Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/01/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 1/23/06 4:40 AM, Stein Rune Johansen at sterujo@online.no wrote: > Hello! > Is there someone outhere having experience with prints from colorpositiv > film > compared to prints from colornegative film. I am only using corlornegative > film, but sometimes get disappointed with the colorsaturation in the > prints. > Will prints from ex. Velvia 50 be more saturated? > > Stein Rune Johansen > It depends on how the prints are made. If your film is scanned and printed digitally numeraous adjustments can be made to the imge data before printing, bearing in mind the image properties lost in gaining saturation. If you increase saturation by switching to Velvia you will probably sacrifice some shadow or highlight detail, or both, because of Velvia's more limited exposure latitude. Likewise, increasing saturation in an image-editing program like Photoshop probably will sacrifice some tonal gradation. I find that for the best combination of saturation and tonal gradation for a particular film you should use a camera lens that produces a minimum of flare. Even when bright lights are not within the picture area, light reflecting off the lens surfaces can reduce the color saturation. In some lenses this effect is negligible and in other lenses the difference is significant. As a rule of thumb a lens with more air/glass surfaces will be more likely to flare than one with fewer, everthing else being equal (which they rarely are). Also a multi-coated lens is less likely to flare than an older single-coated or uncoated lens. There are exceptions to this rule-of-thumb and neither multi-coating nor fewer air/glass surfaces is a universal panacea, but theses are things optical engineers consider when designing a lens. Always use an appropriate lens hood to minimize stray light's influence on your pictures. Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://www.wildlightphoto.com