Definitely OT:
I'm trying to get some 35mm Agfa Scala 200X transparencies printed; 5x7 and
8x10 or 8x12 enlargments, at least one with some cropping. Does anyone
know of a decent lab in the U.S. that can do a good job of this on some
type of B/W paper rather than "R" color paper? Normally I don't print
transparencies, I project them, but this is rather special. Attempting
printing B/W on color paper hasn't gotten acceptable results in the past.
Don't want to spend a fortune doing this either. Tried using a "Kodak
Creation Station" with the slide scanner. It had unwanted contrast
increase and the scan resolution just isn't quite there for 8x10's. A real
print would be much better.
The rest of the story:
A local friend is a professional photog who does weddings, commercial, etc.
I was over at his studio a couple weeks ago doing an experiment with him
for some special double exposures to get the technique down.
He and his (beautiful) wife are a young couple and she was just diagnosed
with cancer that they are knocking down with chemo before proceding with
surgery. Having just started the chemo, she wanted to get a portrait
session before hair loss, etc. After we got done with the double exposure
experiment, she collared him to do a portrait session, and he asked if I
wanted to see how his strobe studio lighting setup worked. He ran out a
roll of film and asked if I wanted to try it using the lighting . . . so I
ran out roll of Portra 400VC in the OM-1n body. Never having used studio
strobes before, that was an interesting experience, and very different from
the on-camera I've done in the past.
Then I remembered there was a half roll of Scala 200X left in an old Contax
IIIa RF and asked if he had ever done any B/W of her. Nope. I pulled out
the old RF, plugged the PC cord and started shooting with it. (I don't
recommend doing studio portraits using old RF's with knob winders, small
viewfinders and parallax to worry about.) The results on the Scala 200X
which I had only used before for architectural and scenic were surprisingly
good. Noticeably more latitude than a color E-6 or K-14 transparency and
very nice mid-tones; the biggest surprise was the excellent skin tones.
I'm wishing it had been B/W negative like Tri-X or TMax 100 because now I
need to get some prints done of the transparencies for them.
Mental attitude is half the cancer battle and I'm very glad we did the
session. The hair loss occurred abruptly this past week. His color negs
came out very nice and I'm hoping to provide a few large B/W's. (I used a
soft focus filter on the OM-1n with the Portra; it turned out to be too
strong and the images are too soft.)
TIA
-- John
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