Thin color negatives?

[Paul Ozzello]

Is that the one that does huge Dmax and visual/ UV readings? You'd be able to get overall density readings, but if you are trying to diagnose a process fault and that sort of thing, the 810/811 etc are the ones that do Status A/ Status M etc.

I think that's the one. I bought it to measure B&W negative density and for alternative processes using digital negatives but I know little to nothing about processing color negatives. Could you point me to some good resources thst explain status a and m?

 

[Paul Ozzello]

As has been said, they look good.

I returned from my trip and took them to my trusted lab in Montreal and they agreed the negatives were good.

I'd also like to thank @Lachlan Young (or not) for sending me down this worm hole after recommending the use of a spot meter to get better meter readings from low contrast white out snow conditions ;-)

 

[Sirius Glass]

I returned from my trip and took them to my trusted lab in Montreal and they agreed the negatives were good.

I'd also like to thank @Lachlan Young (or not) for sending me down this worm hole after recommending the use of a spot meter to get better meter readings from low contrast white out snow conditions ;-)

I found incident meters much better for snow conditions than reflectance meters including spot meters.

 

[Mike Lopez]

I found incident meters much better for snow conditions than reflectance meters including spot meters.

But you were using your incident meter to measure reflected light, as you recently indicated and were quite adamant was the correct way to use an incident meter.

 

[Sirius Glass]

But you were using your incident meter to measure reflected light, as you recently indicated and were quite adamant was the correct way to use an incident meter.

Hey that was the only time I ever made a mistake in my life. Get over it.

 

[Mike Lopez]

Hey that was the only time I ever made a mistake in my life. Get over it.

Perhaps the highlights in your avatar picture wouldn't be so blown out without making such mistakes.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Perhaps the highlights in your avatar picture wouldn't be so blown out without making such mistakes.

That is one of the few times I used a digital camera almost 20 years ago at half a megapixel. Unfortunately that is the best of have of that composition.

 

[wtburton]

Those look really good. I have had color negatives so thin that they are nearly invisible untill scanned. That is usually on the fuji internegative film. I tried pushing it before and it just gives you more dense base...

I have been thinking of bleaching them, but they arent extremely bad maybe something to try camera scanning? (I only have a crappy epson v300)

 

[wtburton]

But you were using your meter...

You use light meters?

 

[Mike Lopez]

You use light meters?

I use my eyes, one film, and one developer, so no, I don't (although I still own a spot meter). And I wasn't the one opining on what type of meter others should use.

 

[Lachlan Young]

I think that's the one. I bought it to measure B&W negative density and for alternative processes using digital negatives but I know little to nothing about processing color negatives. Could you point me to some good resources thst explain status a and m?

Probably the best (if not the least technical) explanation is in the SPSE Handbook of Photographic Science and Engineering edited by Woodlief Thomas.

 

[CMoore]

I thought one metered off the PALM of the hand for "gray card minus one stop".

EDIT: I just did a N=1 experiment. Both the back and palm of my Caucasian left hand measure within 1/3 stop of each other using a Gossen LunaPro SBC meter. Both measure approximately one stop more than a Kodak gray card.

Oh Man..............i would hope you are right.
Otherwise all of this Zone System stuff and meter here and meter there theories are all junk.

I thought the palm of a hand was Zone-6, and that is what i have been doing.
That must have been what the poster was eluding to........without actually spelling it out.

 

[Mr Bill]

Probably the best (if not the least technical) explanation is in the SPSE Handbook of Photographic Science and Engineering edited by Woodlief Thomas.

The later version, the 1997 (?) Noel Proudfoot version, is probably better. As I recall it gives tabulated numbers for the responses. (You might guess that I have spent considerable time in both handbooks - they have long been sort of the bible to photofinishers.) (Congrats if you are the new owner of lasers book.)

But I think this is largely irrelevant to the OP. The key thing is that these two things, Status A and Status M, just define the color response of the densitometer for a nominal red, green, and blue reading.

And for color negatives, for the purposes of "process control," a Status M densitometer should be used. (Such a densitometer is able to see into a single spot on the film, and read the individual amounts of each dye present.) This is specified in Kodak's Z-131 manual, the bible of C-41 processing, which can be found online. It may be a bit overwhelming, though, for someone new to color processing.

 

[Lachlan Young]

The later version, the 1997 (?) Noel Proudfoot version, is probably better. As I recall it gives tabulated numbers for the responses. (You might guess that I have spent considerable time in both handbooks - they have long been sort of the bible to photofinishers.) (Congrats if you are the new owner of lasers book.)

But I think this is largely irrelevant to the OP. The key thing is that these two things, Status A and Status M, just define the color response of the densitometer for a nominal red, green, and blue reading. And for color negatives, for the purposes of "process control," a Status M densitometer should be used. This is specified in Kodak's Z-131 manual, the bible of C-41 processing, which can be found online. It may be a bit overwhelming, though, for someone new to color processing.

I've consulted the SPSE handbook before (couple of the local academic libraries have remarkably good SPSE holdings - including some of the harder to find stuff - like the Mike Kriss paper on Image Structure that Ron Mowrey referred to etc) - but laser's listing of the book (and kind offer of help to track one down in the UK) encouraged me to find a copy of my own.

Anyhow, I'd agree that unless process controlling/ fault finding, Status M is rather excessive for what is needed in this thread - like a lot of things, people are worryingly inclined to let a densitometer become the master, rather than a useful tool.

 

[pentaxuser]

I thought the palm of a hand was Zone-6, and that is what i have been doing.

Yes that is my understanding as well. It's the rule that Carson Graves says to use in his book The Zone System for 35mm Photographers. While I did not find any reference to what I am going to say next, I have a feeling that this rule works for all skin types be they Caucasian, Mediterranean,oriental, Asian or black. The palms of we humans are all close enough to zone VI to be a good enough guide

pentaxuser

 

[Paul Ozzello]

As a follow-up, I got my scanner up and running and scanned a few images and they look great