3 samples: shooting film, pushing, scanning, Lightroom and Nik software

[menos]

I had my first experiments with demos of Nik Software plugins for Lightroom.

I can only say, I am impressed by how much more control you get from these for working with my film scans.

For the quick and dirty samples, I uploaded here, I had this workflow:

- photos shot with Leica M7 + 35 Cron ASPH + Tri-X 400 @ ISO 3200
- developed in Kodak TMax developer 1+4 dilution
- scanned in quick full auto mode @ 3200ppi 8bit only
- imported into Adobe Lightroom 2.5 - no settings, other than keyworded, rotated, …
- edited original tiff files with Nik Dfine noise reduction tool and saved
- edited files with Nik input sharpening tool and saved
- edited files with Silver Efex plugin (neutral as basis, then settings in brighness, contrast, structure, black and white point to my liking)
- exported final files for web 800px from Lightroom with standard sharpen for screen


What does Nik Software do for me on this first quick experiment?

The noise reduction works wonderfully and provides full control in detail.
The very soft scans from the extreme curled film and the poor EPSON film holders could be "pulled back" into the usable sharpness zone very comfortably.

I was impressed, how easy it worked - Lightroom's sharpening module or photoshops USM did not provide the same usable output.

Whats the downside?

You work with several external plugins for each development step, which slows you down.
The software is rather unresponsive with constant loading and calculating, while not using the full potential of the machine (just a few hundred MB of 6GB RAM at peak and never more than 120% of CPU capacity was used on a core duo intel Mac).
The plugins are expensive - actually as much as Lightroom itself.

Will I buy the plugins?

HELL YEAH!!!

…


Judge by yourself:


"quattroporte"

"cooking gear"

"enter here !"

 

[fotomeow]

Wow, these shots turned out really really really nice......Thanks for laying out your workflow so succinctly, I was just thinking the last couple days of how I can set up a similar film-to-digital workflow system........Im at the point of needing to buy a scanner for my film, choose PP software, etc....and my next step was to do a "search" on RFF, but you beat me to the punch.......

 

[menos]

Wow, these shots turned out really really really nice......Thanks for laying out your workflow so succinctly, I was just thinking the last couple days of how I can set up a similar film-to-digital workflow system........Im at the point of needing to buy a scanner for my film, choose PP software, etc....and my next step was to do a "search" on RFF, but you beat me to the punch.......

Thanks ;-)

i am glad, this could help.
Actually, I started photography with digital first and am strongly bound to Adobe Lightroom.

Only after I tried out Nik software (especially the three modules, I used here), I found, how powerful these plugins are.

Good luck with finding your best suiting workflow from film to digital.

 

[craygc]

Dirk,

As a question of serious intererst, given the workflow you just described, what did silver efex give you that PS or LR wouldn't easily have? I just installed Nik Silver Efex today and havent played with it too much yet. However, I like this effect...

 

[menos]

Craig, this is one very interesting effect, Silver Efex does produce quickly.

I really cannot comment on the qualities and abillities of SE so far. I only used the neutral setting and developed from there with black point, white point, contrast, …
I guess, Photoshop gives the same abilities, if one feels comfortable with PS.

I am really impressed by Nik's sharpening and noise reduction plug in.
Both, I could not achieve with Lightroom's development tool.

Especially the sharpening module will be explored further for BW.

I think, Nik's plugins do make the achievement of certain effects much more accessible and pleasant to use with an excellent outcome.

The color filter module or the film effect module alone seem wonderful additions with endless possibilities to play with.
I will try out the different modules the next two weeks and decide, which package I will purchase.

The sharpening and noise reduction plugin is fixed already - just great.

 

[Fenwick]

These are fabulous

 

[menos]

These are fabulous

Thank you Fenwick ;-)

 

[retnull]

Wonderful results!

Craig -- does that particular effect have a name?

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Nik Sharpener Pro is a miracle plugin for sharpening images. It takes all the voodoo involved with input and output sharpening and makes it easy.

I prefer Noiseware Professional for noise reduction, though.

 

[craygc]

Wonderful results!

Craig -- does that particular effect have a name?

Yep, certainly does - "Antique Plate II". Its just a default selection from the left hand side of the plug in. Nothing else was done to that shot as I was just playing

 

[robert blu]

Good pictures in an interesting thread, at least for the ones who like the hybrid way. Thanks for posting,
robert

 

[menos]

Good pictures in an interesting thread, at least for the ones who like the hybrid way. Thanks for posting,
robert

Thanks Robert.

Does anybody know about some further reading about "the hybrid way"?

