So, my previous experiments with scanning Ektar 100 were successful and I
thought I knew how to expose the film as well as scan it. But a funny thing
happened on the way to the dance. I had the film processed at a different
lab. That and a few other variances have made life more challenging than I'd
want them to be. Not evil, not bad, just making sure I earn my keep. Actual
production rolls aren't scanning like my previous test rolls. Not horribly,
but they do lack the snap and pop I was expecting. That and the fact that on
one particular critical picture I didn't shoot it properly. Not expecting
that I'd encounter such a shift, I had not photographed the IT8 target for
creating another custom profile. The previous profile doesn't work now. I
guess that I need to start shooting a target for every batch of
film/processing.
Well, I decided to do a little experimenting. It'll be a couple of weeks
before I can reshoot the target and get it processed, so I needed to figure
something out. That's why I'm paid the big bucks. :)
Using Vuescan and the Nikon Coolscan V-ED, I scanned the negative as an
"Image" and except for dust removal there is no further adjustments made.
The output file is saved as a RAW scan in DNG format. I then opened up the
file in Lightroom, inverted the image, applied the standard adobe processing
curves and got a really good start point. In fact, the start point is
farther along than I was able to get after a long time manipulating the
files by other means.
Some of the colors were muted a little, so I cranked up the saturation on
red, orange, yellow and green. I subtracted quite a bit of saturation from
blue. Between the saturation decrease in the blue channel and a tiny bit of
noise-reduction, the image cleaned right up and that nasty blue-cast in the
shadows went away. It also addressed that nasty Kodak "they want saturation,
we'll give them saturation" E100VS look.
The end result is a fantastic image with exceptional colors and tonalities
while holding skintones very well. With a standard digital image, when you
crank up the saturations like I did, the skin starts to looking like a
tangerine, but with this film, the skintones held a normal healthy pink
cast.
I'll still end up profiling the film again, but at least I have a workaround
that works. I like this film. Grainless? Definitely not. But I do notice
that it cleans up with noise-reduction algorithms very nicely. Once cleaned
and file-size reduced to match a 10-12 MP camera file, it is about identical
in sharpness and resolution, but with a substantially different color
characteristic. This film has a wide toe and shoulder with a definite
progression in compression.
AG
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