400 ASA grain..?

[Yardbent]

not too pleased with the last roll of B&W landscapes for TP Day
Developed and scanned by PhotoExpress...no problems

Canon A-1 with FDn 35-105mm....with Hoya Orange filter
Fuji Neopan 400CN

compared to my ''street' shots with 400CN in Nikon F3 with 50mm/1.8
this roll seems to lack impact/contrast

with beginner PP skills - best I can do.....:shrug:
what bothers me, is the grain when resized and USM to 1024 for posting
and ''if'' i get a good one - i want it printed BIG
so - for low contrast/landscapes should i be using eg 100ASA - if so, any suggestions.?

PhotoExpress only dev/scan C41 film so - any suggestions for a lab [ not super-pro prices..]

''But Full of Memories''
.

 

[excalibur2]

erm....with all that greenery the house would have stood out if in colour.

 

[menthel]

I think the lack of contrast is because of the subject. The majority of the picture seems to give similar levels of grey. the only bits greatly different are the white sky and the trees in shade on the right. Perhaps it just wasn't the right subject for B&W? Either that or the weather and light conditions were all wrong.

 

[robhooley167]

sometimes an orange filter is a bit too strong for landscapes, yellow is often just right for putting a bit of contrast in, it depends on the colour sensitivity of the film.

As for pro labs, have a look at CCImaging, they do everything and some of their prices are pretty good

 

[Yardbent]

erm....with all that greenery the house would have stood out if in colour.

thanks
i'm doing an abandoned building 'thing' in B&W .... i'll look for better compositions

 

[Yardbent]

Either that or the weather and light conditions were all wrong.

it was indeed a dull overcast day ....thanks

 

[CT]

This shot looks like it's showing digital over-sharpening rather than grain John.

 

[Yardbent]

sometimes an orange filter is a bit too strong for landscapes, yellow is often just right for putting a bit of contrast in, it depends on the colour sensitivity of the film.

As for pro labs, have a look at CCImaging, they do everything and some of their prices are pretty good

thanks ...learning ..i do have a yellow but tried orange to darken the sky...:bonk:

perhaps should have used my ND Grad..?

 

[Yardbent]

This shot looks like it's showing digital over-sharpening rather than grain John.

thanks - could well be true....still learning Elements 7

when I reduced the image to 1024 to post, then a little USM, I did see the bare rafters at 45deg angle had become 'stepped'

is that the right term..?

 

[AJQS]

Hmm. Well the contrast looks ok, but it does apear to have just had the old auto levels set at the lab for the scan. Perhaps ask them for a rescan with no processing and then play with the levels/curves yourself in PP?

 

[Yardbent]

Hmm. Well the contrast looks ok, but it does apear to have just had the old auto levels set at the lab for the scan. Perhaps ask them for a rescan with no processing and then play with the levels/curves yourself in PP?

used PhotoExpress ...and for £5 dev/scan to CD, I dont think there's enough profit margin to do 'custom' stuff.

 

[TheBigYin]

Well - I tend to process and scan my own stuff, so not everything I'm likely to add is going to be appropriate, but, my initial thoughts were that as per CT's post - it looks more like oversharpening than grain. Most of the chromagenic B&W's are probably smoother in grain terms than the default 400iso normal B&W e.g. HP5+. Problem is most dev and scan packages are aimed towards giving a "print ready" shot - much the same as a .jpg file from a DSLR. This means they've already had a good dose of the sharpening stick before you open them. I'd stick with the scans your getting at the moment, but use them to decide which ones you really want a better scanned version of. Then find somewhere that uses a dedicated film scanner to provide as high a quality scan as you can get, preferably output in 16 bit TIF format, and use that as your "Digital Negative" for any further manipulation. Can't recommend anywhere local to you off hand, but my local lab CC Imaging would probably be able to help.

 

[Knikki]

thanks ...learning ..i do have a yellow but tried orange to darken the sky...:bonk:

perhaps should have used my ND Grad..?

An ND grad may have helped but if it is a dull overcast day then you are going to struggle with bland skies.

An orange filter I think has worked with this as you have some nice contrast in the building BUT and orange filter, like a red one, will only darken the sky when it is blue

Grain looks ok when I clicked on it.

 

[CT]

thanks - could well be true....still learning Elements 7

when I reduced the image to 1024 to post, then a little USM, I did see the bare rafters at 45deg angle had become 'stepped'

is that the right term..?

They usually call those stepped lines 'jaggies', but 'aliasing' is the correct term, although 'jaggies' works for me.