Kodak Ektar vs. the Portas

[stavrosk]

Learn to colour balance.

Colour balance at scanning?
I do not do my own scanning. I do not like to manipulate colour after I have shot. Thats the beauty of film.

[Athiril]

Colour balance at scanning?
I do not do my own scanning. I do not like to manipulate colour after I have shot. Thats the beauty of film.

Err no that is not the beauty of film, that is a misunderstanding. You cannot display a positive image out of a colour neg without colour balance. You are talking about it like it's a final product, which it is not. You can only do that with reversal film.

You are not allowed to judge that a film is "x colour" or "too red" if you just leave the colour balance to chance.

The same colour balance controls are found on an enlarger.

eg as on my enlarger;

Eurogon Dichroic Enlarger 2 by athiril, on Flickr



It must be colour balanced in the scan, or in the enlarger while printing. Minilabs scan the film and print. You cannot judge the film off a minilab, as it is completely unrepresentative, and the look is completely determined by the scanner not the film, look at this thread - http://www.apug.org/forums/forum40/9...160s-400h.html

That is 160S and 400H, and a ridiculous of modification to contrast and saturation. Yet according to the OP, that is standard on the minilab scanner, as all optional changes are turned off. Don't judge by minilab results.

[brian steinberger]

Emphasis added because this is very important with any contrasty and saturated material. The same characteristics that give it that special look also give you less room for slop than some other films. Proper exposure of all the color layers is very important with this film. That means you will have the easiest time printing if you filter it:

- any time it is cloudy
- any time it is overcast
- any time your subject is primarily in the shade or in window light
- any time it is more than a few hours either side of noon.
- any time you shoot under artificial light that is not daylight balanced (i.e. most artificial light in our day-to-day lives)

Given what many people tend to shoot, this means that most people should filter this film a good deal of the time. The same is true of any color neg material, but especially important with this film due to the fact that it's contrast lowers it's latitude for imbalanced color.

"Learn[ing] to color balance" only works if there is enough density on all three layers to do the balancing. If not, you can balance brighter areas, but the lower tones will appear "wonky," or vice versa. So if you cannot or will not filter, at least give yourself some extra exposure to allow more workability in color balancing.

Are you talking about 81A, B, C filters?

[DREW WILEY]

Amen to the above. And for outdoor photography at least, 81A, 81B, and 81C warming filters will solve
the vast majority of problems.

[brian steinberger]

Amen to the above. And for outdoor photography at least, 81A, 81B, and 81C warming filters will solve
the vast majority of problems.

Would I really need all three? I'm used to shooting chromes where an 81A usually does the trick for most circumstances. Does color neg typically need filtered more than transparency film?

[DREW WILEY]

At this stage of the game, color neg films are indeed different, and the 2/F post you quoted is right on. Filtration doesn't have to be perfect, but you need enough exposure to each of the three color layers to make them reasonably balanced and printable. If things are way off initially, nothing you can do with a colorhead on in Photoshop is going to recover it. Generally, I just carry two filters:
an 81A for overcast, and an 81C for deep north shade under a blue sky or analogous conditions. I can
fudge the middle condition of 81B if needed.

[tjaded]

It's now Fuji Pro 160 NS...

I can't find Fuji 160S anymore. The only color negative films I can currently find are 400H and Reala.

[brian steinberger]

At this stage of the game, color neg films are indeed different

Drew, you mean with Ektar?

What about the Portra films? Still need as much filtration?

[Tony-S]

I can't find Fuji 160S anymore. The only color negative films I can currently find are 400H and Reala.

B&H sells it in 220 rolls. I just bought a pro-pack last week.

[Athiril]

I've used an 85A filter in a forest, compensating for the filter factor, it gives a nice improvement to colour.