Returning to film! Who uses what film and how do you scan it?

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Ian

Nice work again. I've a couple of questions though:

Is the first shot lit by sunlight? The film manages highlights very nicely!

Also, when your lac scan, do they do any colour corection or is this just a rwa scan inverted? Also, do you know what machine they scan on?

Cheers

Mike

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

Thank you Mike!

In the first photo, she is under a tree but sunlight is still hitting her through the leaves, actually very harshly. I overpowered the sun with a Profoto Acute 2400r with one head in an open front strip softbox. It was shot at f16 or f18 as I recall.

Both the photos are only from the roll scan at processing. I usually just do roll scans unless I need something larger or if there something I want drum scanned for one reason or another.

I have my work done by The Icon in Los Angeles and they call these roll scans "CCD" production scans". It says they are automatically machine adjusted for color balance and exposure and there is dust and scratch removal. Every now and then I will get a slight color variation that only takes a PhotoShop or Lightroom tweak to correct. I did see an overall color shift in one group once and Icon went back in and re-corrected it. Excellent customer service.

http://www.iconla.com

Hi Ian

Nice work again. I've a couple of questions though:

Is the first shot lit by sunlight? The film manages highlights very nicely!

Also, when your lac scan, do they do any colour corection or is this just a rwa scan inverted? Also, do you know what machine they scan on?

Cheers

Mike

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

I was in Boise Idaho just this last week and happened upon a car show in the downtown streets. With me I had my Contax G1 and rolls of Kodak 400VC. I had the 400 with me because the day was very overcast with the sun sneaking out every now and then. But when the sun did come out it was very bright.

Anyway here are a couple. I am always amazed at how good film looks with no work.

 

[Daniel Buck]

as nice as digital is, there's still something special about film shots, even when scanned

Here's an interesting one, the film was way way expired, and was the wrong color temperature anyway (tungsten), since I don't shoot alot of color, I didn't have any correction filters:

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

Daniel, I love that photo!

What camera, lens, film?

 

[Ron Morse]

I was in Boise Idaho just this last week and happened upon a car show in the downtown streets. With me I had my Contax G1 and rolls of Kodak 400VC. I had the 400 with me because the day was very overcast with the sun sneaking out every now and then. But when the sun did come out it was very bright.

Anyway here are a couple. I am always amazed at how good film looks with no work.

Porta seems to be simply amazing. I'm sure your skill has something to do with it also. I must get some 160VC to try.

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

Thanks Ron, but I won't claim too much skill here other than picking a good place to stand.

I do like the Kodak Portra films especially 160VC. I will be shooting more Ektar but just have not had the right shoots yet and I do wish they would make it in 220 instead of just 120 and 35mm.

 

[Daniel Buck]

Daniel, I love that photo!

What camera, lens, film?

1940's speedgraphic 4x5 camera, a B&L projector lens, and Fujichrome 64T expired by about 10-12 years.

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

1940's speedgraphic 4x5 camera, a B&L projector lens, and Fujichrome 64T expired by about 10-12 years.

Perfect!

So ends the need to update your digital camera every 2 years

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

This is another on Kodak 160VC with the Mamiya 645AFDII and the 105-210 AF lens. I very much enjoy using photos as they are. If for another purpose I might take out the smile lines etc. But I just don't find it real sometimes. I like the reality of shooting on film like this and leaving he photo as is. However I did use some USM when I reduced it in size for online display. This was just from the approx 10 mb roll scan.

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Ian, I wish you'd stop posting these mf shots - too nice for my wallet...

Here are a couple from the other weekend - Tmax 100 in 35mm and stretched in photoshop.

Mike


I give you Alnmouth Beach

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

Mike,

Those are GREAT!! There is just such a great feeling with film!

Medium format is not always my choice. One of the best things I have done was to buy a used Contax G1 and 40mm lens.

I shot a series with it at a bodybuilding show that is now going into a gallery with an accompanying book. This is one of them but more on my website at http://www.secondfocus.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=1

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Ian,

I enjoyed that set. Nice colours and feel to the pictures. Can you let us know how big the gallery prints are and whether you did much post production after scanning?

A funny thing for me has been that after starting shooting some 35mm again I thought I'd use film for black and white and digital for colour, but I've found that colour film gives such a nice pallette at times that it forms a springboard for new ideas. Hence I'm shooting both. Like you I like the Portra films and also Ektar as well.

Mike

 

[Ian L. Sitren]

Thanks Mike,

I have only printed this series so far at 8 1/2 x 11 with borders on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta. I plan on having some larger drum scans done and then will try going larger but in my mind I really see these as smaller prints with much larger matting perhaps.

Post work was limited to a slight bump in saturation differing for online or print. Much more than that and they started to lose their 'feel'.

I also like color film, it is just different than digital. This is Kodak 160VC with the Mamiya 645AFDII and the Mamiya 105-210 AF lens. Also just a roll scan at approx 10 mb.

 

[Carsten Wolff]

I mostly use LF (4x5", 5x7", 6x17cm formats) and a digital SLR and don't have any need to scan. With b/w, there's absolutely nothing wrong for most subjects just to use an enlarger. Colour scanning/printing, I GET done by a professional lab. I only take a few worthwhile photos/week and by not scanning at all, - ever -, I don't transfer the conundrum of "soon to be worthless cameras" to "soon to be worthless computers/scanners". Ok, so the occasional neg/trannie/print goes on my flatbed-scanner from my 3-4 year old $39 multifunction printer...surely, good enough to post on the web, because on-screen web-images invariable have little to do with the original fine prints anyway.

No headaches, no gear hype, just thoroughly enjoyable picture taking and printing for me.

