What is E6 film good for?

lantau · Jun 5, 2020

etn said:
May I ask which film / process you use for BW?
I am only aware of the ADOX Scala (160 and 50 ISO, but only in 35mm...) http://www.adox.de/Photo/adox-scala/
Is there anything else?

Photo Studio 13 in Stuttgart will develop slide using the Scala process. They have a pdf, describing suitable film, on their website. In medium format I use delta100 and tmax400. The Rollei Retros are supposed to work well.

CHS100-II is supposed to be very good. Klaus Wehner has a very sophisticated process I read, and he really liked the CHS. Google his name and schwarz weiss dia and you should find him. I have two rolls of Agfa Scala and wonder if I should use them and have him dev it. He knows how to handle the aged film.

I have an unopened box of CHS100 in 4x5 and will probably use some as slide film and send it to PS13.

BAC1967 · Jun 5, 2020

It’s good for making View-Master reels.

138S · Jun 5, 2020

ChristopherCoy said:
But what else is it good for?

Slides are designed for projection, for this reason they lack tatitude as the slide moves fom near total transparency to 4.0D in not much stops. Thta shorcomming requires precision metering and sometimes using graded ND filters to prevent sky being blown.

Each fim has an spectral footprint, this is the way color is interpreted, many slides have an strong character, delivering a particular scene interpretation one may love or not.

In the past, many pro photographers wanted to use slides to deliver its commercial work because the slide is an absolute reference, with the slide they were telling how the image has to be. Instead color negative film requires an inversion and a dynamic range management before you have the image, so the photographer's work had to be interpreted by other people and that interpretation could not be what the photographer wanted.

Slides are great, but when projected they are incredible.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jun 6, 2020

MattKing said:
I expect that special Drew-like techniques would be required to minimize the build-up of contrast.

Matt: would like to know more about these special techniques. Is there a thread or posts on them that you can share?

MattKing · Jun 6, 2020

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
Matt: would like to know more about these special techniques. Is there a thread or posts on them that you can share?

Look for Drew Wiley's posts on masking and Cibachrome and inter-negative materials.

Ko.Fe. · Jun 6, 2020

ChristopherCoy said:
Disregard, I found older threads.

ETA: I guess I'll put the original question back.

I had originally stated that my knowledge of E6 slides was limited to shooting one single roll of 120 in my lifetime, and the fact that I know they go in slide projectors.

But what else is it good for? I've read that it has very good color, but lacks the exposure latitude of color negative film, so is it mainly used in studio work under controlled lighting situations?

And how do you get prints from them? Digital scans and inkjet prints was the answer that Matt provided, but can you even do analog prints with them?

Pictures from slides, looks different than from negative.
Fred Herzog took pictures of Vancouver, BC on slide film. Not E6, I guess, but it doesn't matter.
Only decades later people where able to enjoy them in form of large prints, done via scan.
Modern Color is book from those scans. Worth to have.
https://www.amazon.ca/Fred-Herzog-Modern-Color/dp/377574181X

Ernst-Jan · Jun 6, 2020

No one mentioned Cibachrome yet? This is the way to print slides. Sadly the chemicals and 'paper' are discontinued, for colour it was what baryt is for bw is what I read.

Large prints back in the day where in Cibachrome, at least what I have read. It was also used a lot by museum and galleries thanks to the nice colours.

DREW WILEY · Jun 6, 2020

Ciba could be beautiful, but suffered from some serious color idiosyncrasies. Masking skills were necessary not only to control contrast, but to help iron out inherent color repro problems too. But that turned out to be a very valuable skill set to learn, and I've repurposed it for making high-quality internegs for RA4 printing, as well as other darkroom media. The current RA4 equivalent to Ciba is Fuji Supergloss. But it's easier to print directly from color neg film.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jun 7, 2020

DREW WILEY said:
that turned out to be a very valuable skill set to learn, and I've repurposed it for making high-quality internegs for RA4 printing, as well as other darkroom media.

Drew: do u have an article or notes on making high quality internegs that you can share?

DREW WILEY · Jun 7, 2020

Sorry. Just random postings on several sites. I can suggest specific films, developer and kinds of gear involved, but at a certain point one has to personalize all that with a lot of testing until it's dialed in. It's not difficult in concept; but the details take some patience to learn. All my own notes (multiple binders full of them) are matched to specialized equipment, some of my own design. But anyone with a good colorhead and a film punch and matching registration frame could do it.

What is E6 film good for?

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