Re: "Best" color slide film/color neg (skies, gaussian blur)

["Tim Olive" <tim@olive.com>]

> NEGATIVES VS. CHROMES
> Part of the reason for the preponderance of chrome film use in publishing
> is historical -- it *used* to be really hard to get good scans from
> negative film, and negative film used to be significantly inferior to low
> speed chromes. The cost of learning and calibrating a new way of working
> hasn't been justified. But the business is changing, especially in news
> publishing, where negative film and electronic cameras are in common use.

I shoot for advertising mostly, where negatives are rarely used - just
chromes.  The main advantage of chromes is that they contain the exact color
and exposure values to be reproduced.  From the original scan to the final
published piece, this information is the guiding light.  Even if digital
manipulation is necessary, it is often preferable to go *back* to film to
provide a standard for correct subsequent reproduction.  The film is often
accompanied by a digital file to save time and avoid re-scanning.  When the
4/c proofs come in for approval, the original film shows if everyone did
their jobs correctly.

If I used negs, which I would prefer because of greater film lattitude
(eliminating a lot of headaches like bracketing, push-pull processing, yadda
yadda) then I would still have to spend time (and expense) getting it to
transparency film.  This requires extremely high resolutions, and for the
above reasons scanning labs just don't do enough of it to do it right.  But
even if they did, it would still have to be "printed" on film, which would
be my
responsibility to get it "right".  I have come to the conclusion that in
advertising/publishing nothing can beat a perfect image on original
transparency film.

Another bummer is that b/w prints are becoming less and less desirable in
the industry.  Many clients ask us to shoot color transparencies and they
just convert it to b/w, which I hate. The creative process in printing is
completely lost.  Might as well send it to the drug store.  The best of both
worlds would be the ability to hand them a *b/w transparency*, along with
the file, but I'm not there yet.

That's why folks like National Geographic prefer chromes - this is the best
way to make sure those wonderful colors are 1) captured correctly and 2)
reproduced correctly.

Regards,

Tim Olive


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