I've started to shoot medium format Velvia 100 (slide film) and Portra 160VC and 160NC (negative film) . Landscapes. I always bracket +1 and -1. Assuming my first shot is on the money, what would your recommendation be for the scan. To scan the money shot or one of the braketed shots? And does that change depending on whether slide or negative film? Tks Alan.
First of all, I'd recommend to shoot astia rather than velvia 100, if the destination of your slide will be a scanner. That's my honest assessment. Velvia is
the hardest film to scan- whether 100, 100f, or 50 or the original 50. (N.b. I am
not saying that you
can't get good results from scanned velvia; of course you can. But very generally speaking, and particularly if you aren't willing to put the time in to optimize it....)
If you're bracketing then good for you: take the time to experiment and scan each frame see what works best. You'll probably only have to do it once to get your answer. But it has to be
your answer. I am not trying to be evasive or difficult, but we (all) probably meter a bit differently, favoring highlights or shadows in how we make that decision. Unless we all scene meter in the same way and with the same kind of meter,
and we value highlight and shadow detail the same way,
and we use the same scanner and software and settings,
and we print the same way, we probably won't ever agree 100% on the optimal exposure for the whole workflow.
Note that if you bracket then you can also easily do combined exposures after scanning each frame, should you need to. One of the really powerful things about digital. And before anybody jumps on me, I am not advocating crappy HDR.
One mistake you don't want to make with any neg film is for it to be too thin. Expose it perfectly

or overexpose a tad. But don't underexpose!!! Scanners have a very hard time extracting detail from thin portions. You have a bright light source in your scanner and there has to be a transmission appreciably less than 100% over that thin portion of your neg for the corresponding signal to rise out of the noise....