The Film Problem

I don't know how to make money at my own from my own.
So, I use film for myself.

For color I have Plustek 8200i, for BW I prefer Epson V500. And I do it under enlarger for BW.
My prints are often in color at 4x6 from inkjet or Letter size. Nobody with whom I share them needs bigger.
My wet prints are often 8x10 and mostly they are working prints. I could do 11x14, they are better to look at, but it is more complicated from printing to storage and framing.

Honestly, my 150CAD V500 and 250USD 8200i are absolutely sofitient for Letter size and my Vivitar simple and small enlarger, which was given to me for free, is good for 11x14.

They only weird thing... I like to print in DR, then scan and then look at it on the screen :).
 
Photograph, scan, manipulate, print. All at home. 35mm, medium format and 4x5. Anything larger is contact printed and then scanned. All done with a little Plustek and an Epson V500.

Most of this is printed no larger than 5x7 or 8x10.

If I think it looks really good, and my better half thinks it looks pretty good, (definitely not always the same thing) then I send the negative along with an inkjet print to a pro and tell them I want it to look like that...only better...and bigger.

Do the work prints back and forth until everything is worked out to our satisfaction then have someone mount the final print and frame it nice.

Haven't done it often but when I have it goes on the wall. Unless one of my kids steal it.
 
I want to install a darkroom but plan on moving this year, so it has to wait. In the meantime, my colour photos are professionally developed and scanned to medium resolution.

Black and white I develop myself and scan with a Plustek Opticfilm 120 which does produce great results without a lot of time in LR. Since taking up Large format I have bought an Epson V800 which is acceptable but requires much more post processing.
 
For 120 and 70mm I use an Epson V500. Coolscan V for 35mm. Vuescan to get it in the computer and slight PS—usually resize and some USM.
 
Leica M2, Summicron 50mm f/2, 400-2TMY, Epson V600.

Erik.
38707825181_7dc3dec66d_c.jpg

Focomat IIc, Adox MCC 110.
41418243371_d2abc0705c_c.jpg
 
I use Leicas, Rolleiflex, Hasselblads. It's a hobby and the maximum I scan from my Epson 4990 is 8x10. I print my own books, upload to Flickr and print 6x4 photos. It's fine. What's most important for me is not the sharpness - even though my gear is sharp; but the character. And 8x10 is fine for that. I will be doing an exhibition soon and for that I will go to a pro lab if necessary.
 
DSLR-scan...easy, fast & top quality
do it whith green backlight and you get the sharpest image

Verstuurd vanaf mijn BLA-L29 met Tapatalk
 
I tried digital printing and got fed up with banding, ink running out, messages telling me my ink overflow is full (time to throw away there printer, evidently). I threw away the Canon S9000. I have a wet darkroom and I use it. I have a few digital cameras, including an M9. I just look at the photos on screen.
 
My wet darkroom was closed about 10 years ago. Finally found someone who wanted all the expensive equipment so I gave it all away (and I have serious doubts that person ever used any of it). I am firmly planted in the digital camp and I won't return to the chemical darkroom again.

I think I got a film scanner not long after I got my first home computer. It wasn't a great scanner but it was what I could afford and it worked for printing on the affordable standard photo printers of the day. What I learned from that experience was that I hated scanning film. Despite that experience, I bought an Epson V700--I think that was the model. I have over thirty years of negatives and transparencies here at home and I told myself I needed a way to print them. Used that scanner every now and then for a year or so but mostly it sat idle. I hate scanning film. The scanner is in the attic several years now, probably dead due to the summer heat exposure up there.

Of my old negatives and transparencies, those not already printed will remain unprinted. That is until someone offers me a fortune for prints or MoMA calls and wants some of my old photos--highly unlikely events I assure you.

So I guess I've resolved my film problem simply by ignoring it.
 
I am currently mid-build on a spectacular 500+ square foot fine art darkroom, will be able to easily handle 40” x 50” print sizes. But for scanning, I just sold my Nikon 9000ED because that has been completely and utterly outdone by my new system, a Nikon D850 with a macro lens mounted to a Sinar P2 4x5 camera that has full geared movements for stitching huge files.

Just on Kodachrome slides alone I saw at least a 2 stop improvement in range over a drum scan let alone a Nikon scan. DSLR scanning is the way forward, it has gotten that good.

Now if only Silverfast would make tethered DSLR scanning software, it would help to overcome the orange mask of C41 films.
 
I'm 100% film + scanner and I have no "Film problem".

Yet.

When there is no colour film produced anymore (this WILL be The Film Problem), I will just use my phone for a random picture here and there that I will never look at...
 
With care in exposure and development, and practice, prints up to 16x20 inches are not at all outside the realm of 35mm film. A well tuned enlarger and a good lens helps. I’ve printed 20x24 from 35mm with success from the best negatives. I have managed a few scans from 35mm film that I printed at 16x20. Took me about ten times as long as a wet print. The main reason I don’t practice at scanning film.
 
Best prints I ever did came from Azo contact printed..and then just copy that and publish..still have some Azo left..amazing paper..
In color..best prints came out of the Linhof 2x3 or the Rolliecord 4 w/Xenar..or Rollieflex with Planar 3.5..never digitalized them though..
35mm..well...did anyone ever get a great print out of that..lol..closest I came was tech pan 25..and 25 asa Kodak color print film..and a high resolution lens..
Generally..in my limited digital scanning experience..scanners and digital copies..suck wind..just sumthin not right w/them..always sumthin missing..
I'm sure there are people with more skills in this regard than me though..
Today if I printed large for my daily bread..it would be Hassy X1D..
 
I second the recommendation of scanning with a digital camera! Using my Sony A7 + 90/2.8G macro lens, I easily get detail down to the level of film grain. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to handle color negatives (using GIMP 2.10) but I do think that for much of what I do, this method is superior to my Epson V700 + glass carrier + VueScan and SilverLight, not to mention a lot faster.

When I get a suitable macro lens for it, I plan to switch to using the Olympus Pen F: It's 80 mp pixel shift feature may prove very useful here.

My latest toy is Lomography's Digitaliza which uses magnets rather than glass to hold the film flat. Works as well with digital camera scanning as it does with flatbed scanners and makes dealing with dust infinitely easier than a glass carrier.
 
JeffS7444 said:
My latest toy is Lomography's Digitaliza which uses magnets rather than glass to hold the film flat. Works as well with digital camera scanning as it does with flatbed scanners and makes dealing with dust infinitely easier than a glass carrier.
Click to expand...

That looks like a fantastic product, thanks for the heads up!!!
I've been using enlarger film carriers, but this looks much better.

Ordering now.

edit - wow those are sold out everywhere! I bought the last 120 one that Lomo had. Sold out everywhere else. Also grabbed the 35m one from someone else, and the 110 too. If these work out, I can get rid of all my other film holders! I have a lot...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom