high light soft” to bring back some of the highlight from the flower petal, bumped up exposure by 1/3 of a stop and that was it!  Here are more examples. SOOC is always on the left.

Now obviously getting the images as close to final product in camera is always the best policy. I have found the ‘sweet spot’ of combination between exposure & custom white balance to achieve the look I want. By shooting with consistent lighting & white balance really helps when I start to edit. I am literally blown away by the versatility of this film emulation preset for Lightroom. I can’t thank Kirk enough for giving my images that distinct look!

*****JEREMY CHOU PHOTOGRAPHY IS AN AFFILIATE FOR MASTIN LABS. WE RECEIVE A SMALL REFERRAL FEE FOR PURCHASES MADE THROUGH OUR WEBSITE*****