Hybrid workflow for 35 mm color negative film

[blee1996]

- Export the RAW files from Lightroom as JPEG/TIF files to write the metadata to the file and reimport back into Lightroom. This makes the color positive act "normal" in Lightroom. Otherwise, if trying to edit the converted RAW files in Lightroom, many of Lightroom's tools work in unexpected ways.

Yes, this is very true. After NLP, the Lightroom controls are either opposite of traditional ones or acting weirdly.

Thus I do the following:
- For color film stocks that are well understood by the Scanner software (e.g. fresh Kodak Gold 200, Fuji 200/400), I use Epson Scan or Nikon Scan to scan as color negatives in order to directly get proper scans. Typically they require minimal adjustment post-scanning.
- For color film stocks that are either unique (Phoenix 200) or very expired (old Agfa), I scan them in positives, and then invert with NLP.

 

[hsandler]

I develop C41 in a Patterson tank using developer and blix made from the 1L dry powder kits from Cinestill, FPP or branded Argentix in Canada. I use distilled water to mix them up, and I usually put about 16 rolls of 35mm through a kit and find the solutions keep at least 6 weeks. I am not too picky about colour precision since I have to fiddle with the scans later to get the colours I want anyway.

I still scan with an Epson V700 flatbed and SilverFast at 2400ppi. This gives about a 6MP scanned 35mm frame. I know a DSLR and macro lens would have better resolution, and I now use one for digitizing my 35mm black and white negs, but I like the infrared dust removal in the scanner for colour. Also, the scanner is easier for medium and large format which would require stitching to get superior results with a mid level DSLR.

I invert using SilverFast NegFix. It's not great, but certainly easier than when I've tried to invert from a positive scan and deal with the orange mask and curves myself. I don't really like SilverFast and its confusing user interface. I'm never quite sure what it's doing, and there seem to be several places to click on "auto" which seem to fight with each other for adjustments. I'm tempted to try NLP, but I read conflicting reviews about the need for tweaking the results.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

I develop C41 in a Patterson tank

This is hand development? How do you maintain the temperature?

I invert using SilverFast NegFix. It's not great, but certainly easier than when I've tried to invert from a positive scan and deal with the orange mask and curves myself. I don't really like SilverFast and its confusing user interface. I'm never quite sure what it's doing, and there seem to be several places to click on "auto" which seem to fight with each other for adjustments. I'm tempted to try NLP, but I read conflicting reviews about the need for tweaking the results.

I switched from SilverFast years ago to VueScan, which is constantly updated and has great support. Once set up, it produces consistent results and does not require the editing functions in SF (in my workflow).

NLP can be fed with raw files that VS produces and gives me results that only need a little post-processing in Photoshop.

 

[hsandler]

This is hand development? How do you maintain the temperature?




I switched from SilverFast years ago to VueScan, which is constantly updated and has great support. Once set up, it produces consistent results and does not require the editing functions in SF (in my workflow).

NLP can be fed with raw files that VS produces and gives me results that only need a little post-processing in Photoshop.

I put the chemical bottles and the development tank in a tray of hot water. I sometimes use a sous vide heater, but more often I just check the developer temperature until it hits the mark and then pour in the developer.

 

[loccdor]

I do all development from B&W to E-6 to C-41 in a Paterson plastic tank. Usually a 3 reel tank but sometimes a 2 reel one. I find if you prewash with water at the same temp as your developer, temperature control during the 3.5 minute development does not require immersing the tank in a hot water bath as many believe. There can be an initial drop in temperature if you pour hot developer into a cold tank. I use whatever cheap 1 liter C-41 kit is available, usually one that mixes from liquids instead of powders for ease of use. I will use this kit on 15-20 films before I notice degradation. Extending the times slightly with each batch can help. I do the recommended 102F if I can, but sometimes I'll do it a few degrees colder and adjust the time longer. I heat up the 1 liter bottles of developer, blix in a stoppered sink with water around 150F for the first few minutes then 105F after that, which I measure with a glass thermometer. It takes about 10 minutes for things to come up to temp.

