Neutral color and high contrast.

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Nymphaea

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Jekyll driftwood

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It's also a verb.

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It's also a verb.

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2F/2F

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Hello,

I am starting a project soon, and I have a few thoughts to mull over.

I have here, stored and taking up much space, over 40 boxes of my late father's books. He was a really brilliant and eccentric guy, and the variety of interesting titles he owned in his life makes for fun browsing, though I doubt I would ever actually read about 75% of the books.

So, I am "simply" (ha!) going to photograph them all, and make a slideshow and picture book for those of us who knew and loved him, then get rid of those 75%.

I am welcome to use my product shooting area at work to shoot the project on my days off. I use a 20D with the 50mm f/2.5 macro lens and two Dynalite heads with a 1000 Ws pack shooting through my tent that I made of C stands and thrift store sheets. I will be borrowing an EOS 1 or EOS 3 for the project, so I can use the 50. I will be shooting, as I do for work, on a white seamless, which I will want to be minimum density on the transparencies.

Or, possibly the Orbiculight at my school (affectionately referred to as the "Oh, bitchin' Light").

I want a daylight-balanced, high-contrast, color-neutral transparency film.

My experience tells me to use Provia 100F exposed -1/2 to keep the saturation rich, and pushed +1 to pop the white background.

However, I thought this might be a good time to give Kodachrome one last hurrah, especially considering the "vintage" nature of the subject matter. I rarely have use for Kodachrome, as I usually want a transparency film only in the larger formats.

Conceptually, having this on Kodachrome would be great in my mind. However, I have no experience whatsoever with K-64 in a studio environment pursuing perfect color.

My questions are for those who have done extensive shooting with K-64 in this sort of a situation. Is it a fairly neutral film? If not, please elaborate on the color and contrast, and on what CC filters I might need to use with Dynalites or Orbiculights.

*Also, can Duane's push the film?* This is important, as I almost never shoot and process a transparency "straight". I am used to altering exposure and development to tweak the color and contrast of transparencies to get them the way I want. Kodak recommends against, but I am wondering what happens when you do it only 1/2 stop or perhaps 1 full stop. The same red-magenta shift you get with K200?

Obviously, if I go the K-64 route, I will do my own testing, but I wanted to get some advice on whether I am barking up the wrong tree or not before burning the film.

Thank you in advance.

P.S. I have seemingly permanently lost my MacBeth chart via a loan to someone who it seems has disappeared. It seems a new one is $70; far more than I paid for mine, it seems.

Does anyone have one they are not using that they would loan to me? I would take good care of it, return it fairly quickly, and would loan or give you something in return. I am in L.A., CA. Thanks.
 
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2F/2F

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I know lots of people here love Kodachrome. Anyone have any input as to its characteristics and their applicability to my situation?

Thank you.
 

3Dfan

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Subjectively, I think K64 could do what you want. To my eye, it's colors seem natural, yet saturated. I think it's a toss-up between K64 and Provia 100 for overall quality. I think Dwayne's can push it, but I don't think it is nearly as pushable as K200.
 

benjiboy

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If I had this problem, since it's an issue of personal taste, I'd do some test shots on these films, and perhaps also Fuji Astia that has a very neutral colour balance, and see which I preferred.
 

kodachrome64

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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry 8300: BlackBerry8300/4.5.0.55 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

I know Dwayne's offers push processing on KR64, but I have never tried it. That actually sounds like something I would like to try.

It definitely fits your description, and pushing it would raise the contrast still. It doesn't get much more vintage than Kodachrome.
 
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2F/2F

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I got back the K64 that I tested on some of the books and a macbeth chart I borrowed from school. It is nowhere near "accurate", and not very high in contrast. The reds blow out just as badly as digital, and look way out of whack. For colors that are not naturally saturated, it looks pretty good. The rolls I shot of normal photographic subjects some time ago looked cool, but I guess it is not the film for more technical pix. So much for that idea. Provia it is. Thanks for the input.
 
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