Recommendations for color neg film for scanning

[Danny Burk]

Roger,

I've shot the same image on both Astia and NPS and there is no comparison in latitude. Astia is a very nice transparency film and I use it at times, but NPS can work miracles when you're used to shooting E6 Certain images, even in soft light (such as creeks in the Smokies, exposed to avoid burning out white highlights but surrounded by deep forest) are completely blocked in the shadows with Astia, yet give a full range of shadow detail with NPS. And, as part of my initial NPS test shooting process, I shot images in terrible, contrasty midday sun (far worse than anything I'd use as a real subject), and NPS held detail in fully sunlit white-painted wood alongside foliage in shade. Of course the sunlit area and the shadowed area have to be selected separately in PS and adjusted to taste, but the film held a full range of usable detail.

I'm looking forward to trying the new Pro 160 Fuji film when it becomes available.

Modern LF lenses are extremely sharp, perhaps not quite as sharp as the very best 35mm lenses, but some (such as Rodenstock's 150mm Sironar-S) are astonishingly good. At 3200 dpi, you're getting close to pulling all the detail out of any film format, but since you have a definite need to print extra-large prints, it's worth pulling out every last speck of detail rather than interpolating upward if you want the best possible result.

Best,
Danny

[Roger Richards]

Danny, thanks very much again. I shot chrome film for years, but stopped using it consistently since about 1996. I find that for the documentary type shooting that I do now the 160NC has been almost a miracle to behold in really contrasty light. The Astia I shot this week is beautiful but not, as you said, as good at holding the shadows while keeping the highlghts from blowing out. What I am seeing is that because my subject requires me to shoot in what is often not ideal light the color neg is leading, although the grain is not there yet but might be with the new Pro 160S films from Fuji.

My favorite lens is that same 150 APO Sironar-S. A marvelous piece of glass. Like you I also use an Ebony, mine is a 45s. I am a newcomer to shooting LF for large prints and drum scans so I appreciate all your help.

[julian_4860]

One thing I forgot to explain about Negpos...
When scanning neg film the weak point is in the conversion from negative to positive. Most apps have some built in ways of doing this, but the parameters are hidden. You also can't 'profile' as such a neg film. So ideally you need to be able to measure the orange mask for your processor, film type, and then be able to control the gammas of each ch. in the conversion process. Negpos http://www.c-f-systems.com/Docs/NegPosManual120.pdf is the only app that allows you to do this (I think, not found anything else anyway). Tim Atherton pointed me to this and it is a godsend. It takes some time to understand it, but once you have it, you do the convert and each ch gamma is bang on the histos aren't out of step at all

[paulr]

Julian, what does negpos offer that software like vuescan and silverfast don't?

[julian_4860]

well it isn't a piece of scanning software, so you still need one of those. In Vuescan you'd scan as a 16bit Image file, in silverfast as 48 bit hdr. You then convert using negpos. It gives you control. Just like for BW you don't use the makers ISO but you do tests, work out a 'real' iso and then work out a range of processing times to match the scene, you also need to be able to control all the parameters of the convert app. As an example, if you scan the same neg in Vuescan and Silverfast, you willl get a different result and the histos will be out of step, or staggered. measuring and then using the negpos app nails the gamma of each chnl so the conversion process is tailored to your film stock and lab. Now all this is null and void for a drum scan, but for a film or flatbed IMO it really helps. you get much fatter histos which affetcs your tonal range

[Leigh Perry]

Julian, I've just had a play with NegPos. Its defaults came up with an encouraging conversion for Fuji NPS, but the manual says for best results you need to know the film gammas. They list values for Kodak films but not Fuji. Are you aware of the gamma values for NPS? Thanks.

[julian_4860]

Sorry Leigh, I only use Portra NC. Try a value of 2.00 for R, then 1.5 for the other ch'ls. Then adjust each step by step until you get the histos inline. Use a well exposed neg from your usual lab

[Stew]

Paulr,

Re your question about NY labs, I'm happy with Coloredge (www.coloredgenyc.com) on 21st Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

Sal,

Fuji was giving away samples of the new 160 film at my lab (Coloredge) a couple of weeks ago. I passed on the roll film and asked for 4x5 sheets, which they are sending by mail. Should arrive soon.