After the kit I wash with distilled water and wetting agent and hang dry about 3 hours with metal clips.

Then I typically use the Essential Film Holder that I've glued to an acrylic sheet, which I've gaffer-taped to a CS-Lite light source (the sheet is necessary because the legs of the EFH don't allow it to rest evenly on the CS-Lite), which in turn is glued to a Linear Stage (which I only use when trying to make stitched images where I need to move the image on only one axis), which itself is on top of the board of a 1971 Pentax Copystand II.

If I need critical flatness or I'm trying to make stitches I'll tape film to anti-newton ring glass or use a slide mount instead of the EFH. It holds 35mm film mostly-okay but suffers a bit of curvature on medium format.

The camera used is a Pentax K-1 that I bought secondhand, with Pixel Shift enabled. A 50mm f/2.8 Pentax macro lens is used, focused manually, using focus peaking assistance and paying careful attention to the R G B histogram so that no channel gets cut off. Generally the CS-Lite is set to cool white mode for color negative film which helps with that. A cable release is used, and the camera is carefully manually leveled before this process. A few smallrig parts were necessary to get the large Pentax camera to mount on the copystand as it is bigger than what it is designed for. The copystand allows for coarse and fine adjustment of focus. For 35mm film, I get it as close to 1:1 as possible while still being able to see a tiny bit of the image edges. The light in that room is always dim but not completely dark. The desk everything rests on is the most stable table in the house. I make sure no one is walking around, washer and drier are off, etc. so that no vibration is happening. My house's floor has narrower than recommended floor joists so that can be a problem.

After I digitize usually just one roll of 36, I take the memory card out of the camera and put it into my PC. Open up RawTherapee to convert the raws to tifs, using the Adobe 1998 color space and a linear color profile. Then I use Gimp, flip and 90 degree rotate, then with the Curves tool to select the highest and lowest red, green, blue point to stretch the image over the entire histogram. After that I'm pulling down or pushing up each color curve to adjust the color balance. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it can take a long time to get it right. After color balance is settled I'll adjust the contrast curve to my liking, usually pulling down the shadows and raising up the midtone/highlights. Then it's saved as a jpg. At that point color mode can be converted from 16 bit to 8 bit, fine rotation can be done if necessary, which is saved as another jpg, then dust removal with the clone brush if necessary, and saved as the final jpg.

I save the tif and all the jpg versions of each image, but I discard the raw dng files of each digitization batch when I'm done working on all the images of that batch. They take up too much hard drive space and I can always shoot it again later.

Once or twice a year I back up the images to external hard drives. I also try to keep copies in the cloud with various sites/services.

 

[koraks]

I put the chemical bottles and the development tank in a tray of hot water. I sometimes use a sous vide heater, but more often I just check the developer temperature until it hits the mark and then pour in the developer.

This has worked fine for me as well. Despite owning a Jobo machine, I still do it just like this much of the time if I only have one or two rolls of 135 to process. It's quicker/easier to set up and get to temperature.

 

[dokko]

I invert using SilverFast NegFix. It's not great, but certainly easier than when I've tried to invert from a positive scan and deal with the orange mask and curves myself. I don't really like SilverFast and its confusing user interface. I'm never quite sure what it's doing, and there seem to be several places to click on "auto" which seem to fight with each other for adjustments. I'm tempted to try NLP, but I read conflicting reviews about the need for tweaking the results.

I used Silverfast for years, terrible interface, but the color conversion is one of the best ones out there of all those I tried.

I shelled out the money for the HDR Archive Suite because the workflow is much more efficient that way (the interface still sucks unfortunately), and one needs to know some tricks to make Negafix behave properly (as a side note, the film presets are mostly pointless, but some of the Ferania and Portra ones work well for most films).

NLP is *much* better in respect to workflow and ease of use, but unfortunately the color conversion doesn't always work well. Sometimes I get very good results, but usually it doesn't give me a faithful reproduction of the colors of an analog print and feels a bit synthetic.