I assume, this is the way, most amateurs shoot film these days opposed to the traditional wet print method.

It would be interesting, what findings other people have made.

 

[wongsan]

Wonderful shots!!

Is it too much to ask for a "before PP" shot for comparison?:angel:
I'm a newbie...the photos look very nice to me but I would like to learn why they look that nice.

Thanks!

 

[nightfly]

I know this might just be a taste thing, but the images look a little too clean and not as film-like to me as scanned Tri-x usually looks. However I'm not familiar with the look of Tri-x developed in T-Max developer. They look like they might have come from a digital camera.

 

[mackigator]

Do you mind posting a before shot of the flat scan? You mention an Epson - you were scanning on a V700?

The images look very nice and also different from my own Tri-X (pushed) in TMax experiences - thanks for sharing.

 

[menos]

Wonderful shots!!

Is it too much to ask for a "before PP" shot for comparison?:angel:
I'm a newbie...the photos look very nice to me but I would like to learn why they look that nice.

Thanks!

Thanks Wongsan, I' ll post one of my traditional developments on this one.
As others have mentioned - it looks a bit clean.
(Please bare with me for this dirty little trial with Nik software)

I know this might just be a taste thing, but the images look a little too clean and not as film-like to me as scanned Tri-x usually looks. However I'm not familiar with the look of Tri-x developed in T-Max developer. They look like they might have come from a digital camera.

Yes nightfly - this was just an experiment with Nik soft. The chosen frames were exemplary for noisy shadows and off focus from strongly curled negatives.

Do you mind posting a before shot of the flat scan? You mention an Epson - you were scanning on a V700?

The images look very nice and also different from my own Tri-X (pushed) in TMax experiences - thanks for sharing.

I use an EPSON V300 flatbed. It is sufficient for starters I feel.
So far, I have some troubles with strongly curled negs and the film holders.

I play with the idea to upgrade for this reason.

Here are two photos again:

"enter here!" full frame scan

"enter here!" cropped frame, Nik software

I like my traditional development more than the clean one. If you need to clean a shot for a small print though, Nik is really impressive.

 

[Stuart John]

Hey thanks for posting these. Would it be possible to post a 100% crop. At the moment I am trying to get good results from a v500.

 

[punkromance]

I like it because it's the first bit of software I've found that makes digital files feel a little less...digital.

 

[chrispiper]

I stumbled across this thread when searching for "V500" as it's the scanner that I use. But re-reading it, I saw this question and didn't see it answered so I thought I'd post (I use LR and SilverEfex Pro as well).

>>
As a question of serious intererst, given the workflow you just described, what did silver efex give you that PS or LR wouldn't easily have?
<<

Short answer is SE Pro has a "structure" control, "control points" and some built in "film stocks" along with a few other controls not present in either PS or Lightroom.

But most importantly, SE Pro gives you the ability to create, save, modify and apply presets (a LR term, it's like a recipe of adjustments). It also has a batch apply feature that you can use in conjunction with presets. This is a very powerful feature. For instance, I shot a wedding where the clients wanted a B/W "vintage" look for their images. Since I shot it all digital, I did the initial processing in LR and then took a single image into SE Pro. I manipulated it to get the look I wanted (mostly by adding structure, i.e. grain, contrast and using a canned film stock), created and saved a new preset from this recipe and then imported the rest of the images (about 100 or so) into SE Pro. Once all the images were loaded I could simply apply my new custom preset, hit go and let it chug away. When it finished, all the new images (virtual copies from LR) were automatically reloaded back into LR and I could finish up. It was very convenient and really could not have been done with any other tool.

In SE Pro, just like LR, I can start with either a canned preset or one of my own and tweak it, save it, name/rename it and use it again. Over time, you build up a library of presets that match your tastes. You can make single purpose presets like grain, sharpening, color filters etc that you layer on an image manually between adjustments or you can combine controls and levels to give you a full "look" that can be applied with a single keystroke.

Though with LR 3 about to come out and the sharpening greatly improved (reported, not yet proven in real world use) and grain tool added the Nik plugins might not be as useful - especially for their high price point. SE Pro however really can stand on it's own and delivers functionality you can't get anywhere else.

The example image below is of the groom's vintage Mercury. I leaned heavily on the control points for this one (headlights and chrome bits) along with the preset I created for the rest of the images. It was kind of a grab shot but he really liked it. If I would have known I would have asked him to park the car somewhere with a better background, but sometimes you just make do.

Chris

 

[Thardy]

Those are great results. I'll have to copy this recipe for sure.