Vedauwoo fall color supplement

Following up on Brett Deacon's report of a few weeks ago, I spent a few hours in the Vedauwoo area just over a week ago. I had had my eye on an exceptionally lovely aspen glen for several years, but before this year had not had the chance to visit it at the ideal season. I must say it exceeded my high expectations.

All shots on Kodak Portra VC400 negative film in my old trusty 2x3 Century Graphic. Scanned on an Epson 4870 flatbed.

Don, I love this photograph! Excellent comp. It would make a great large print. Where is this spot, if you don't mind sharing? And please post others if you are so inclined!

Wow, Brett, you are fast on the draw! The glen is off of Blair Road walking east from the picnic ground. Several glens in that area are exceptional. This one is from a nearby willow meadow.

Last one.

Really like #3. Great compostion.

Thanks, Don. It is actually a pretty severe cropping table job. I couldn't have gotten this comp in-camera without getting pretty wet, not to mention disturbing the subject with the waves I would create!

Absolutely freakin stunning work. I would love to have any of these in my portfolio but your 'Grass in Pond' shot is one I gotta get.

Two other q's What lens/es? What is the dynamic range of Portra? If you want to try a drum scan of one of these sometime give me a call.

Again, Great job!

RichieV

The only one I don't care for is #4. The others are outstanding! Just a wonderful collection.

So, Rich, does that mean you like them? Having seen your work, I take that as a HUGE compliment; thanks! All the shots except the Grass in Pond were done with an old Linhof Schneider 65mm f8 Super Angulon. The Grass in Pond was done with my fave, a 127mm F4.7 Polaroid (Rodenstock) Ysarex, a takeout from an old Pathfinder Polaroid; they go for about $50-$70 including shutter on Ebay and are the best deal in old glass that I know of. Neither is ideal for 4x5 (65mm barely covers, 127mm barely doesn't) but they serve just fine for 2x3, though the 65mm is a bit dark for gg focusing.

I don't know the dynamic range numbers on the Portra offhand, but it is wide enough to do black-tux-white-gown wedding photography. That's why I switched to negs: the canyons I normally shoot in are not Velvia-friendly unless one brackets a lot or spot-meters fastidiously. And of course the speed is a plus for DOF. Numbers 2 and 5 above were f45, the rest f32.

Drum scans are good! Maybe someday I can mosey down and scan "grass in pond" and you can print one off for yourself. Cheers! Don

Very interesting compositions Don. The leaves and grass are great.

Can you describe how you do your scan and the reversal on this film? I've been using Silverfast to scan my color negative and at times it makes automatic adjustments that are clipping my highlights.

I've got that same 65mm for my 4X5 and it is a very challenging lens to use. I also have the 75mm version and found it to be much better for the 4X5.

I've also been shooting and scanning lots of C-41 films lately to see if I might like it on the 4X5. I've found alot of upside to the color negative.film.

First, Thanks to both Mel and Morris for the nice comments.

Now on to your question, Mel.

I am using a fairly recent spin of Epson Scan. I have a copy of Silverfast LE that came with my scanner, but Vince Oliver, the guy at Photo-i <www.photo-i.co.uk> advised that Epson Scan is now perfectly capable of doing good neg scans with fewer distracting bells-and-whistles, so I have not bothered to try Silverfast yet. A friend also tried Silverfast for chrome scans and ended up frustrated with it despite generous support from the developer. My suspicion is that it is a great tool but not a substitute for learning to scan film! I have been teaching myself through many months of analytical trial-and-error, and have come a long way from my first horrible attempts.

The key to satisfactory results for me have been:

1) NO automatic settings! I builld the scan profile from scratch each time, unless I have a number of very similar shots on the same film type.

2) I set saturation to max to begin with. This makes it easier to see color casts, and neg film needs lots of saturation anyway, being very low contrast compared to chromes. I can back down on the saturation later if necessary.

3) I start by adjusting the white, black, and midpoint histogram sliders to get levels reasonably close. I check the output histogram often to assure that I am not clipping highlights or shadows. (One thing I hate about Epson Scan is the tiny histogram!)

4) I adjust the density curve for best distribution of contrast. I have created and named several preset curve profiles that I can select from as a basis for final tweaking.

5) Now the critical step: I adjust the individual color channels using the histogram and sometimes density curves, checking for color channel clipping as well. Note: highly saturated image elements may clip on the top end in one or 2 color channels; that is okay and necessary; only areas that clip in all 3 channels are dead white. Generally, I find it best to have all color channels drop to near 0 on the low end. I NEVER use the basic color sliders to adjust color balance; I always use the color channel histogram or curve for that purpose, so that I know exactly what I am getting. I also never use the auto neutral correction eyedropper, though I will often use the densitometer to check neutral areas.

6) When I think I am very close to what I want, I like to leave the workstation (or at least the scan app) for a little while, to neutralize my color perception before final visual evaluation and tweaking.

7) If I am unsure whether I am courting with clipping, I may move the top and bottom histogram sliders down and up (respectively) a little to assure I am capturing all the image data, and leave final density adjustment for the photo app.

8) Depending on my confidence in my settings, I may do a low resolution scan at this point to facilitate quick troubleshooting before going for the long scan with ICE.

I always do a 4800dpi scan for negs and slides, unless I am just looking for a quick screen image. (That may be a tall order for 4x5, however!) Despite reports to the contrary, my scanner does perform noticeably better at full hardware resolution, though I always downsample and sharpen in a photo app for final output.

Now, as a reward for those that have read this far, here is my favorite hint: to check for clipping, temporarily pull the midpoint slider on the histogram way down and then way up. Areas that remain white or black, respectively, as you do this are clipped. This is also a great way to detect color casts in deep shadows and bright highlights.

That's a broad look at my neg scanning workflow. Does anyone else have negative scanning tips or tricks to share? If there is enough interest we can start a new thread.