W-Nikkor C 3.5cm f/1.8 Photos!

[kamshingk]

Shooting outside Ralph Lauren hk flagship store, Central, HK 2016
Nikon SP W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8 Kodak gold 200 at ISO 100


Shooting outside Ralph Lauren hk flagship store, Central, HK 2016 by kamshingk, 於 Flickr

 

[jonmanjiro]

Rural Tottori, Japan

鳥取 by Jon, on Flickr

 

[jonmanjiro]

Izakaya (restaurant/bar) in a side street in Matsue City, Shimane

居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr

 

[jonmanjiro]

Another izakaya (restaurant/bar) somewhere in Matsue City, Shimane

居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr

 

[Calzone]

Jon,

I particularly love your night shots. The rendering is beautiful. I have only a few night shots that I have used my 35/1.8 LTM Nikkor. I have to use it more for night shooting.

Cal

 

[Erik van Straten]

I particularly love your night shots. The rendering is beautiful.

I agree, but I think this also has to do with Jon's scanning technique.

Erik.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Jon,

I particularly love your night shots. The rendering is beautiful. I have only a few night shots that I have used my 35/1.8 LTM Nikkor. I have to use it more for night shooting.

Cal

Thanks Cal. I love the W-Nikkor for night shooting. Actually, I like the W-Nikkor for any shooting hehe 🙂

I agree, but I think this also has to do with Jon's scanning technique.

Erik.

Hi Erik, I think the W-Nikkor stamps its character pretty clearly on images in night shots, though I suppose scanning is also a factor. Not that I feel I'm doing anything special in that regard though. I just scan my B&W films using a Coolscan 5000 as grayscale with all other functions turned off, then do some minor PP to clone out scratches and marks and make minor contrast and unsharp mask adjustments. Very minimal really.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Here's a few more izakaya (restaurant/bar) shots taken somewhere in Matsue City, Shimane. I love izakaya shop fronts.


居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr


居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr


居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr

 

[Erik van Straten]

I think the W-Nikkor stamps its character pretty clearly on images in night shots, though I suppose scanning is also a factor. Not that I feel I'm doing anything special in that regard though. I just scan my B&W films using a Coolscan 5000 as grayscale with all other functions turned off, then do some minor PP to clone out scratches and marks and make minor contrast and unsharp mask adjustments. Very minimal really.

Does the Coolscan 5000 have a densitometer? It does a good job as the blacks aren't too black - without becoming gray - and also the lights show good detail.

Erik.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Does the Coolscan 5000 have a densitometer? It does a good job as the blacks aren't too black - without becoming gray - and also the lights show good detail. Erik.

I'm not sure if the Coolscan 5000 has a densitometer, Erik. There's nothing in the specs on Nikon's website about anything like that.

 

[Erik van Straten]

There's nothing in the specs on Nikon's website about anything like that.

The Epsons have it, in any case, mine does, V600. It is a very handy device. It will help you to adapt the histogram. You can measure the density of small parts of the negative. You can determine for instance what the lightest and darkest parts of the negative are on a scale of 1 to 255 and adapt the curves, a bit like using harder and softer grades of paper when printing. Many users are not aware that the densitometer is there, but I always use it. It is better to do this adaptation before scanning than to do it afterwards in Photoshop.

Erik.

 

[giulio stucchi]

Erik,
I am aware of the densitometer in my V600, I even follow the steps you provide in different threads on how to use it but I am so, so bad on the Technical side of things that I still need to figure out how to use it..aren't you by chance offering workshops on composition and editing 🙂 ?
btw, I will give a second try as soon as I find the time for it.

Jon,
great photos with or without the densitomer 🙂 !

Giulio

 

[Erik van Straten]

Giulio, you are right, Jon's pictures have a perfect tonality, but that exactly was the reason I asked if he is using a densitometer. Apparently a Coolscan does not need one.

Erik.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Giulio, Erik, thanks a lot!

