Leica Flowers in my garden

NJH,

FWIW, I see a faint, soft, horizontal line completely across each frame in the same location in all three pictures. You can see it just above the right flower on #1, almost at the level of the heart of the flower in #2, and through the very tip of the flower bud on the far left in #3.

Is there something going on mechanically, i.e., film or scanner related? Or is it explainable as a case of my older eyeballs?

Regards,

Ed B.
 
Yeah its on several frames unfortunately, like a thin faint band. I need to inspect the negatives to determine if its on the negative or just the scan. I doubt its a scanner flaw though as its only on the last several frames of that roll I have seen this effect.

TBH I don't know how I feel about some of the odd defects you can end up with on film, I have seen tiny little 'holes' in the image many times, some times a little hair or two on B&W scans, on both C-41 and B&W sometimes odd little patches where it looks like the chemistry didn't work quite right. It was disappointing actually that on several frames of another roll there where large spots where the fix/wash stages haven't been done right, it surprised me as the first roll of B&W they did for me was so perfect it was like a mega clean dev and scan of C-41. Since I am shooting so much B&W now and have utterly fallen in love with Fuji Acros, just look at those tones! I should really look at getting the kit to dev and scan B&W myself.

I don't want to offend anyone but I have severely mixed feelings about C-41 colour, I have shot 3 rolls of Portra 400 now, some Ektar and several rolls of Agfa Vista and I think to be honest for colour I would rather use my M8. For B&W though its film all the way for me, just love it, its shots like the first one above, that is literally what the scan looked like when it came back me.
 
NJH,

> I need to inspect the negatives

Don't quote me, but IIRC scratches in file emulsion would appear as black lines and very crisp, These are light and soft. Hence, my guess that it is not a problem with the film or with the camera's film transport system. I don't think it is a minute pinhole in the fabric shutter material because the streak goes the full width of the frame. A close look at the negs will be informative. Let us know what you find out. As for the rest of your note, dealing with scanning negs is what made me go digital, and I've never looked back.

Ed B.
 
If you're going to shoot B/W and you have any time, go for the film development kit. You'll need the no-light bag or a prepared darkroom, but it's worth it.

Great pics, too. Wonderful what the B/W and film can add. :)
 
dealing with scanning negs is what made me go digital, and I've never looked back.

Ed B.

Ed, scanning B&W doesn't worry me that much its the colour that would worry me and on this the lab is really really good. The C-41 scans look spot on in terms of colour balance to me but I found that after hating having to fiddle with M8 DNG files in ACR a lot I got used to it and could work about 5x faster to the point that it really doesn't bother me that much any more, therefore I am not seeing much of an advantage for my personal tastes in C-41 colour film compared to M8 digital only disadvantages in terms of acutance, the contrast and resolving of fine subtle details in particular flowers just isn't there in C-41 print film. I guess its why portrait photographers like Portra so much as it just blurs away all that stuff. I have see more adjustment latitude with an M8 DNG than a colour JPEG scan from C-41 as well in that large shadow/highlight/midtone alterations quickly look like horridly digital images. Even with the B&W scans probably my most often go to control is the lighting one for shadow/highlight and mid tone adjustment. The first one above is the only one that hasn't had some of that done by me.

I quite like the B&W output from the M8 but it just can't compete for me with Fuji Acros, I utterly love the stuff. I just have to settle on 400 and higher speed film to partner it.
 
Back
Top