How do you expose color neg film?

[Bruce Watson]

Michael,

I thought that color negative films have less range than that. This is new data to me and it's very interesting.

Based on that, it sounds like I can expose 160 Porta similarly to the way I expose Tri-X. That is, I can put the shadows that I want to carry detail on Zone III, and let the hightlights fall where they may.

I can do that because I drum scan the negatives. The scanner can always capture the highlights no matter how dense, and both films have 10 or more stops of exposure range beyond the toe. Nice.

[william linne]

Type 79 is the same emulsion as type 690

William

[peter goldman]

Hi Michael, working in a lab I can tell you that the most common film types to reult in thin negs are both the 160nc and also 400nc.(therefore we recommend that you expose 160nc @ 80-100 and 400nc @100-200.) Admittedly every lab is different, and that is why I suggest you try to keep everything you do as consistent as possible in order to problem solve how best you can expose your film. The best thing to do is a film test, process the results and expose your film accordingly. Everytime you change labs you must repeat this. Both 160nc and especially 400nc( which is probably a better film by the way!) have alot of range, so it is difficult to mess up completely. But when you get it right, the results are spectacular. Good Luck and feel free to contact me with any more specifics. Peter.

[Martin Miller]

I'm just starting to use color negative film because of disappointment with the tonal range of chromes. I was surprised to learn in this thread that results depend on the processing lab. Why is this the case? I thought there would be a standard manufacturer-recommended C-41 procedure just as in the E-6 case. What am I missing here?

[Mark Muse]

I do pretty much the same as Hogarth: Expose for the shadows and scan for the highlights. I use 160 NC and 160 VC using an index of 100. It is roll film in my case.

I have always wondered about about controlling the contrast through development time, like for B&W negs. But if I am scanning the negs it is not an issue.