Last October, I posted a few photos that I shot with my K-7 and DA 15mm lens using one of the camera's digital effects, namely "monochrome" plus the "toy camera" filter. For your reference, here's a link to that post Toy Camera Filter.
Having shot and printed from Tri-x negatives for many years, I was intrigued with how simple it was to create these effects in-camera. However, being a serious printmaker, I wondered how the images would look when put on paper. This past week, I had time one evening to print the files and have to admit I found the results to be really good. Mind you, the "toy camera" effect produces a small jpeg file (the photo of my wife on our beach is only 4.6mb) and the prints off my Epson 4800 on 13 x19" Velvet Fine Art paper exhibit graininess which would probably drive a measurebator nuts.
The thumbnail above shows a few of the prints I made and mounted on a wall in my office. You can click on the thumbnail to see a larger image, but it's still hard to appreciate the overall look and feel of these prints. However, when most people came by to view them there first question is what PhotoShop filters did I use?
If you currently shoot with a K-7 or K-x, and haven't tried any of the digital effects possible in-camera, my suggestion is that one day you do some experiments with these filters. Not only are they easy to use, you might find the results to be surprisingly good and force you to think about your photography in a new light. And, at the very least, these filters are a nice reminder that photography in most cases is supposed to be fun, and the capability is sitting there in your camera right now just waiting to be tapped into.
