(film) exposure of High Contrast Scene
- Thread starter raytoei
- Start date
Shadowleong
New Member
Thanks for sharing cleared some doubts that I had
Nice find! Very informative.
It looks to me like this was taken from a rather old book? Most people don't talk much about film latitude these days.
In any case, most of us nowadays will be scanning our negatives. In my opinion I've found that my scanner (Epson V700) doesn't do well in pulling detail out from the highlights (darker parts of the negative). It's like a camera, it has problems pulling detail out from shadows.
This differs from traditional darkroom prints in which all that is needed is a longer exposure on the paper.
My point is, don't forget the workflow further down the line. If you are scanning, know how much your scanner can take. More often than not there will be a lot of detail you can see with your eye in the highlights on the negative that will be very hard to extract with your scanner.
Again, I'm a little rusty with this film stuff... but just thought I would put my 2 cents worth.
In any case, most of us nowadays will be scanning our negatives. In my opinion I've found that my scanner (Epson V700) doesn't do well in pulling detail out from the highlights (darker parts of the negative). It's like a camera, it has problems pulling detail out from shadows.
This differs from traditional darkroom prints in which all that is needed is a longer exposure on the paper.
My point is, don't forget the workflow further down the line. If you are scanning, know how much your scanner can take. More often than not there will be a lot of detail you can see with your eye in the highlights on the negative that will be very hard to extract with your scanner.
Again, I'm a little rusty with this film stuff... but just thought I would put my 2 cents worth.
Ervine, I am using the same scanner as you (v700) and I am having difficulty pulling out the details in the highlights. If I use a loupe to check, the details are there, but when I scan it, it isn't. Care to share your methods to overcome this? Any help is appreciated.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who realises this. The negative (esp. B&W) seem to have a ridiculously wide latitude which usually can't be fully retrieved digitally.
As to how best to overcome this. That's easy, don't blow your highlights (or shadows) to begin with..
This is of course done ideally while shooting (which is good advice for everything else as well, composition, exposure, waiting for the right light, etc etc), if not while developing (you can try to get the neg to be a little more neutral, I can't remember how any more, less agitation, different developer dilution with different timings, cooler temperature, etc)
But if it's already too late, you can consider using softwares such as vuescan and silverfast to push your scanner a little more, you can tweak the settings there to your hearts content. I personally use vuescan and I scan it as a raw file. Ridiculously big files but I believe I can pull more out of the scan than if I had just scanned it as a JPEG. There's an option to do multiple passes as well but if I remember correctly it never worked well for me for some reason.
There is also the possibility of scanning multiple "exposures" and layer them in post, but usually not the most ideal as the scans won't really overlap 100%.
Again ideally, get it right from the start, use gradient ND filters, spot meters, wait for cloud cover, know your film, know your developing processes, know what you want to get at the end of the day, etc. It'll save you a lot of trouble down the line.
Hope this helps! Again I'm rusty, haven't shot a single roll of film for maybe a year now.
virtualme78
Senior Member
Thanks for sharing! so much to learn!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who realises this. The negative (esp. B&W) seem to have a ridiculously wide latitude which usually can't be fully retrieved digitally.
As to how best to overcome this. That's easy, don't blow your highlights (or shadows) to begin with..
This is of course done ideally while shooting (which is good advice for everything else as well, composition, exposure, waiting for the right light, etc etc), if not while developing (you can try to get the neg to be a little more neutral, I can't remember how any more, less agitation, different developer dilution with different timings, cooler temperature, etc)
But if it's already too late, you can consider using softwares such as vuescan and silverfast to push your scanner a little more, you can tweak the settings there to your hearts content. I personally use vuescan and I scan it as a raw file. Ridiculously big files but I believe I can pull more out of the scan than if I had just scanned it as a JPEG. There's an option to do multiple passes as well but if I remember correctly it never worked well for me for some reason.
There is also the possibility of scanning multiple "exposures" and layer them in post, but usually not the most ideal as the scans won't really overlap 100%.
Again ideally, get it right from the start, use gradient ND filters, spot meters, wait for cloud cover, know your film, know your developing processes, know what you want to get at the end of the day, etc. It'll save you a lot of trouble down the line.
Hope this helps! Again I'm rusty, haven't shot a single roll of film for maybe a year now.
Ervine, thanks for the prompt reply. If I get you right, I must expose for my workflow - so if I plan to scan it or do darkroom prints will differ in how I do my exposure. Is that what you have meant?
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