Over the years, I’ve loved to do still-life photography. Especially with flowers. I decided to test out a roll of Cinestill 400D with some flowers that were all different colors just to see what it could do.
I have only used Cinsestill 400D a handful of times, if even that, and I have gotten mixed results. I shot a medium format roll outdoors, and I loved the results. It was beautiful on a cold sunny day. The D is for Daylight so it sings in bright light. You can read about that day here, but make sure you come back!
Now I wanted to test it indoors in lower light. So let’s see it!
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Flowers on Cinestill 400D
These shots are taken in natural light coming in from the window behind the flowers. That made it difficult to avoid backlighting and dark shadow in the front. Therefore I had to take photos from all different angles to really catch that light.
Nikkor 55mm f3.5
Cinestill 500D
With the Nikkor 55mm f3.5 lens on my Nikon F, I got up-close and personal with these beautiful flowers. You can read more about that lens and some tests I did with it here. But like I said, come back!
There is also a sheer curtain on this window, so that sort of filtered the light, making it even softer. That helped to cut the contrast as well because this was in the middle of the day when the sun is strongest.
This film, in my experience, is pretty cold. The photo above is unedited, from my scanner. The pictures below are edited by me to be a little warmer.
Now that I have sat with these images for a while, I am kind of starting to appreciate the colder look of this film straight off the scanner. I’m not sure if I like the warmer look. However, that is what it looked like in person, so that’s why I did that.
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Final Thoughts
I am happy with these results. At this point I have been choosing film based on price. I’ve always preferred Kodak Portra 800, but the price is just too much right now. Cinestill 400D is about the same price as Kodak Portra 400 so between the two would be according to preference. This film is cooler than Portra, and now that I have seen what it looks like in my type of photography, its good to know I can choose between the two films based on the look I’m trying to get.
How about you? Have you tried this film before? Do you plan on trying it? Let me know in the comments.
Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.
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Great pictures, I quite like the cooler tones, the pictures remind me of old Victorian still life paintings, cool but not cold!
Photos are quite lovely! Nice work! I’ve been shooting 400D on and off since its introduction and I really like it especially outdoors on a cloudy/rainy day. I’ve run it through my Yashica D as well as my Retina IIIC with really nice results. Most recently, I ran a roll through my FM2N in October and got a couple of good ones of an abandoned farmhouse in the Shenandoah Valley: https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwittyphotography/55011078705/in/dateposted-public/
Thank you.
That’s a beautiful shot. I’ll have to try it on a rainey day.
Good to see you back! I think you did a lovely job here and the photos are gorgeous. Flowers are always good subjects – patient, interesting, and certainly beautiful.
Thank you! Yes whenever I feel blocked mentally or creatively, photographing flowers always helps.