Exposed, scanned, what now?

Bennp2000

Bennp2000

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Name
Paul
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Ok, so I've shot my first roll, given it to a helpful friend for scanning and he's sent me back some un-masked Tiffs.

I've cropped these and then applied basic adjustments but the image looks pretty flat, almost RAW esque (I shot Provia 100f). I thought one of the joys of film was that the digital PP would almost be non-existent (apart from dust and scratches), did I get that bit wrong?

Also, turns out I'm pretty darn nifty at front focussing the Mamiya 80mm f/1.9. Again, helpful friend suggested I stop down a bit (just to lets say 2.8), but that means my DoF is roughly equivalent to my 50mm 1.8 on a FF (I think). So I'm wondering (apart from getting to play with new [old] technology) and learning to be more methodical in my approach, is there much to gain by shooting this Mamiya over my 5d mk II in IQ? or am I missing some other hidden joy?

Many thanks for your patience in reading by probably ill-formed thoughts!
Paul

ps - I did quite enjoy the suspense of shooting a roll and then waiting for what seemed like an age to see my results instead of the near instant gratification offered by digital!
 
Scanning tends to reduce the contrast and saturation of colour film, it often takes a small amount of PP to compensate for the scanner
 
Many lenses will give soft results wide open, best to stop down esp in sunny conditions for sharpness.
It's difficult to equal a top DSLR for IQ with a 35mm film camera with colour negative film (esp for crops), but medium format shouldn't be a problem.
It's been mentioned that there is appx about 21mp of detail on an average 35mm film frame, but getting this info off is the problem and can be expensive, so most of us use cheap scanners at home or labs that give better scans (i.e. not the most expensive scans.)....... lucky the computer screen is an equalizer so it's easy to show a sharp shot from either cameras (again if not showing large crops).

hex40mm1000px-1.jpg


flekt211000px.jpg
 
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Unless the scanner has been profiled with a calibration target, it has no reference for how the scanned slide should look with regards to colour so it gives a general output that will give a decent enough result. Most of the time this will need adjusting in PP with saturation etc to get a result like the original slide. All scanned images need a degree of sharpening as thats just the way it is with anything digital, use a higher threshold with the USM than with digital images, about 3 - 5.

Negative film however does need adjusting after scanning as it itself is a low contrast material and when printed on paper the contrast increases. The scanner on the other hand scans it as it is (low contrast) usually with increased noise/grain in shadow areas as they wouldn't normally be as visible on a print because of the contrast, an S curve sorts that out easily though.

It might be that your friend scanned them in as a bit low contrast and saved them like that, but usually slide film is contrasty enough to not need much work in that area as unlike negative film it is not designed to be for printing per say, so it doesn't need to be low contrast. Could you post a couple of them here?
 
Oh dear.... This is probably really obvious to most but I completely forgot I have a slide for reference (actually I don't they're with said friend, but I WILL have).

DOH!

I'm not keen on stopping down too much for sharpness, besides I thought the 80mm 1.9 was meant to be awesomely sharp anyway?

I can upload them some time later tonight when I'm home from work (late late). I'd be interested to here suggestions, also if anyone has any tips on focussing wide open with a split prism then please let me know, I obviously suck at it.

He's only scanned 3 from the roll thus far, I think 6 were worth doing (If I remember correctly).
 
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I think they are outstanding.
 
There off a Mamiya 80mm 1.9 wide open?

I like them alot

~off to a certain place looking for a lens camera combo :D ~
 
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