Scanning Guidelines

In general, I suggest scanning your film at 16bit at the highest resolution possible to get the biggest possible file. It'll take up more room on your hard drive, but in the future, if you want to print it big, you won't need to re-scan.

Guidelines for Scanning on the Flextight: (in room D366, near elevators, 3rd floor)
The Flextight is the best scanner FIT has- it's not a drum scanner, but pretty close. Launch the software "Flex Color". Place your film in the holder. Make sure the film doesn't stick out the sides!! It's OK if it sticks out of the bottom only. Don't put too long a strip in there- stick to a strip of 4 or 5 frames.

In the scanning window, choose:
SETUP: choose negative or positive.  "standard" = positive film.
FRAME: scanner should automatically detect which part of the carrier your film is in, so you shouldn't need to adjust this.
MODE: RGB 16bit

 If you don't type in output size and just leave it to whatever it's set to, you can choose the highest possible resolution (dpi/ppi), which will probably be about 4000. This will give you the biggest possible file size (approx 150MB) and you can resize it later to 300 dpi in Photoshop before you start editing it.

OR: you can type in the output size if you know what size you plan to print is (i.e. 11x14") and then choose 300dpi.  It will be approx 50MB. This will not give you the biggest scan possible, and you would need to re-scan later if you wanted to print it larger. (It would not take up as much room on your hard drive, however)

*Do not sharpen during scanning- that can be done later in Photoshop.
* When scanning chromes, make sure you peel off mounting.
* make all necessary color correction in the FlexColor program before saving.
Best to do as much as possible color correction here and then just fine tune in Photoshop later.

OTHER Scanning OPTIONS at FIT:

Nikon Scanner (D366, Graphics Lab)

Epson Flatbed (Graphics Lab)

Nikon Supercool scan 4000. 35mm only. Can be checked out from cage and you can bring it home.

Scanning HW Due April 11th- Scan 2 images

For April 11, you are to scan 2 pieces of film. They can be 35mm or 120, chrome or negative. Please email these 2 images as lo-res JPGs to me by the morning of Monday April 11th (by 11am) so that I can include them in a slideshow for class. The film you choose should be recent and can be from the film test/ Lomo rolls we shot.

Xrite ColorMunki- Calibration

Today in class we will be making custom color profiles using the Color Cart and the Xrite Color Munki both for the monitor and the Epson Printer.

If you're interested in buying one, they are approx $450 at B&H.
http://xritephoto.com

Adorama Holiday Schedule- Closed 18-27th for Passover

Grant for Humanistic Photography

http://www.pdninside.com/smith_awards_emailblast.shtml

Intro to Digital Color Management

Digital Color Management Workflow: 

STEP 1:  Calibrate your monitor (either using a a calibrator like the ColorMunki or the MAC's internal program: System Preferences > Displays > Color tab > Calibrate. Use expert mode))

STEP 2:  Set up the Photoshop Color Management Environment (Edit > Color Settings. North American prepress 2, Adobe RGB 1998)

STEP 3:  Assign a Profile to the image (Adobe RGB 1998 for editing, convert if necessary before printing to sRGB or another ICC specific profile for your paper type)

STEP 4:  Soft Proof your image on screen for the ICC/ Paper profile you're using (View > Proof Setup > Custom. Shortcut is command Y) Make color adjustments if necessary.

STEP 5:  Print your Color-Managed image using ICC Printer Profiles 

Film Test Summary

Each student was asked to shoot 4 rolls of Film:

1. Normal Slide/Chrome Film- Daylight:
Kodak E100G- scans very well, fairly neutral


2. Vivid Slide/Chrome Film- Daylight (choose 1):
Kodak 100VS- vivid color emulsion
Fuji Provia 400
Velvia 50 or 100 ISO (colorful film, vivid)


3. Tungsten Color Film: choose any tungsten film (slide or negative: your choice)
I suggest 64T Slide Film
64T tungsten slide film
also at B&H


4. Daylight Color Negative Film:
Kodak Portra Film

Observation Summary:
After looking at everyone's slides and contact sheets, and after reading everyone's written observation summaries, the overall impression is that the neutral slide film (Kodak E100G) was actually more vivid and had more contrast than the Vivid Slide film (Kodak 100VS). The negative daylight color film (Kodak Portra) was surprisingly neutral, did not have much contrast and the colors were rather dull. Negative film has a greater latitude than slide film. This means that if the negative film was a stop overexposed, you'd still have detail in highlights, whereas if the slide film was overexposed, detail in highlights would very likely be lost.  The Tungsten film (64T) that should have been shot indoors, had different results in different rooms and buildings- depending on the color temperature of the overhead lighting. Not all lightbulbs are the same! If daylight came through a window, this also affected the colors of the tungsten film. Tungsten film shot outdoors in daylight obviously made everything blue if a corrective filter was not used.


Almost across the board, everyone's favorite film to shoot with was the neutral slide film, Kodak E100G. It is sharp, contrasty, and made colors vibrantly "pop" while not oversaturating skin tones and has fine grain.

Major factors in recording color:
Subject Matter
Exposure (slightly under exposing makes colors more rich)
Lighting situation (intensity of shadows affects color and contrast)
Weather
Time of Day
Color temperature shifts in Shade vs. Fog vs. Sun



E-6 = Slide Film Processing
C-41 = Negative Film Processing

Color Negative film (often with "color" in its name) has 3 layers of emulsion each sensitive to one of the RGB additive primaries.  During development, the developer oxidizes and combines with color chemical couplers in the emulsion to create the CMY dyes in our negative.  The blue-sensitive emulsion layer basically forms the yellow dye and so on.  Once all the light-sensitive silver is removed (different than B&W!), you are left with a negative image created solely from CMY dyes.

Reversal film (often with "chrome" in its name) produces a positive image called a chrome, slide, or transparency.   

Exposure latitude is the extent to which a light-sensitive material can be over or under exposed and still achieve acceptable results.  This makes it somewhat subjective.

It is not to be confused with Dynamic Range, which is the range of light intensities a medium can capture.  A recording medium with greater dynamic range will be able to record more details in the dark and light areas of a picture. Latitude depends on dynamic range. If the same scene can be recorded using less than the full brightness range available to the medium, the exposure can be shifted along the range without clipping data values in the shadows or highlights. Greater exposure latitude allows one to compensate for errors in exposure while retaining quality.

Push Film Processing: (brightens the film, and adds a bit of contrast) Over-development of the film, compensating for under-exposure in the camera.

Pull Film Processing: (darkens the film, and flattens the contrast a bit) A technique that compensates for overexposed film by under-developing it at the processing stage  

Cross-processing is developing color print or slide film in the wrong chemicals.

• Processing positive reversal film in C-41 chemicals (normally for negs) results in negative image on a colorless base 
• Processing negative print film in E-6 (normally for chromes) results in a positive image with the orange base of a normally processed color negative