- Joined
- Oct 5, 2014
- Messages
- 23
- Format
- 35mm
This question is really for those who master both activities.
In analog photography one is encouraged to expose for the shadows and develop for highlights, whereas in digital photography, it is usually best to expose for the highlights and process for the shadows. So what do you do when you shoot film with the aim to end up with a digital file?
Most of the advice out there re how to capture and develop an image on film seems to be based on the assumption that you are going to print it optically. But does the process of digitalization mean that you might want to work differently when you know you are going to be scanning (and probably further digital-processing) the negative?
There is a corollary question to that: in my first scan tests and in tutorials I saw online, bumping exposure of the digital file seemed necessary even with negatives apparently properly exposed (and I'm talking about a dramatic +1 to +2). Is that normal? If everybody gets that, where should you bump up the exposure in the scanning process of your negative, in order to keep maximal image quality? I've seen people do it in the last stage (Lightroom), which does not sound right to me (when shooting digitally, bumping exposure up in Lightroom is the best way to add noise to the shadows). Other options are at scanning time (within Vuescan, SilverFast, etc.) or at the moment you convert the n
In analog photography one is encouraged to expose for the shadows and develop for highlights, whereas in digital photography, it is usually best to expose for the highlights and process for the shadows. So what do you do when you shoot film with the aim to end up with a digital file?
Most of the advice out there re how to capture and develop an image on film seems to be based on the assumption that you are going to print it optically. But does the process of digitalization mean that you might want to work differently when you know you are going to be scanning (and probably further digital-processing) the negative?
There is a corollary question to that: in my first scan tests and in tutorials I saw online, bumping exposure of the digital file seemed necessary even with negatives apparently properly exposed (and I'm talking about a dramatic +1 to +2). Is that normal? If everybody gets that, where should you bump up the exposure in the scanning process of your negative, in order to keep maximal image quality? I've seen people do it in the last stage (Lightroom), which does not sound right to me (when shooting digitally, bumping exposure up in Lightroom is the best way to add noise to the shadows). Other options are at scanning time (within Vuescan, SilverFast, etc.) or at the moment you convert the n