My scanner software has its own negative-to-positive conversion capability, and I have found that it results in a better image, than scanning the negative (without conversion) and then using postprocessing software's negative-to-positive conversion!
should I try to shoot and process the negatives for lower contrast as it is hard to take away contrast but easier to increase it in LR?
This depends a lot on one's aptitude in using post processing / photo editing tools. Given e.g. your first example, it takes very little time adjusting some curves to get close to the second example.
Not necessarily. For color/C41 you don't really have a choice anyway as contrast is inherent to the material and process. So don't worry about that one. For b&w it turns out that scanners (and dSLR's) will generally easily handle any negative as long as it's somewhat decently developed.
If you want to emphasize grain, choose a grainy film stock (e.g. Fomapan400) and develop a little harder than normal.
Does that mean contrast and saturation can be changed but not as much as in B&W film (contrast only obviously)?
(from https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...ger-sell-black-white-contrast-filters.196351/)Yellow, orange and red filters darken the sky but do not change the overall contrast as @MattKing posted above.
I went to Samys Camera on Fairfax yesterday and I was told that they no longer sell black & white contrast filters. They advised that I use the internet. Oh the humanity!
Yellow, orange and red filters darken the sky but do not change the overall contrast as @MattKing posted above.
If shooting color negative, the bigger issue is simply "what software to convert negative scan to positive image with GOOD color balance?"
My scanner software has its own negative-to-positive conversion capability, and I have found that it results in a better image, than scanning the negative (without conversion) and then using postprocessing software's negative-to-positive conversion!
Negative scanned w/o conversion by scanner software
'best' possible conversion using postprocessing software capability
Converted negative using scanner negative-scanning capability
Yes, I know the images are mirrored...it was an experiment and I didn't bother scanning the negative oriented correctly, when I was experimenting with postprocess 'invert' (during a separate scan session from the negative scanned by negative scanning software.)
That's a simplification. Yes, they will darken skies, but they will darken anything else as well that's outside the pass range. As a result, they often appear to change overall contrast even though this technically wouldn't be an accurate description.
No.My question regarding B&W and maybe color negatives as well is, should I try to shoot and process the negatives for lower contrast as it is hard to take away contrast but easier to increase it in LR?
What scanner and scanner software did you use?
ADjustments on the 'bad'color image:
View attachment 325922
Result:
View attachment 325923
Editing time ca. 2 minutes in GIMP
From the negative scan:
View attachment 325924
Result:
View attachment 325925
Also about 2 minutes.
No other adjustments done than the curves shown above.
I'm not a PS wizard or anything; all I did was go through the three color channels, pulled the center, bottom and/or top a bit, and iterated between the three channels until I called it good.
This is just a quick & dirty illustration that it's not inherently more difficult to do it one way or another. It really all depends on personal preferences and whatever you find that works. I'd be very hesitant to try and convert this into some 'generic' advice since it's so personal. It's also not the case that one piece of software will consistently outperform the other on the same image data acquired by the same hardware.
Improved, but I still see blue tint of the wooden (brown) floor located at the feet and behind the ladies in the photo.
So I need to say "Not so" in reply to your statement
I didn't optimize for that in particular. It's a small nudge of the blue curve is all it takes.
Well, I made my point; I may not convince you and that's OK for me. I just wanted to give an alternative view on what you said.
Yeah. So that's where I'm not going. I see your point, I disagree, and for me that's the end of the matter.
If you're using CC Classic I highly suggest getting Negative Lab Pro and scanning with a DSLR rig. It's worth the small investment.
The Negative Lab Pro plugin for Lightroom Classic is one of the better options I have tried. And worth the investment, for me. However, anyone who is hoping for a quick-and-easy, one-click solution when inverting and color correcting color negatives is likely to be frustrated when first starting out.
There are a lot of settings and adjustments to work with in NLP, and it can take quite some time to find the combination that works best. After you find effective settings for one shot on the roll, sometimes those settings can be applied to the rest of the roll. But often each shot on the roll will require different settings. For me, it is usually a slow process, involving a lot of trial-and-error.
No.
My experience has been that any negative that is suitable for making a darkroom print is also suitable for scanning - no special exposure or development is needed. If you can't get good scans from well exposed, correctly processed negatives made by a mainstream film manufacturer, then you need to troubleshoot your scanning workflow, not the negative.
And, you never know - you may want to try darkroom printing someday. So I would encourage anyone working with film to keep in mind as the ultimate goal: aim for making negatives that will print well.
On the other hand, there are some combinations of film+exposure+processing that result in very high contrast negatives. These are often "special" B&W films not intended for traditional pictorial use. I would probably try to avoid those combinations, no matter whether I intend to scan or wet-print. Some people like that "chalk and soot" look (not me) -- but as you say it is easier to create that look in postprocessing that it is to try to recover shadow and highlight detail from an excessively contrasty negative.
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