Re: what film: b/w mostly FP4+, mostly in ID11 or HC-110 and occasionally Delta 3200 (in 6x9 to 6x17). Colour: Landscapes on Velvia, or Astia. People on Astia. Occasional Provia and Ektachrome use. MF: Fuji/Kodak 160 Negative. Underwater: Mostly Velvia100 and Delta3200

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Scanning with the 5DII

Hi,

I was just wondering what to do with my old collection of film (all sorts) and wanted to give the option of scanning slides by means of a DLSR a second chance (a few years ago I tried the same with my 5D and it wasn't very promising). So I have mounted a 0.5x macro lens (a low quality sigma zoom lens with a Nikon mount, the only macro lens I own) on my 5DII, and laid some slides on the light table. Positioned the camera on the tripod and captured some 50 slides from 15-20 yrs ago. This is one of them. Film was Ektachrome, conversion to tif with Capture One Pro and some PP in CS4 for tonality and downsizing and output sharpening. It is nothing more than a nice snap, but I am pleased with this way of working. The other method of scanning them with my dedicated film scanner takes 10x more time and effort. And th worthy ones I can still scan with the scanner later. What do you think?

Cheers,

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Cem,

Just seen this and that's really good at screen size. Certainly better than the scans I get back from labs. Have you tried printing yet?

The 5D2 should be able to get close to a 4000dpi scanner in theory (though the Bayer matris will cost about half the resolution - or 15% on a linear basis... before Doug or Bart reads this). But of course, we never expect to achieve that with such a simple setup.

Perhaps you could archive whole rolls at once

Mike

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Rachel and Noah

As noted elsewhere, I spent yesterday at Noah's christening. We had a party after in the village cricket pavillion, which was a real community affair. I took the Ikon and C-Sonnar and shot a few pictures on a roll of Adox CHS100. It's a bit grainy for this sort of picture, but I'm pleased with this one of Noah and his mum. I shot only two frames of them

Mike

 

[Mike Shimwell]

A couple more Kodachromes

These were shot on a walk we took recently - it took me right back receiving my yellow parcel back from Switzerland, although the box and slide mounts are now card and less structural than before.

I'd be interested in your opinions on these - I liked the colour (having removed a green cast from the scans), and was surprised at the variation in rendering bewteen the different shots. The lens was the Zeiss C-Sonnar on my Ikon, showing it's tru colours in the last shot

Mike

 

[Scott Keating]

I use film at work. Exclusively. Well, at least for now. Just about everything in our industry has shifted to digital, both on the camera end of things and on the interpretation/usage end of things. Almost every piece of film I shoot is scanned at very high resolution on a precision flat-bed scanner.

For my own scans of both small, medium, and large format negs I use an Epson 4990 flatbed with Silverfast AI. I would like to have a better scanner but I really have no justification for one.

This is from a large format negative, Agfa 100 color negative film. Dimensions of the scanned area is roughly 7"x7"

Longboat Key, Florida​

 

[Asher Kelman]

Scott,

I like the diagonal peninsula with the neatly set out houses, lawns and roofs. The touch of sky is nice. Would it be better with the green on the near side tamed?

What plane are you flying in? So what do you figure is the green in the water; algae or pollution or both?

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

This is Kodak 160VC with the Mamiya 645AFDII and the Mamiya 105-210 AF lens. Also just a roll scan at approx 10 mb.

Ian,

I love the combination of film with your well sculpted athlete. I hope it's just her nature and exercise. The result is impressive and because she is not oiled up, much gentler.

I hope she will model for more like this.

Asher

 

[Scott Keating]

What plane are you flying in? So what do you figure is the green in the water; algae or pollution or both?

It was a twin Cessna. The green is vegetation of some kind. There's a certain amount of sea grass in that area I think.

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Just been testing Fuji Acros 100 in Xtol. It displays minimal grain in 15 by 10 prints from 35mm and has nice tonality. This could have done with slightly more exposure and less development, but has still printed very beautifully.

Mike

 

[Asher Kelman]

Just been testing Fuji Acros 100 in Xtol. It displays minimal grain in 15 by 10 prints from 35mm and has nice tonality. This could have done with slightly more exposure and less development, but has still printed very beautifully.

Mike

So Mike, in a picture like this are you open to scanning it and then doing adjustments in Photoshop or does that bother you? I'd like to work on the shadowed part of the face, hair and eyes separately.

Asher

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Asher

Broadly yes - this is a quick roll scan on my Nikon and I will rescan using the better holder if I want to do any more significant work on it. But basically, I've already used a very subtle global shadows highlights adjustment to add a little light to the shadow side of Hannah's face and to pull back the highlights and reveal the details there. I could have done this with a couple of masked dodge and burn curves layers equally well. On the roll scan there's not much detail in the shadowed hair - though more on print than the jpg shows - and again I'd rescan using some scanner adjustments to see what could be pulled from that region - that's a case of getting at what's there, which requires careful scanning technique or good darkroom technique.

Finally, the eyes. Well eyes often need a bit of light as they can get very shadowed in natural light. I might even allow myself a very subtle local sharpen, but nothing to give her 'model' eyes!

Mike

 

[Mike Shimwell]

A slight update - thanks Asher got me moving on this. Just 3 layers - global curve, masked curve and a masked sharpening

Mike

Hannah

 

[Asher Kelman]

A slight update - thanks Asher got me moving on this. Just 3 layers - global curve, masked curve and a masked sharpening

Mike

Hannah

Excellent mike. For your consideration as a refinement, now mask that and allow a tad of shading to appear in the clefts/valleys, depressions, between features using a 4% small soft black brush, varying the size of the brush for every stroke so as to not allow lines to appear.

I'm a PIA, I know, but "Good enough; isn't!"

Asher