Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Slobo: Earlier today, I thought that you were experimenting with, and asking about ortho lith films. So my answer was based on that wrong assumption. As others have written today, you'll have a problem in that the ortho films were blue sensitive, (with a little yellow sensitivity) but not red sensitive. Accordingly, areas such as "lipsticked" lips, red ties, red wagons, and red faces will be dark gray to black on the prints that you wish to scan. When I started in photography in the very early fifties, my friends and I, (we had a pre-teen camera club in my basement) used Verichrome in our Brownie Hawkeyes and Ansco Reflexes and then developed them by inspection under a red safelight. Using this film resulted in pictures of mothers and sisters in makeup with lips that printed almost goth black. Pictures of our fathers with ruddy faces looked sort of weather beaten, especially on their cheeks. My neighbor's red 1952 Chevy printed black. Eventually Verichrome Pan arrived and could be inspection developed with a green light, which was so dim as to be close to useless. That's when we switched from tray to time and temperature developing in inexpensive plastic "Yankee" tanks. That was the brand name, not a state of mind. Anyway, the pan films made peoples faces more natural looking and red cars appeared as gray rather than black when printed. Ortho film disappeared for the most part in consumer films pretty quickly. So... I don't know how you can accomplish the "real skin tonality" that you are seeking because the information for anything red isn't there. Colors with some red in them will appear as gray rather than black but the gray won't be a true reflection of the actual color, it will be darker than it would be with a pan film because of the red in it. I think that the best that you can do is to use a tool such as the PS magic wand or the lassoo to isolated black areas which you think might have been red to lighten them, and skies which were probably blue but which are manifested as white, and darken them. I'm sure that Richard K can give you a lot more information and history about ortho film. - -- Jim - http://www.hemenway.com Slobodan Dimitrov wrote: > > Hi Jim; > This is what I have in mind. I'm planning to scan a few portraits from > the early West, and tweeze the settings so that I can see what the real > skin tonality would of been, i.e. approximately. > Slobodan Dimitrov > > Jim Hemenway wrote: > > > > Slobo: > > > > If you've already processed it in a litho type, Kodalith) developer then > > you're probably out of luck as these are extremely high contrast > > film/developer combinations. > > > > If you've not yet processed, then develop it under inspection, (red > > light) in 1:1 or 1:2 Dektol. The results will still not be panchromatic > > but rather contrasty orthochromatice... red items will appear very dark > > to black when printed. > > > > If anything can be done with PS to un-ortho it, then I'll be pleasantly > > surprised. > > -- > > > > Jim - http://www.hemenway.com > > > > Slobodan Dimitrov wrote: > > > > > > Anyone know what adjustments in PS, or any other software, can be used > > > to turn an image taken with ortho film into one that simulates the > > > tonality of pan-chromatic emulsions? > > > Slobodan Dimitrov > > -- > > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html