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Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.

Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.
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Tri-X 400 - Anastasia with Flowers
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:54 pm
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:54 pm
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Just trying to get a feel for the work flow of scanning B&W photos. Unfortunately I got considerable vignetting with the hood I was using. It is a "wide angle hood" too, I just think the lens was shot fairly wide open.
Camera: Fujica st701
Film: Tri-X 400
Lens: Mir 10A
Scanner: Canoscan 700f
Channel Mixer: 70% Blue, 20% Green, 10% Red (Blue seems to give the least noise and best contrast overall - I know this is not true on every scanner)



~Marc

Last edited by themoleman342 on Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:16 am; edited 2 times in total


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:30 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:30 pm
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Really? That bad? 50 views and no comments...hmmm guess I'm slipping...


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:44 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:44 pm
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Mir 10A:

Industar 50-2


Last edited by themoleman342 on Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:31 pm; edited 1 time in total


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:14 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:14 pm
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Hi Marc,
I like them, especially 2 & 3. I would have added more brightness, a beautiful girl deserves intensity Wink


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:57 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:57 pm
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Yeah, I agree the scanner hasn't done a great job with these. You need to clarify the photos a bit in my opinion...

Nice shots, anyways... the first one is the best with some corrections Smile


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:23 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:23 pm
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My monitor must be way off...


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:27 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:27 pm
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Best is n. 3 for me - great pose!
I like the tones you got from scanning.
portrait and B&W, a killer combination.

You have a lot of contrast in the photos, contrast is good, but it must happen in right places. Contrast in #2 is perfect, you have blacks and whites but you can still read the hair (crucial).
Contrast in #3 has slipped out of hand, it may be good (and it's actually good) on the face and in the background, but most of detail of the hair is lost and given the importance of the hair in the photo, it's not good. So my advice for #3 would be to either keep the exposure as is and dodge the hair (I would do this), or, to lower contrast on the paper, but this will have a price, you will be able to read more hair but lose "punch" in the background.


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:44 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:44 pm
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Thank you for the kind words and for the advice. I still have to get used to exposing a bit better for her hair. It is incredibly dark; almost black (something I'm not used to since every gf I've had has had red hair) and her skin is fair. I fear the shadow detail is just lost for that picture, so much so that dodging wouldn't bring much back.


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:04 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:04 pm
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themoleman342 wrote:
Thank you for the kind words and for the advice. I still have to get used to exposing a bit better for her hair.


Remember that differently from colour negative, where 90% of the times you can salvage something from dark areas when printing, with B&W negative, when black is lost is lost for good.
So when you have high contrast situation and both are important, just like the case of this photo (fair skin and black hair), your metering must take what I said above into account.

Speaking zonal, skin usually falls on zone 6, but very fair skin can fall also on zone 7. So we consider your GF's skin as zone 7.
Hair is the darkest area of your photo so it's ok to have some zone 0 in it. But only some (in the darkest area near the neck). The rest of the hair should be distributed between zone 1 and zone 2.
Currently the hair in your picture is a large part zone 0 and some zone 1.
Therefore, I'd say you would need a full stop less exposure (from now on, I'm speaking of print exposure, not film exposure) to do the hair justice. So what is now zone 1 will become zone 2, and what is zone 0 will become part zone 1 and part will stay zone 0 (this because by taking away one stop exposure the dynamic range expands in the dark areas where it was previously clipped).
Currently the face is mostly in zone 6. Which is OK. But since you say that her skin is very fair, we could accept a zone 7 for it too. So again, one stop less exposure.
As you can see, a little zonal examination helps a lot. Now we know that your picture would use one stop less light for the crucial areas (main subject). The background might suffer a but but hey, unless you're doing real fine art printing, you can accept that the background does not get priority in the exposure choices.
So I would try to make a test and give one stop less exposure to the whole photo. If you notice that the face becomes too pale, you can always add to it a little burning.

I hope this helps.
Please don't read this as criticism, only as a contribution to what I feel can be a great photo. I wrote this long text because I love your image a lot. I wish I had taken it.
If I didn't like it so much, I would have replied in two lines, or not at all. Wink


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:34 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:34 pm
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I really like that first shot, Marc! Very creative.


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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:50 am
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:50 am
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Once again Orio, many thanks for your incredible insights. Your comments are always much appreciated. The zonal system seems a worthwhile thing to take to heart, as you clearly have. I'm still learning the ins and outs of Photoshop so I hope everyone bears with me during that process. I'm slowly getting a feel for what can be fixed in PP and what can not. Some areas are just not salvageable...

Here are a couple more from that day. Sorry for the lack of diversity of content. Everything was from one roll and two lenses.




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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:54 am
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:54 am
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Eh, one more just for the hell of it.


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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:57 am
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:57 am
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First two of this last set look good, especially for the difficult lighting, but I
really like the feeling you captured in the last shot.

BTW, nice avatar, Marc! (about time Wink)


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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:54 am
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:54 am
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After this I'll stop...I swear
I know many do not like this sort of 'busy' highlight bokeh but it is actually something I look for in a lens. Most Soviet lenses have it. I believe this was the zenitar 1.7/50mm, wide open, same roll of tri-x though


And thank you!
I've been meaning to change my avatar for a while, so yes, "about time" indeed


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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:15 am
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:15 am
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The last one is the best. Nice tones and background. Thanks.


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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:32 am
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:32 am
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Of the second bunch, I like most the second picture, the one with the flower in mouth.
But my absolute favourite remains the third picture of the first bunch.
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