@Aciano on His Cyberpunk Inspired Photos of Moscow at Night

With the popularity of movies such as Blade Runner and The Matrix, as well as the controversial yet ever-redeeming game Cyberpunk 2077, the cyberpunk genre has for a long time been popular in mainstream media. Lomographer @aciano captures the characteristics and aesthetics of cyberpunk in a recent album entitled “Enter the Matrix: Kodak Vision3 500T @400, 17.12.2022” where he shoots a deep in winter Moscow with his Canon EOS 3 and Kodak Vision 3 500T set to ISO 400. Today we take a look at his photos and find out how he created "Neo Moscow."

When you think of cyberpunk, you usually think of a distant future with highrise buildings filled with giant LED screens, humans mixed with cybernetic attachments, hyper-capitalistic worlds, and a big gap between social classes. Being a sub-genre of science fiction, the term cyberpunk got its popularity in the 80s with films like Blade Runner and the manga Akira which have many of the previously mentioned elements.

In recent decades, cyberpunk and similar dystopian forms of media have been on the rise, like The Matrix, Cyberpunk 2077, Ghost In The Shell, and Ready Player One being prime examples. Looking at the photos, they almost appear to be video game stills, or concept art for some of these titles.

@aciano uses a Canon EOS 3 combined with an old 17-35 mm f/2.8L Canon lens and Kodak Vision 3 500 T film. Despite it looking like a modern DSLR, this camera is still analogue and uses 35 mm film to take photos. With the technological advances of the 90s, the Canon EOS 3 is a great choice for street photography as its lock-on focusing, combined with high shutter speeds made it a great tool for discreet and quick shooting. The lens he uses was a great choice for this shoot because of its low aperture and wide angle which meant it could capture the buildings fully at night without losing details. The film he used is a Kodak tungsten movie film converted to be shot in 35 mm. The film was a great choice to use for the concept as the Kodak film was designed to be shot with artificial light as the main source of light.

The shots in the Enter the Matrix album are mostly accidental. Recently I purchased an old 17-35 mm f/2.8L Canon lens, then mounted it on my EOS 3 and went for a walk around the nearest area: the Moscow City business center with skyscrapers, neon lighting, and crowds of people. The idea was to catch how this architecture will look with a wide angle at night and light-halations. I liked the combination of an ordinary walk around the city, an unusually rare lens, and an experimental film which gave such an eye-catching result.

To achieve the effects of the photos there were a lot of different factors involved. For one, when he developed the film rather than going to the ECN-2 process he got it cross-processed in C-41 and removed the antihalation filter so the lights could be filled with haze. The next thing @aciano mentioned is that he wished he had a tripod since the shutter speeds were quite long. He had to rely on his discipline and willpower to keep still when taking photos. Lastly, he told us he overexposed his film in order to allow more light and give more details in the photos.

I don't shoot color that often because I love the process of developing and digitizing black and white film at home. When shooting color, I prefer to get natural colors and maximum image quality. But sometimes there is a mood when you want something unusual, cinematic, and eye-catching. I like using unique-looking films like the Lomography Lomochromes or using techniques like cross-processing. With this I tried the Kodak Vision3 since there is a Moscow photo lab that washes off the rem-jet layer and it becomes a DIY Cinestill.

We thank @aciano for this wonderful photos. You can check out the rest of his photos here. Ever been inspired by sci-fi genres? Share your concepts with us in the comments.

written by rocket_fries0036 on 2023-02-02 #gear #places #tutorials #night #nightlife #neon #russia #moscow #iso-400 #cyberpunk #canon-eos-3 #kodak-vision3-500t