First!
Wed, 2007-10-03 12:18 — keith
Thanks for the new forum Carl!
I'll kick it off with a request for advice regarding the attached photo of my niece. The skin tone has a lot of grain, and I have noticed this on skin tones in many of my color photos with this camera. I'm not sure if the problem is cheap film, a crappy scanner, or what. Any suggestions?
Photo details -
Camera: Canonet QL17 GIII rangefinder
Film: Cheapo Kodak ASA 200
Negative scanned with: HP Scanjet 4850 flatbed
I see what you mean.
I see what you mean. Grain also prominent in her shirt/shoulder. Don't know what to do about it, just wanted to see what a comment looks like :-)
- Carl
Yeah. I *think* the film is
Yeah. I *think* the film is the big culprit here, but I am probably also doing something wrong technique-wise.
BTW, let me try embedding the image:
It would be easy enough to
It would be easy enough to rule out the scanner - rent or borrow a good film-specific scanner. I think my Nikon scanner has a GEM module to reduce grain; does your scanner have something similar?
- Obligatory smiley for Jack's sake :-)
No, my scanner doesn't have
No, my scanner doesn't have any grain reduction features AFAIK, but perhaps I just need to re-read the documentation.
What, no dancing banana?
Smileys are supported
Smileys are supported (though I *could* turn them off). Animated "avatars" and such crap are not. Theyr'e also one of the things on my most-objectionable list about vBulletin (e.g. advrider) fora.
- Carl
But we love those!
FSVO "we". - Carl
FSVO "we".
- Carl
Tweaked with PSP IX
Tweaked with PSP IX
Wow, you tweaked the grain
Using PSP IX - Adjust / One
Using PSP IX - Adjust / One Step Noise Removal
It makes Bob your mothers brother in a heartbeat.
Works the charm it does. You can also use Adjust /
Add/Remove Noise
What I really appreciate about PSP IX is the ability to preview very quickly on your original image or a mask thereof. I realize that PS probably does the same thing but damn, I can't swallow the $$$ price Adobe demands for CS3 (for now).
Here are two versions of the same image:
The only alteration made in the above from how it came out of the camera, is the cropping.
Noise removed
Film grain It's a good
Film grain
It's a good chance that your use of 200 ASA film was enough to start the grain ball rolling. 100 ASA or slower will crisp up the images nicely.
I did like the composition, I might crop it a little tighter (try whacking the top off just below the door hinge) and I'd probably desaturate it.
I do need to shoot with
I do need to shoot with slower ASA film. Unfortunately I have found that in the last year ASA 100 (forget anything slower) is getting very hard to find. Fred Meyer/Target don't carry it at all anymore, and even my local camera shop only stocks 12 ex. rolls.
OTOH, I have had good luck with faster film of better quality. This was shot using Kodak BW400CN, which is a chromogenic black & white film that uses C-41 processing so any 1-hour photo place can develop it.
BTW, thanks for the cropping tip! The niece photo actually is cropped from a landscape original, but I think you are right I should have cropped it a bit more.
Nice photos. I have 2
Nice photos. I have 2 suggestions about the grainy-ness
It may well be the processing place. I took a photog class along time ago. It was all film based. We went out on a night shoot as a class. I did everything "right" (according to the professor) and my shots were extremely grainy.
One other student had the same problem. The instructor looked at everything and then looked at the 2 envelopes are pic were in, they were from the same photo developer.
Some change their chemicals more often than others.
might want to change labs if this is a consistent problem.
2nd thing. Buy your film online
www.bandhphoto.com is EXTREMELY well regarded. You can buy film in bulk (either made in the US or grey market imports) of all kinds of speeds and types.
When we went to s aftrica 4 or so years ago I bought some 1600 speed film from them for my night shots. I bought all my regular speed stuff from them too.
You can also buy prepaid mailer envelopes. Drop your exposed film and mail it off to a (hopefully) quality developement lab and get your pics back in the mail. Dunno how the cost of that compares with the local place. But if I were still shooting film (and were i the US) I would give it a try for a couple of rolls to see how it works out.
artifacts like this are