Hi Matthew
I notice that none of your photos have exif data. Is this deliberate or is it the editor that you use?
I picked this photo because I like abstract and minimalist stuff.
Most of my photography is on film so there's no Exif data anyway. I stripped it out of digital pictures when I first started posting them because I was slightly embarrassed to admit that I sometimes use a digital compact camera. Stupid, I know.
I thought the colour of your photos is more subtle than many digital shots. Your scanning is excellent. I have found film to have a wider exposure range; it is sometimes difficult to capture both a bright sky and darker landscape with a digital camera. I use Cokin NG filters but this doesn't always work. I have tried HDR but it is not great, rather artificial for my liking. I still have my Olympus OM-10 and a Voiglander Bessamatic both with Velvia slide film in them but I don't have the time or good weather to use them.
What film type do you use? what paper do you print on?
The film I'm using at the moment is Kodak Portra 160 VC-2. It's a good general-purpose colour negative film. It scans well, and gives great rendition of delicate colours.
For black and white I use Ilford HP5 or FP4.
With medium format I usually use slide films because the larger images look very impressive when lit from behind. I generally use Provia or Astia, although I find they don't scan well in my scanner: the shadows block up with a deep red.
For scanning film and slides it is worth calibrating your scanner to have the correct ICC profile. This could be the problem with your MF slides.
I recently bought an Epson Perfection V750 Pro scanner to digitise a stock of Kodachrome slides. I have also bought and installed several IT8 targets to profile the scanner for various positive transparency films and also various photo papers for reflective scanning. The difference is astounding, the colours are correct (no Photoshop editing) and even the focus is improved.
Check Wolf Faust for good value targets at www.coloraide.de I have a target for Provia and Astia but it is 35mm slide. Only Kodak sells the 35mm Kodachrome IT8 target and it was very expensive but also very necessary.
The scanning software can make a difference; the basic software bundled with most scanners is not very good. Not cheap but look at SilverFast Ai; it is excellent. As an alternative VueScan is also very good but needs more 'input' from the user.
Until I used profiles and SilverFast I spent ages in Photoshop trying to fix the colours and removing the dirt and scratches. Now I just scan the slides and only minimal correction work is occasionally required.
Comments
brabason, on February 6, 2008, said:
Hi Matthew I notice that none of your photos have exif data. Is this deliberate or is it the editor that you use? I picked this photo because I like abstract and minimalist stuff.
Matthew Winn, on February 6, 2008, said:
Most of my photography is on film so there's no Exif data anyway. I stripped it out of digital pictures when I first started posting them because I was slightly embarrassed to admit that I sometimes use a digital compact camera. Stupid, I know.
For the record, the useful data for this is:
Camera: Canon PowerShot A620
Date/Time: 2007-01-18 10:33:30 UTC
Exposure: 1/50s f/4.5 ISO 100
Focal Length: 21.71mm (35mm equivalent: 105mm)
brabason, on February 7, 2008, said:
I thought the colour of your photos is more subtle than many digital shots. Your scanning is excellent. I have found film to have a wider exposure range; it is sometimes difficult to capture both a bright sky and darker landscape with a digital camera. I use Cokin NG filters but this doesn't always work. I have tried HDR but it is not great, rather artificial for my liking. I still have my Olympus OM-10 and a Voiglander Bessamatic both with Velvia slide film in them but I don't have the time or good weather to use them. What film type do you use? what paper do you print on?
Matthew Winn, on February 7, 2008, said:
The film I'm using at the moment is Kodak Portra 160 VC-2. It's a good general-purpose colour negative film. It scans well, and gives great rendition of delicate colours.
For black and white I use Ilford HP5 or FP4.
With medium format I usually use slide films because the larger images look very impressive when lit from behind. I generally use Provia or Astia, although I find they don't scan well in my scanner: the shadows block up with a deep red.
brabason, on May 25, 2008, said:
For scanning film and slides it is worth calibrating your scanner to have the correct ICC profile. This could be the problem with your MF slides.
I recently bought an Epson Perfection V750 Pro scanner to digitise a stock of Kodachrome slides. I have also bought and installed several IT8 targets to profile the scanner for various positive transparency films and also various photo papers for reflective scanning. The difference is astounding, the colours are correct (no Photoshop editing) and even the focus is improved.
Check Wolf Faust for good value targets at www.coloraide.de I have a target for Provia and Astia but it is 35mm slide. Only Kodak sells the 35mm Kodachrome IT8 target and it was very expensive but also very necessary.
The scanning software can make a difference; the basic software bundled with most scanners is not very good. Not cheap but look at SilverFast Ai; it is excellent. As an alternative VueScan is also very good but needs more 'input' from the user.
Until I used profiles and SilverFast I spent ages in Photoshop trying to fix the colours and removing the dirt and scratches. Now I just scan the slides and only minimal correction work is occasionally required.
Hope this helps.