I conducted a simple test today and wasn't expecting the results I got...
Test
I spot metered a white card including all 4 corners and the centre to make sure it was evenly lit from the natural light.
The reading was 1/15th @ f/8.2 according to my Sekonic L-758
I then exposed this at 1/2 second at f/8 as I wanted the tones to be Zone VIII
Development
Film: Acros 100
Developer: HC110 1:47 20 degrees 7 minutes
After the film was dried I placed it under the densitometer and got a reading of 1.42 so my initial thought was that it was just a little hight than what I thought Zone VIII should be having read that Zone VIII was somewhere between 1.25 and 1.35
Scanned
I then scanned the negative and no matter which way I scanned it, RAW, Tiff with no adjustments, when I brought it in to Photoshop the histogram was right in the middle indicating to me more like Zone V.
Darkroom Print
I then printed it in the darkroom, let it dry down and then scanned the print and the histogram now represented close to Zone VIII what I was expecting
Query
Why didn't the scan of the negative yield a similar result. Is the scanner trying to average a single tone out to Zone V just like a light meter does ?
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks