how much do you tweak/PP your typical analog image?

[danielsterno]

All:

So I am eagerly awaiting my first batch (12 rolls) of 35 film shot on my 2/21/13 new to me M6. Film will be developed and scanned from The Darkroom which I have never used before. While I want to maintain the "film" characteristic as much as possible. Question: how much do you typically tweak/PP of the now scanned image? What is the norm? I know you are thinking that "it depends on the image" but I want to try to maintain as much as I can of the films feeling & characteristics. thank you as always for your insight....D.

 

[Roger Hicks]

It's at 'now scanned' that it falls flat for me. With a wet print there's exposure, paper grade, dodging, burning... So the answer is: Always!

Cheers,

R.

 

[robbeiflex]

Like Roger says, if we read "how much " in the question as "how often" then the answer is always. If we read the question as "how many tweaks/PPs per image", then it highly depends on what "The Darkroom" (which I take it is a lab?) has already done with them. Scanned negs will always need some exposure and contrast adjustment, and dust removal. How much more they need in order to meet your vision is the real question. I tend to go for minimal additional PP, usually staying with dodge & burn and maybe a little shadows/highlights adjustment. On a good day I can do a lot of this with curves, but most days I go through step by step.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[gb hill]

I limit my PP to these 4 (self made) rules for b&w.

1. Healing brush tool to clean up dust & scratches.

2. Sharpening & Contrast (equivalent to using contrast filters in the darkroom)

3.Slight use of adjusting shadow & highlights but only if necessary. (equivalent to the use of burn & dodging tools in the darkroom)

4. Resizing the image for web use. I scan my images @ 1200 dpi.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Post-processing begins with choice of developer, temperature and time. So I'd say it depends...

 

[konicaman]

Mainly what I would do in the wet darkroom:

1. Tweaking light/contrast
2.Cropping
3.Dodging/burning slightly
4.Clone stamp to remove dust specs (much easier than using fluids and a marten hair brush).

Come to think of it - pretty much the same I do with my digital files except for step 4 -

I never liked to PP too much. And with scanned negatives keeping PP to a minimum helps you keep the look and feel of film. If you scan at home be aware of the grain reducing filter in the scanner software as well as the sharpening (unsharp mask usually) - 2 things that really can mess up the film look.

 

[thegman]

If we're talking scans I get from the lab, then the basic answer is "I don't". I tend to use them as I get them.

For scans I make myself, I adjust the curves, take out the dust, and that's probably it.

 

[danielsterno]

Thanks for the feedback and sorry if The Darkroom was not well defined. they are a processing lab Thedarkroom.com and I know some RFF users use them for process/scanning. I am also getting a more intense scan (18MB), being this is my first Batch from the M6/35mm Cron. The film is different Color print/slide/B&W brands of the usual suspects....

 

[willie_901]

Once I have a physical negative. I spends a great deal of time inPP.

I scan in raw using Vuescan. From there it's repair time for scratches and dust. Contemporary tools make this job easy.

The I spend at least as much time on the scaned image as adjusting raw images from digital cameras .

Once it's digitized, it's quite similar to optimizing the aesthetics of any other digital file.

The printing matters a great deal in how the final result compares to a pure analog process.

 

[maddoc]

Always as little as possible. If scanning I adjust contrast and sharpness if necessary and scale down for uploading only. If wet-printing I choose graduation 2 paper and try to get the exposure right. If I don`t get a decent print (for my taste) I don`t bother any further. No dodging, burning, cropping, toning or other manipulation.

 

[rwintle]

First off - I have mine scanned by the lab (haven't sorted out a scanner for myself yet).

So:

Nearly always: black and white points, contrast (boost), crop, dust/scratch/gunk removal (actually, that last is "always" unless I forget(!))
Frequently: colour balance, vibrance boost
If necessary: rotation
Once in a while: cloning out some extraneous guff

Overall, less than I do with digital photos - for no particularly good reason other than that I kinda-sorta prefer to do less to film scans.

 

[Sylvester]

Here's my workflow. Don't really know if it's considered "a lot of Post-Processing".
1. Epson scan with very flat scan but every piece of information kept (histogram adjust to get the black point and no blown highlights) and no sharpening
2. Import into Lightroom and select the images I like, Adjust Exposure, Contrast, dark tones, bright tones, Black, White, Vibrance, Saturation, Clarity (always about +25), Curve, Sharpening, manual lens correction if needed.
3. Export to Photoshop CS5 with Lightroom adjustments, remove dust, newton rings if there are some (Tri-X curves awfully), burn, dodge, more or less contrast on certain zones, maybe selective sharpening on some zones of the image (layers and masks are very useful for all of this)
4. Back into Lightroom, I add some toning to it (I made a custom preset so my sepia is always the same)
5. Export to Flickr, Facebook or for inkjet printing.
Takes about 15mins to get an image right.
Everything is kept with layers and all. Lightroom cannot be beat to keep organized.
I could leave the processing to Epson scan and touch up in Photoshop, but it always like to burn my highlights and I don't like to have holes in my inkjet prints...

 

[mdarnton]

I do quite a bit, just as I used to do in the darkroom. Overall contrast and exposure corrections, then the equivalent of a lot of burning and dodging, and ferricyanide bleaching. And spotting, of course. The nice thing about digital is the possibility of doing selections and adding a contrast component to the burning and dodging.

 

[flip]

Slides - generally as is.

Otherwise,
-crop and level
-tweak color temp/tone+exp or B/W curve

 

[smk]

Always as little as possible. If scanning I adjust contrast and sharpness if necessary and scale down for uploading only. If wet-printing I choose graduation 2 paper and try to get the exposure right. If I don`t get a decent print (for my taste) I don`t bother any further. No dodging, burning, cropping, toning or other manipulation.

Exactly what I do regarding wet prints. For digital just simple curve editing (contrast/exposure), and that's it.

 

[seblock]

Here's my workflow. Don't really know if it's considered "a lot of Post-Processing"....

My workflow is very similar:
1. I scan with Silverfast SE and a very flat cure to get the most information out of the negatives
2. Import into Lightroom + categorizing and tagging
3. Removing dust and spots with PS
4. Adjusting the curve and/or whites/blacks
5. Sharpening to about half the scale, my 9000f tends to lack crispy sharpness

So basically its only curve and sharpness, no dodging or burning, no sepia or whatsoever.

cheers
Seb

 

[Timmyjoe]

Mainly spotting out the dust and adjusting the curves for my B&W film.

Don't shoot much color anymore, and when I do shoot chromes, I usually leave them as is.

Very dependent on the scanner, which right now is a Nikon Coolscan 9000.

Best,
-Tim

 

[danielsterno]

Wow, very appreciative of the response and I find everyones workflow insight invaluable. This has turned out to be a very informative and useful thread.....Thanks!

 

[robert blu]

for my B&W:

1- scanning (Nikon 5000ed)
2- dedust with PS (CS3)
3- import in LR4, payng attention to keywords.
4- make a virtual copy,
5- adjustement, exposure, contrast.
6- if necessary export to CS3 for local dodging or burning and bacl to LR4
7- eventually toning, I like to add a little warm tone in the lights and cold tone in the shadows. Sometimes, not always.
8- ready to print (in this case I had to the keywords the kind of paper used: useful for future reference) I also add 5 star to the photos I print

robert

 

[John Bragg]

I try to do as little as possible pp. I endeavor to develop in order to produce a negative that is tonally correct as a straight scan with silverfast on Plustek 7400. I may occasionally adjust contrast, but I see that as the digital equivalent of dialling in contrast on my multigrade enlarger.