Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]As someone who does photofinishing, I can agree with you with some qualifications. More than one stop with 'amatuer' film can lead to unpredictable color shifts. We balance our printers with 'standard' negatives that are about one- to one and a half stops both over and under, as well as 'normal'. With negatives produced within those limits, we get excellent results, once you start to exceed those parameters, you may or may not get as good a result, depending on the age of the film, and how long ago it was shot, as well as the conditions under which it was shot. I can wager that I would never see a LUGnut's film with Christmas, Fourth of July, Halloween and Thanksgiving all on the same roll coming into the lab in Novemebr, but it happens with the uninspired...A LOT! So-called professional film has a decidedly narrower latitude, and its curves require that it be kept cool, with a few exceptions, to minimize the inherent color shifts due to aging. We also get a lot of Ektapress film, which the user thinks is more 'professional', but it is a bitch to print as it is made for scanners, for the most part. A notable exception is Gold Max; this film, and I think some of the newer GOLD emulsions, have what is called DIR. This is Developer Inhibitor Release. This inhibits the development of the silver halde proportionately to the amount of over exposure. If shot at its rated 800ISO, the inhibitoris not released, but shoot it at 200 or 400, and the grain is actually smaller than when it is shot at 800- I've compared negs side by side and visually the GOLD MAX shot at 400 has finer grain yet the overall density is not noticable greater that when it is shot at 800. We've shot it at 50 ISO and still the printing times were not greatly affected! Amazing stuff. Still grainy for anything other than the 4x6s I do for the family album, but a new departure from old ideas about film response curves! Trying to print some other films that are overexposed to the point of being 'burned', that is really dense, causes the photos to be muddier in color, and less sharp. For color film, I shoot VPS - Vericolor III, and new Gold 200; I got used to Vericolors softer renditon of color and contrast when I did weddings, and I guess you like what you are familiar with. The Gold 200 has really nice color now- they are using the T-grain technology that was used in the APS film, and it translates into 35mm very well. OOPS, my soapbox is shaking- I'll quit for now. Thanks Dan >Color neg film does better with some over exposure. Thick negs print better >than thin negs. Grain is better. Contrast is better. So shooting ISO 400 at >1/250 @ f/16 (sunny almost 16) is, at least for me, actually preferred. Try >it. You will like it. > >Jim