Itch - scratched

[Robert Seeney]

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Just a follow up to my thread last week about the move from digital to film...

 

The M6 arrived last week and since I was away on business I managed to get an evening out of the hotel to take some shots. Loading the film was an experience. Managed to get confused on the first one and rewind it all the way back into the roll Naturally I did this so that I have a spare ready for learning how to process myself in one of those changing bags

 

Strolled along the Salford Quays in the lovely Summer weather (wearing a fleece and raincoat) and bagged some shots of long distance swimmers in the quays (canal...). Strangely liberating way of shooting.

 

Got the film back today after the obligatory garden shots to test shutter speeds and the look is exactly what I have been searching for which gave me a big smile!

 

I doubt my take on the salford canals and strawberry plants in my garden will be gracing the printed page any time soon but I would appreciate some initial advice (I know there is a lot out there but some initial pointers to get me over the first hurdles would be good):

 

1. I have a V500 for scanning - seems to be good so far for the negs. If the film is slightly curled when scanning I presume this affects the focus point of the scan leading to a slightly blurry image and I have to flatten the film as much as possible? If anyone has a link to a great article on scanning technique I would be most grateful!

 

2. The wonderful blown out insipid skies we have here in the British summer were difficult to pull back in lightroom without making a mush - I presume this needs a yellow filter to help out on tri-x? If things continue to go well I will probably look to print directly from negs but in the interim, LR is an easier option as I learn

 

3. The shots in my garden (taken in good evening light) are wonderful for tones - the ones in Salford are a little less wonderful - I seem to have blocked shadows on many shots and the images seem to have less tonal range (might just be Salford ). I presume this would be because of the poor light compared to the garden shots? Exposures seem to be about on the money but auto correct in LR is swinging the black points and contrast about whereas the garden shots it hardly moves on auto correct (not a fan of auto but it is a good way to see how far off an image might be)

 

4. I was shooting with a 50 cron at f8/f11 with shutter speeds of 1/125 or thereabouts. The cron has been aligned with my M9 but at f8/11 on the M6 I don't have everything in focus when shooting at about 1/3 of the distance to infinity which I would normally see on the M9. Does a lens have to be calibrated for film rather than digital? Sure I read somewhere about digital alignment being different!

 

5. Planning to take the M6 to Tunisia which is going to be bright - I was struggling with the 1/1000 limit on tri-x. I will take 50/100 film with me but wondered if people tend to use a ND filter in bright conditions?

 

6. Whilst I played about with clarity sliders etc on scans, it will take some time to get used to that - one thing I did notice was that I need to learn how to make the image not look so flat without going overboard on the contrast/clarity sliders. Any advice appreciated on this even if only to give me a starting point.

 

All in all, a great start - if I can just nail some of the basics I will be a happy shooter.

 

Sorry for the wall of text and questions that have no doubt been asked many times before

 

Rob

 

Thanks in advance

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[kokoshawnuff]

1) look into the ANR glass inserts. They will help flatten negs and increase resolution (sounds like bs, but from personal tests and those by member dochenry I believe they help)

 

2) a yellow or yellow/orange filter can be useful instruments with black and white film

 

3) if lighting wasn't right I just tend to mess with the scan in LR, and if the histogram says I'm wrong, so be it as long as I'm happy with the image.

 

4) I'll leave this one to someone with more knowledge than I.

 

5) a good 2 stop (.6) or 3 stop (.9) ND filter (B+W MRC) will last a lifetime and work with your M9 too.

 

6) play with the tone curve before touching the sliders. Make an s shape, a bend upward, a bend downward...just experiments to learn what directions do what. You'll get it after playing around a little.

 

Good luck and keep shooting.

[Scarlet]

The starting point for any scanning is to ensure a flat scan which will ensure the most image information is captured in the file. If you use Vuescan have a look at this document. I can't advise on your scanner because I use a dedicated slide scanner but the basics of getting the scan right are the same.

 

As for shooting in very bright circumstances, I've had no problems using Portra 160 on sunny islands in the middle of various oceans. There are of course interesting low-ISO films like Efke 25. A 2 or 3 stop ND filter could be useful.

[raytoei]

hi Robert,

 

i started out mainly in film 3 years ago and in the past year have been dabbling with digital.

 

i can usually recover shadow details in film that otherwise would have been lost in digital,

i am a firm believer that film details can be recovered if it is well-exposed (a even a little

overexposed), and whereas for digital details can be adjusted better if it were a little underexposed.

As a habit, i shoot at e.i. of 320, and develop it at 400.

 

back to your questions:

 

1. i moved from an Epson v600 to a v700, and the difference was quite dramatic for me, i managed to

get alot of details even in 35mm format. The v700 is slower at scanning (and more expensive) but if

you can afford it, get the v700. I concur with the points made about getting the negatives as flat as

possible. Also, in the epson scanning sw, i like to move the black and white triangles found in the

adjustment menu, to cover the entire histogram. This ensures i have a rich digital negative. The gray

triangle i like to move until it isn't possible to get a concave curve anymore. Of course, this means

I do not use the default Autoexposure, and have to manually add in the contrast and brightness

curves in post processing.

 

2. yes, a yellow filter helps, but you would have to figure out the exposure compensation as well. typically,

yellow filters need 0.5 / 1 or 2 stops compensation. Another popular choice is the orange filter.

 

3. I can usually recover shadow details in film that otherwise would have been lost in digital, i am a

firm believer that film details can be recovered if it is well-exposed (a even a little overexposed), and

whereas for digital details can be adjusted better if it were a little underexposed. As a habit, i shoot at e.i.

of 320, and develop it at 400. Film and Developers affect the tones of the image. For example, Tri-X or

Neopan 400 with D-76 would in most labs would create very crisp images with sharp grains. Ilford's XP2

likes light and if it gets too little light, it looks "muddy". I like to go to a photolab with high volume, my

initial XP-2 photos looks terrible until I realised that the lab had hardly any C-41 customers and the

chemicals were expired.

 

4. I can't answer the difference on the lens calibration. But I would perhaps investigate using HyperFocal

distance on the lens as this was the primary method employed for fast focusing before Autofocus

came about.

 

5. Not sure of the "1000" limit on Tri-x. I think Tri-x would be great for Tunisia. I am sure the nights are

very dark, i would shoot tri-x between 400 - 1600 iso. For daytime shoot, i would use a Orange filter

with nd2 compensation (1 stop), so that my shutter speed of 1/1000 can catch up to the adjusted ei of 800,

if i am shooting at iso 1600.

 

6. main thing about scanning: to do a quick scan, leave everything at auto. To scan for archival purposes,

get a much details into the scan by playing the 'triangles" described above, what you want is a flat but

details rich digital negative so that you can adjust it in post processing.

 

hope this helps.

 

raytoei

ps.

 

here's a scanned imaged that is not Autoexposure in scanning, it has

the triangles adjusted to capture rich details (LEFT image). After

scanning, i applied contrast, brightness and grains into it in PP (right Image).

 

[Robert Seeney]

Many thanks for the advice - I have ordered 2 filters and I am trying to find some better holders for the negs when scanning.

 

Trying out some different exposure techniques with zone system but not so easy without a spot meter!

 

Rob