Erik, I'll have to double check to be certain but I'm pretty sure the Nikon Scan software can be used to measure points on the negative to determine the lightest and darkest parts. But as you've already surmised, I've never used that function. Instead, I batch scan an entire roll in one go and let the scanner automatically determine the correct (according to the scanner) exposure and focus for each negative as the scanner scans the roll. I know Nikon Scan generally gets a bad rap in the forums but it does a good job for me and I've never found it to be lacking.

 

[Calzone]

Here's a few more izakaya (restaurant/bar) shots taken somewhere in Matsue City, Shimane. I love izakaya shop fronts.


居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr


居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr


居酒屋＠松江市 by Jon, on Flickr

Jon,

Brutal. I love the look.

Thanks for the details of minimal post. Know that I am a lazy slacker and I always try to minimize post processing as much as possible to let the image be more organic and alive.

I find these images tastefully done.

Cal

 

[jonmanjiro]

Thanks Cal! After many years of not being very satisfied with my B&W scans, in recent months I've finally honed in on the settings/developing that give me results I'm reasonably happy with.

Here's a few more shots taken with my W-Nikkor 35/1.8, daytime shots this time! The pictured shrine is Izumo Taisha, one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan.


出雲大社 by Jon, on Flickr


出雲大社 by Jon, on Flickr

 

[Highway 61]

Erik, I'll have to double check to be certain but I'm pretty sure the Nikon Scan software can be used to measure points on the negative to determine the lightest and darkest parts. But as you've already surmised, I've never used that function. Instead, I batch scan an entire roll in one go and let the scanner automatically determine the correct (according to the scanner) exposure and focus for each negative as the scanner scans the roll. I know Nikon Scan generally gets a bad rap in the forums but it does a good job for me and I've never found it to be lacking.

Nikon Scan's algorithms were made after PhotoShop's ones (we can say that Nikon Scan is a clone of PhotoShop for many functions) so Nikon Scan cannot be bad.

As to whether the scanner (as a machine) can scan the film differently (that is, running a different lighting source through the film) depending on what the film is and what it looks like, the answer is no. So as far as you get a source file (TIFF for instance) which has captured the more information possible off the film and which, at the same time, has been sampled onto 16 bits par channel and has much headroom to be tweaked (including the neg. to pos. inverting step) with a good imaging software (i.e., PhotoShop) you're 100% OK at scanning films...

The key is to admit that each file has to be post processed separately - and it can be time consuming. There is nothing like an automated workflow for scanning films which can work with good results.

The second 出雲大社 is a fantastic photo !!! 😱

 

[Erik van Straten]

The key is to admit that each file has to be post processed separately - and it can be time consuming.

The Epson scanner software provides a three-way adaptation of the histogram - dark, middle and light - wich is extremely useful, but of course only for individual images. With the densitometer you can measure all the parts of the negative, so that no part wil become uniformly white -value 255- or black -value 0-.

Erik.

 

[Highway 61]

The scanner is a passive machine which takes a cliché of the negative. The key is to have that machine capture all the greyscales which are on the negative (linear source histogram for every channel) just as if you were taking a photo of the negative using a digital camera in RAW mode, a macro lens and a repro-bench.

Then the fine adjustments of the levels and curves etc are made with a good software tweaking the image file created by the machine. This is the operator's job. To be done properly, the image file must be a 16 bits per channel one, created at the scanner's max. resolution (real one not marketing saying's one) and displayed on a calibrated screen using a proper imaging software.

Anything which will be done after the machine has captured the richest possible image of the negative is the operator's responsability. There is no software which will decide for me where to place the 0 and the 255 on the work-in-progress file histogram... 😉

 

[Erik van Straten]

There is no software which will decide for me where to place the 0 and the 255

No, but you need a device to measure the value, like a lightmeter. If you do not measure and adapt it, it can become 0 or 255 and that is what you do not want. You want your darkest part 1 and your lightest part 254 or lower.

Erik.