Interesting Film or Digital online challenge

Hello!

 

Never thought I'd post something like this, but I took an online challenge asking the viewer to choose which images were film, and which were digital. I did well, getting 21/24 correct. When I then asked myself which images I preferred, I found that I tended to pick the film images a little more often than the digital. No idea why.

I think there is a sense of reality that notices subtle differences in what we see vs. what the camera sees.

I often notice digital photos, under certain circumstances more pronounced, are too perfect. Backlighting and such are overcompensated for rendering a scene that appears over processed and surreal. Pile on some post processing and even more reality is lost. The human brain is always seeing and recording varying depths of field, shadow, dimension, detail in the real world through the simple lenses of two eyeballs that that brain is adapted to. Just my thoughts about what I see.

The test is interesting, but hugely flawed. The b&w scans are awful (and I knew I was going to get the b&w ones wrong, but I thought that they were trying to fool us with phone shots vs film). I got only one colour shot wrong, though. And the subject matter should have been more varied.

 

Still, it's no big deal, as nobody is forced to do these things. I was entertained, and that's what counts.

 

Edit: This shot is so obvious, I didn't need to zoom in. IMHO the digital shot really failed in terms of colour here:

 

http://cdnslantedlens.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/114.jpg

Edited February 15, 2018 by Karim Ghantous

The great thing about this challenge is that if you bring proof of your final score to any New York City subway station, along with $2.75, you’ll get one ride on a train anywhere within the city limits you want to go. :)

dit: This shot is so obvious, I didn't need to zoom in. IMHO the digital shot really failed in terms of colour here:

 

http://cdnslantedlens.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/114.jpg

The top one is film and looks off-color to me.

 

Deeply flawed test: FX digital with film presets and post processing applied to make look like film (aka match the film scans) vs medium format film. I did the test three times - I obviously can't distinguish film from fake film properly (13 wrong first run, 8 wrong second). Third time I choose which one I liked better: 18 for digital (or more precisely, fake film).

 

There are two B&W sets that look identical to me

http://theslantedlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/205.jpg

and

http://theslantedlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/205.jpg

 

(and obviously are, since the files are identical)

 

- yet the result claim that in one the film is right and the other the film is left. What gives?

if you took this challenge online, they were all digital!

 

if you took the challenge in person, analoge prints vs digital prints, your score would have been drastically different.

if you took this challenge online, they were all digital!

 

if you took the challenge in person, analoge prints vs digital prints, your score would have been drastically different.

What about "analogue" prints made from digital negatives?

that may throw the wrench in the works. I've never seen that. mmmmmmmmm I wonder?

There are two B&W sets that look identical to me

http://theslantedlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/205.jpg

and

http://theslantedlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/205.jpg

 

(and obviously are, since the files are identical)

I didn't notice that! It's quite ridiculous.

 

that may throw the wrench in the works. I've never seen that. mmmmmmmmm I wonder?

You might have, if you saw a movie projected from a release print struck from a digitally printed negative. If that counts. Then there are lambda prints, which are laser prints made on photochemical paper, and developed with darkroom chemicals. I haven't seen one of those.

Making film negatives from digital is not uncommon at all--you can do it with an inkjet printer or a film recorder.

I'm very late to this party but - with all its limitations - I found this an interesting quiz! I never make any prints of my (digital) photos so it's digital quality that counts for me. I did the same as @wogears, choosing my preferred versions on the assumption that digitized 'film' photos would somehow be distinguishable from photos taken with a digital camera. I got slightly more than 50% right and almost 50% wrong. I really do accept that any differences (resolution, photographic response, etc.) between digital and analogue are best shown in (large-scale) prints. I have no experience whatsoever with 'analog photography.

 

I'm not sure about the extent to which software such as Silver, Color and Analog Efex pro can emulate film types for digital photos. Every now and then, I'm tempted to buy a film camera - cheap these days. But I expect that "film" will eventually go the way of "wet plate": a photographic curiosity kept alive by a few enthusiasts.