Recent trip using film!

[THINKPADT61]

So is the first field trip using all films for me, below are some interesting result...

Scanning negative is a whole new world for me, how do you guys do it correctly? Anyway to caliabate it more effectively?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3258/3154657029_10aa5b789f_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3155493978_fdb073c438_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3267/3154658477_dcd7746e9b_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3083/3154657389_453d31a2b9_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3205/3155495140_947f20bc54_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/3160632834_6cf05c69b3_o.jpg

[Oni-kun]

Where were these taken?

[eelfliw]

Nice to see people still shooting film!!! My camera club will be soon phasing out slides as the majority of people have converted to digital. But it's always refreshing to see film still in use.

As for scanning software, check out VueScan (www.hamrick.com). It has lots of options for you to calibrate for the type of film.

[THINKPADT61]

The photos above are from Seattle area.

Thanks eelf, is a good start for me! So how do you calibrate it correct?

[KorruptioN]

I prefer to get it scanned high-resolution, Black's will do it (ask for 16BASE scanning) for a few bucks more. Toronto Image Works will also do it for a lot more money. You get approximately 7mp files, and the film grain is better than anything I've ever seen come from a digital SLR. When I was scanning them myself on the Fuji Frontier system, I was able to adjust for minor under/over exposure, which really helped as the scanner output straight to JPEG.

Unless you have a dedicated film scanner, scanning strip-by-strip on a flatbed is a pain in the ass and the output simply does not come close to what something better can do.

[shrugs*]

Looks good, how'd you enjoy the different experience?

Can anyone recommend a not-too-ridiculously expensive film scanner..? :lol:

[jackwest]

On another note, does anyone know how to get good "grain" with a DLSR? Since the IQ is pretty much as good as it gets, one would expect you could produce good grain...but I don't know how.

[shrugs*]

I usually 'expose to the right' using the histogram for cleaner / less-digitalish noise.

[JHW]

Film scanning is something of an art form and the learning curve is steep. Keep trying, keep playing with settings. Scanners don't generally need to be "calibrated" unless you are shooting for a magazine, but it can be tricky to get the right colour balance from negatives.

Also keep in mind that regular colour negative film is balanced for daylight, not the artificial light you have in the example photos you posted.

Try scanning some naturally lit images and see if the colour works out better.

[eelfliw]

The photos above are from Seattle area.

Thanks eelf, is a good start for me! So how do you calibrate it correct?
Well, there is no one "correct" setting for calibration. The calibration has to do with the color of the film base. Since you're shooting negatives, the film has a natural orange-ish base. And different brands/types of negs have different amount of orange in the base. The calibration is to simply to ensure the scanning software can correctly translate the color it reads into the color you want. Easiest way to calibrate is to ensure what is gray in the picture still come out gray in your monitor, without any color cast.

VueScan has a good selection of films available. It'll do for 90% of the cases. If not (eg. if your film has a color cast due to age), then you need to calibrate it for the film you use.

For some good info about scanning, check here --> http://www.scantips.com/ . It will give you a good primer for what you want to do.

[radeonboy]

Nice to see people still shooting film!!!

Yep there's still pros/others who use medium format film. Medium format film imo still can't be beat.

[Persian-Rice]

Nice shots! The shot of the portrait artist is fantastic. I regret getting rid of all my film gear except for this huge impractical 4x5 that I never use.

If you want to fix colour temps, you can either use Photoshop and use the neutral eyedropper in the curves panel and adjust from there. What I would do is scan and put them in Lightroom and manually change the white balance there.

[confused student]

Ya know, I've got a film SLR and some lenses, I probably should pick up some film soon.