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Thread: Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

  1. #1

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    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    Here's a situation. You want to take a photograph of a well-known house at about 3pm in the afternoon during summer. The sun is coming in over your left shoulder. The house is a light peach color that goes very hot in the bright sunlight. You can't wait until later, because the sun disappears behind trees on the next property, and the photograph is gone.

    You get terrific sky, trees behind the house, good lighting on the grass, but because of the light shade of peach on the house, the photo appears way too contrasty. Texture on darker areas on the house disappears into a near black oblivion.

    How can one handle this situation? I used NPS, because I find it to be low contrast. Does one need a mask to tone down the contrast, or is there another way?

  2. #2
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    As Gordon Hutchis said once "compose with deep shadows so they make some visual compositional sense". Sometimes we open shadows even on exteriors with strobe fill. Also, there is a great program from Reindeer graphics. Optipix which amongst other things allows you to merge two exposures of a scene, one exposure for the highlights one for the shadows. It works quite well.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  3. #3

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    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    If you scan the negative and digitally manipulate it, there is no problem. This is a basic Zone System application. Expose so you have adequate detail in the shadows, and adjust the white point when scanning so the highlights are not washed out. Color negative film should have enough latitude to allow for this, and the dynamic range in the negative should fit easily within the capabilities of any recent scanner. If you want even better control, the use of two exposures and appropriate software---I'm sorry but I don't have a link for it---should also work.

    I do this all the time.

    If you are printing conventionally, I don't know how to do it except by controlling the illumination by strobe fill.

  4. #4

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    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    Dear Neil,

    I would think a mask would be a fairly easy way to handle the problem.

    Neal Wydra

  5. #5
    Resident Heretic Bruce Watson's Avatar
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    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    What Leonard says.

    Basically, color work like this is tough using traditional means. Most would resort to a contrast mask, which is rapidly becoming a lost art.

    If you scan, it's just not a problem. Use a negative film - just about any one will do as they all have the lattitude for a SBR such as you describe (10+ stops). With a good scan, you'll have shadow detail and highlight detail at the same time. You can print to lightjet if you want more traditional photographic paper, or inkjet if you want a different looks (matte papers mostly).

    I've done this kind of work several times now - very large SBRs with color negative film as described above. My results have been excellent. Of course, YMMV.

    Bruce Watson

  6. #6

    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    Preflash or post flash the film. Try 4- 5 stops under exposure to start. Color temp of the flash must match that of the scene or you will get a color cast in the shadows.

    You may flash in camera on scene with a neutral plastic diffuser over the lens.

    You may also make printing masks with tracing velumn. Use one piece as a diffuser and a second to make dodge markings with a soft pencil. Or just cut out the area to hold back and use another piece as a diffuser to soften the edges.

  7. #7
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    Neil,

    Tell me what the image is for and whether you are going to scan it or print it digitally. Masking I would think is way too involved for your run of the mill commercial architectural shot, but the Optipix "Blend exposure" plugin is relatively cheap and works. The program is like $100.00 but also includes a number of other very useful filters which work with a 16 bit workflow. I learned about it from George De Wolf in his very well laid out Digital Fine Print Workshop. If you don't want to buy the program there is a manual approach laid out by George in the Tips and Tricks from Experts welcome screen to Photoshop CS.

    For negs, rather than do bracketed exposures (unless the scene is really extreme) I do two scans one for the shadows and one for the highlights and merge them. It works pretty well.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  8. #8

    Negative Color Film and High Contrast Lighting

    Yes, two scans of the same film, then composited, will do the trick. I just did this on a job where part of an interior was lit by strong direct sunlight, part by tungsten and reflected sunlight. I had no choice to shoot it at any other time. The hot spot would not retain detail when I scanned for the shadow areas of the dark wooden ceiling. I did a second scan of only the hot area (adjusted for the highlights) and then layered it in Photoshop. The completed file now looks as the scene looks to the eye.

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