Techniques to Achieve Lower Contrast/Saturation

I hope it's okay that I post a thread while I'm new... I've tried using the search function and thought that maybe I can get some more specific advice from a thread.

Besides using films with more subdued color palettes, what can I do to achieve lower contrast/saturation in my photos? I won't start developing color film myself for a few months, so right now I'm focusing on shooting techniques.

For example, I've read that overexposing color negs can create higher saturation, does this logic work for underexposing and lower saturation?
I'm assuming that early morning and the evening are best times to shoot for me?
etc etc

Any advice at all would be appreciated.

I think that first comes the choice of the film. In color, you should use low saturation films, which are those intended for portraits, and are usually coming in low ISO (50, 100, 125). In B&W, I would recommend the T-grain films, no matter their speed.

Second, comes the contrast of the light. You mentioned the early mornings, I’ll add the days with covered sky, and the hours most photographers avoid to shot: around the noon (because at this time the light might be lower in contrast – so, you should shot at noon). By late morning and evening, the light tends to achieve a higher contrast. Look for shadows: if you don't see much, the light contrast is low.

Third, in B&W, development controls the contrast. So, if you want to lower it, overexpose 1 stop and underdevelop 20~25%. And if you want an even lower contrast, overexpose 2 stops and underdevelop 40~50%. This doesn't work in color (or at least, this is what I know, but I never developed color negatives myself).

Flashing the film will lower the contrast & saturation. This principle was used in slide copiers for copying with normal colour slide (or neg) films, as opposed to specialist duplicating films.

There were articles about pre-flashing slide films in various magazines back in the 70's & 80's, you can find details of B&W negative pre-flashing in Ansel Adams, The Negative.

Ian

Thanks for the replies, both of you.

phenix said:

Second, comes the contrast of the light. You mentioned the early mornings, I’ll add the days with covered sky, and the hours most photographers avoid to shot: around the noon (because at this time the light might be lower in contrast – so, you should shot at noon). By late morning and evening, the light tends to achieve a higher contrast. Look for shadows: if you don't see much, the light contrast is low.

Click to expand...

I always thought that noon produced the highest contrast photos? And why would early morning produce the results I'm looking for, but evening wouldn't?

apconan said:

...I won't start developing color film myself for a few months, so right now I'm focusing on shooting techniques.

For example, I've read that overexposing color negs can create higher saturation, does this logic work for underexposing and lower saturation?
I'm assuming that early morning and the evening are best times to shoot for me?
etc etc

Any advice at all would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Two thoughts.

With C-41 you might try even more exposure. While a bit of extra exposure can get more saturation even more exposure keeps pushing the color up the curve.

The second thought is to adjust at the print instead.

The biggest problem you are going to have with this endeavor are the auto-corrections that will be applied at the mini-lab for the print.

apconan said:

I always thought that noon produced the highest contrast photos? And why would early morning produce the results I'm looking for, but evening wouldn't?

Click to expand...

Usually, a tilted light shows an increased contrast, except for early-mornings (at the sunrise). At noon, the light is not tilted and the reflections from the ground are contributing somehow in decreasing the contrast. But if the sun is too strong, even at noon the contrast might be very strong too. In the evening, the contrast is usually very high. Cloudy days are best for low contrast shots.

BTW, I forgot to mention that the contrast of the lens is almost as important as the film you chose. Personally, I keep two sets of lenses for my SLRs: one of high contrast, and another of low contrast. The latest also provide higher resolution than the contrasty lenses, but this can be seen only in large prints (8x10 and above).