Wednesday 13 February 2008

Digital crisp, film smoothie

Breiavatnet, Stavanger, February 2008 - "film" treatment with little contrast adjustment and sharpening

Same image treated as per a digital file: severeal layers of contrast adjustment and sharpening

Working through the film scans, I realised that I was probably over-working things. I've got so used to a workflow for digital, that I was applying the same techniques to the film scans so I decided to run a couple of prints. Although it doesn't show up really well in these small web versions, there is a lovely subtle look to the "film" version as oppose to the "digital" - it is a much better print. I think in part it is due to the inherent lower resolution & grain of the ISO400 film. Partly I think it is just that film renders the scene differently.

2 comments:

  1. I tend to use FP4, but have recently been thinking about using HP5 with an F80 that we have lying around with a 24-50 zoom ~ don't ask why! Your post is telling me to get out and just do it. I'd better order some film, I thought I'd done with 35mm! Are you using ColourNeg? I was pleased I discovered it along with VueScan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I figured, now I've got the scanner and a film camera lying around, might as well have some film on the go, too. it's cheap these days, too - I've noticed from old print folders that I'm paying the same money for development as I did 10 & 20 years ago.
    As to scan reversal - for B&W I don't use ColourNeg, I think it's too fiddly and I get nice results reversing with Levels in Photoshop - see this post. I think I'll go with ColourNeg for colour though as I really liked the results on a few tests I did.

    ReplyDelete

I like comments, especially constructive ones.
Comments get emailed directly to me before publishing , so if you want to get in touch drop a comment.
All comments moderated by me before being published, keeps the spam at bay.