Jumping in late on this, I have consistently been disappointed with
prints from the local pro lab. They do great work and have very skilled
operators who have been there for years, but their "machine" and choice
of paper consistently blow out the highs and the lows, probably because
most consumers like punchy prints. Without a Black and a White point
(Ken the Ag Schnozz's point some time ago) people see pictures as too
flat. Hence the bias toward a hard black and a hard white at the
expense of blowing out some colors in the print. Scanning and printing
myself can often recover the lost subtlety. I would also somewhat agree
with Wayne H that to get increased tonal subtlety you need a higher
contrast film, which will give more film density change for subtle
changes in color. See for example the comparison of E100VS and Supra
100 at:
<http://www.normankoren.com/zonesystem.html>
However, (Picking on minute differences... and lighting can make a
greater difference...) it can be carried too far with regard to the
very saturated films RVP and E100VS. For example see the blue sky
comparison between Velvia and 100F at
<http://www.dl-c.com/Velvia%20vs%20Provia
0.000000/Velvia%20vs%20Provia
0.000000.html>
Provia 100f is less contrasty and can potentially provide smoother
gradations. These are subtle differences and one of the tradeoffs
between higher sharpness and smooth tonal gradation that film
emulsions make.
But in the end, it seems to me that most decent print or slide film
should be able to capture the yellow orange gradation in the flower.
The only other thing I can think of is that the color gamut of the
print does not cover those colors well? I'm of the opinion that the new
epson 2200 with ultrachrome inks has a wider gamut than color print
papers. But then I have more control when printing myself.
Wayne
At 07:37 PM 9/6/2002, Wayne H wrote:
> I think most people are "barking up the wrong tree" with this
> problem. I think you should use one of the contrasty & saturated
> films like Velvia, E100VS, with FLAT lighting these films will
> actually emphasise the subtle colour difference you see but haven't
> been able to record.
> ...Wayne
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