Does not contain AI content (mobile phone section possibly excluded as some use it built-in as post processing for phones).

I started out wanting to take photos as soon as I learned cameras could be used for more than 'happy snaps'. My first camera was a film camera borrowed for short trips around the Hunter Valley.

1999 - Tired of the wait for film to process, I got my first digital camera, A Sony Mavica. Since then I've had many digital all-in-one cameras but it wasn't until I encountered a Pentax Optio 550 that I realized things like aperture, f-stop and ISO existed.

2010 - Unfortunately my first interchangeable lens camera was given to me. A Nikon D7000 DSLR, and I found it to overwhelming to use.

2021 - Many years later I have started my journey again with a mirrorless Sony A6400 and my first all purpose lens, a Sony 18-105mm, and a macro lens Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS. I plan on continuing my love for dramatic skies, macro flowers, and landscapes, with a bit of kitty portraits thrown in.

2026 - I have now sold my Sony kit. I found Sony lacks the "soul" I want in my images. The way the camera body processes images leaves things feeling empty. Custom picture profiles and even vintage lenses fight against this base setup. It was especially frustrating when the internal setup had issues and would ruin photos. I find myself spending too much time trying to counter it all instead of just taking photos.

2026 onward - Time for a new system and a new approach of trying to find that film "feel" on modern cameras. I have returned to Nikon with a Z6. It's almost brand new with just over 3000 shutter count. The sensor is perfect.

Shop www.redbubble.com/people/amberhague

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(Currently working on custom vintage lens picture profiles for Nikon.)

Custom Picture Profiles for Sony and vintage glass.

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Custom Pentax CCD sensor style Picture Profile for Sony.

Adjust the settings:

• Black Level: -3

(This gently anchors the deepest shadows, ensuring the landscape feels grounded and dimensional rather than faded or lifted).

• Gamma: ITU709

(Standard Sony gammas stretch out highlights to capture data. ITU709 is a classic broadcast standard with a steeper, more film-like contrast curve that rolls off highlights gracefully—just like an old CCD sensor).

• Black Gamma:

◦ Change Range to Wide

◦ Change Level to -2

◦ (This slightly compresses the dark midtones, adding moodiness to storm clouds, forest floors, and shadows).

• Knee: Manual

◦ Change Point to 85%

◦ Change Slope to +3

◦ (This forces the sensor to smoothly compress bright skies and sunbursts into a soft, hazy gradient instead of clipping into harsh digital white blocks).

• Color Mode: ITU709 Matrix

(This bypasses Sony's modern, neon-leaning digital color algorithm and forces a classic, natural color matrix that favors deep organic tones).

• Saturation: +4

(Older CCD sensors were famous for rich, dense color saturation. This adds that punchy, vivid life to your blues and golds without making them look artificially digital).

• Color Phase: -2

(This subtly shifts the overall color spectrum slightly toward the warmer side, mimicking the classic Pentax auto-white-balance look from the early 2000s).

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Custom Soviet Style Picture Profile for Sony.

• Black Level: -5

◦ (We are dropping this to the absolute limit. Soviet black and white street and landscape photography is all about deep, ink-black shadows. This gives the image immense graphic weight).

• Gamma: Cine4

◦ (We want a mid-tone push. Cine4 is a beautiful cinematic gamma that compresses the deep shadows while heavily emphasizing mid-tone textures. It will make the grain in concrete, tree bark, and clouds pop out with a gritty, three-dimensional crunch).

• Black Gamma:

◦ Change Range to Narrow

◦ Change Level to -3

◦ (This selectively compresses the shadow areas right next to pure black, preventing your dark tones from looking washed out or gray).

• Knee: Manual

◦ Change Point to 80%

◦ Change Slope to +4

◦ (By bringing the knee down to 80%, we force bright clouds and skies to compress heavily. This replicates the look of a physical yellow or orange lens filter used in film photography to dramatic effect, darkening blue skies and making white clouds look intensely structural).

• Color Mode: Black & White

◦ (This completely disables the color matrix at the sensor level).

• Detail: +3

◦ Go into the Detail submenu -> Change V/H Balance to +2 and Type to Manual.

◦ (This is a crucial tweak for vintage lenses. It subtly emphasizes vertical and horizontal edge contrast, which sharpens up the unique, organic optical imperfections of the lens wide open without making it look like a fake, digital sharpening filter).

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Custom Nikon Picture Profile for Sony.

Nikon Style Profile for Sony - v1.1 (with Sony white fix)

Based on Nikon Standard / Flat, adapted for Sony color science:

• Base: Color Mode - Pro / Neutral, not Vivid. Saturation -1, Contrast -2

• White Handling - THE NIKON PART:

◦ White Balance shift: A2 (amber) / M1 (magenta) — this kills Sony's blue-cold white

◦ Highlight color retention: Keep warm bias to 95%, don't let it go pure 255 white

• Tone Curve / Highlight Roll-off - THE FIX:

◦ Point: 92% (was 88% in v1.0)

◦ Slope: +1 (was 0)

◦ What it does: Highlights extend further for that clean Nikon white, but +1 slope ensures when it does clip it rolls off smooth, no digital banding / no flashing conflict on Sony EVF

• Greens:

◦ Hue: -4 toward yellow (Nikon sage, not Sony cyan)

◦ Lightness: +5 to hold silver tips on foliage like your feathery plant

• Whites / Reds:

◦ Red Hue: +3 toward magenta (hellebore pink), Saturation -2 so speckles don't blow

◦ Yellow Hue: -2 to keep stamen yellow, not lime

• Detail:

◦ Sharpness: -3 for old lenes, -1 for new lenses (keeps that slight clinical but not crunchy)

◦ No added clarity — Nikon doesn't use it