Bracketing C-41 Film?

[eigtball]

Hello all,

 

Another message inspired me to ask this question. If I am

bracketing (1/3 stop, 1/2 stop, 1 stop, etc) for the exposures.

When the film is processed, would the Fuji Frontier machine, and the

operator correct for the under/over exposures? Would I have to

indicated to them to do no correction? Thats it.

 

Cheers,

[EricM]

First shoot, (with a spot meter on an 18% grey card or incident meter without), a Kodak grey scale chart, or a Macbeth colour chart, on the first few frames at the box speed of the film. Then after a successful calibration between your charts and the first few prints from these frames, ask for no further adjustments for the remaining frames. You might freak them out, and you might get more attention to detail on your future visits too.

[bill_tuthill]

Depending on the film type, bracketing negatives 1/3 stop

seldom makes much difference. I get more usable bracketings at

+1 +.5 and 0 with most print films (most of which have more

overexposure than underexposure latitude). And yes I can see

some difference in shadow detail on the prints, especially at +1.

Overall however this is a waste of time and it's better just to

use a spot meter, or expose for the shadows as Steve Levine often recommends.

[EricM]

�or expose for the shadows�

 

This is correct advice, but with it, it should include it�s reasoning and meter methods, and should state that it does not include E-6 use. For the average person using in camera �matrix� metering, on average lit scenes, it�s non applicable.

 

Sean, I re-read your post, and my answer. I failed to take into account if you are doing this for a particuliar exercise in exposure results or not? I assumed you were.

[eric friedemann]

Per Bill and Eric, I have never obtained a useful color neg by underexposing. If you are going to bracket, do so at 0, +.5 and +1.

[gareth_harper]

You should not have to bracket colour neg film. It's pretty bullet proof stuff. I usually rate colour neg film as follows, 160asa @ 125asa, 200asa @ 160asa, 400asa @320 asa, 800asa @ 640asa.

If anything colour neg film likes some over-exposure rather than under-exposure, some people for instance rate 400asa colour neg at 200asa and give it a standard process. It's got massive lattitude, you have to miles out to screw it up.

 

However I often routinely bracket colour slide and B&W neg film +/- 1 stop with the execption of films like XP2 which are basically B&W colour films so again bullet proof.

[eigtball]

The reason that I ask is because I shot a few sun sets, and I wanted to get the colors right. I shot (Partial Metering the sky), and bracketed +1 and -1 stop. I looked at the pictures and there is only slight variation. I wonder if any correction was done, and should I just ask for no correction with my lab?

 

Anwsers are informative. I love learning.

 

Cheers,

[EricM]

Sean, I think it�s time for you jump into the world of slide film. Try the Velvia 50 for such sunset shots. I don�t necessarily recommend this for print results, but for learning how to read scenes and exposing for such.

 

By the time you bracket enough on c-41 to notice a difference at the machine print level, your prints will more than likely look like crap. The latitudes of both print and negative film together allow for such a discrepancy, that by the time you exceed these boundaries, your image will look grainy and lack contrast.

 

I use a colour darkroom in my city that rents by the hour. Once familiar with printing colour from c-41 negs, your correctly exposed negs are a pleasure to work with.

 

Enjoy. Experiment. Deviate.

[James G. Dainis]

"<I>I looked at the pictures and there is only slight variation. I wonder if any correction was done, and should I just ask for no correction with my lab? </I>"<P>

 

Look at the negatives. Getting the correct exposure or increasing the exposure is all about recording those exposures on the film. Unless you are using Polaroid. <P>

 

"Why do my pictures of a snowman on a snow bank all come out looking gray?" will get the automatic response to open up about two stops before taking the picture. Never mind that one used an incident light meter, gray card, Sunny 16 rule and metered off one's hand and opened up one stop and the negative looks perfect. <P>I once took some pictures of surfers using an incident light meter to determine my exposure. The manual exposure settings were never changed since the light never changed. All the negatives had the same density and yet the photos in which there was a lot of white water were much darker. That was done in the printing. Yet anyone looking at that print would say, "You should have opened up one stop" not "They printed these too dark".

[bill_tuthill]

Sunsets are a good use for bracketing.

With print film you probably want to bracket at least 1 stop

both under and over, possibly also 1/2 stops,

and use Reala or 100UC (when available) for fine grain.

[gareth_harper]

I agree with James you need to look at the negative and see if the detail you want is where you want it on the neg.

Slide film is another option, probably a better choice for sunsets. Sensia 100 is great stuff and much cheaper than say velvia.

The other thing is that machine prints are just that. To bring out the best in your photos you need some sort of manual finnishing, whether via a film scanner or traditional printing.

 

The best way to get stunning results at home these days from colour film is by using a film scanner, setting it all up with photoshop and printing out on an inkjet printer.