huw_jenkins

<p>I have been working on this, and I think that I now understand a bit more about the scanning process, but I seem to have some fundamentals missing.<br>

here is my scan, it has not been sharpened,<br>

http://www.huwjenkins.com/scan0061.jpg</p>

<p>and here is a professional lab scanned version<br>

http://www.huwjenkins.com/000002.jpg</p>

<p>Although the lab scan has a great blue background, the true color of the background was lit by a primary blue gel onto neutral mid grey, his beard, eyebrows and hair seem too cyan/green.<br>

My scan is much lighter than the lab´s, they seem to have lost all the details in the eyes. Is mine too light?</p>

<p>What I really don´t understand is why do neither of them look like this, which is what portra is advertised to look like?<br>

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/portra/160main.jhtml?pq-path=2986</p>

<p>As I am new to film, I assumed that if I choose a stock, shoot it within the recommended color temp light, then the colors would come out like the examples of that stock. What am I missing?</p>

<p>thank you everyone, and especially tom and len for showing me what can be done so quickly with the original.<br>

it has given me great food for thought, i shall explore these techniques some more</p>

<p>thanks for the replies, which encouraged me to do some probing around. i came across this tutorial<br>

http://benneh.net/blog/2008/04/21/better-colour-neg-scanning-with-vuescan/</p>

<p>so following this, i got this result.<br>

<br /> http://www.huwjenkins.com/Scan-111127-0008v1.jpg<br>

it is much better, thankfully! any suggestions to get an even more accurate scan</p>

<p>ok so i bought myself a film camera and shot myself some film. exciting stuff, well for me at least :)<br /> i shot new portra, it is not nc or vc, just called portra.<br /> so i then tried to scan it on an epson v500 using vuescan 9.<br /> there is no choice for new portra, only vc and nc</p>

<p>this is the result for vc<br /> http://www.huwjenkins.com/Scan-111127-0003.jpg<br /> this is the result for nc<br /> http://www.huwjenkins.com/Scan-111127-0005.jpg<br>

<br /> neither of them are very nice! actually to me, they look the same lol<br>

<br /> as i said, i know nothing about film, but is this really what new portra scans should look like? they are so blue, the lighting was done with speedlights, should i have gelled them to tungsten?<br /> can someone upload an ini file with good settings for portra?</p>

<p>many thanks</p>

<p>it's and aesthetic, so it will be down to individual taste. i think in the second shot of the girl looking straight to camera, her skin is fabulous, it looks like porcelain. but her eyes dont look sharp. is this due to the infrared?</p>

<p>come on, if you gave most clients the black and white picture of the kids with marbles, they'd say 'they all look so grumpy, and why do i want pictures of marbles anyhows, i just want to see my kids' lol<br>

i think it's knowing what your client wants, and giving them that.</p>

<p>many thanks, joseph, that was very clear and concise. i am going to get myself a uv light and have a play to try to understand that wavelength more fully.<br>

interestingly, david knight has taken lots of pictures of people with freckles, moles and other skin problems, so he must have found the perfect person with the skin he required.<br>

http://www.dkp.net.au/gallery.html?folio=&gallery=Portrait</p>

<p>edit. i wanted to write 'one of the best' but it won't let me edit for some reason. please dont let interfere with your answers about the lighting etc.</p>

<p>not just any exhibition, the national portrait gallery, so argue-ably (i write that because it's not necessarily my views, and don't really want to get into a discussion about which is) the best portrait gallery in the world. and yeah to me, the picture is dull, it seems to me it's playing on 'oh i'm sad i've got red hair and freckles, but no says the photographer, you're beautiful' :D so how come they think it's superb, because i figure the technique has to be something quite rare.<br /> please check out cara phillips work here, if you haven't already. now this is lit with uv.<br /> http://cara-phillips.com/images/cara-phillips-uv-147.jpg<br>

so i thought that if you combined that with a lightening the skin tone, you might create the very white freckely look.</p>

<p>thanks for these answers, have you got any examples of people you've shot with this kinda look, would love to see thanks</p>

<p>i have been trying techniques to get very light skin with lighting and filters. i am trying to work out how the image of the redhead in the link by david knight was achieved.<br>

http://cheeproductions.com/news/?p=32<br>

could it be done using ultraviolet light to bring out the freckles and a yellow or red filter to lighten the skin or am i way off the mark? i notice the highlights are quite blue, hence why i think a filter has been used and then color corrected in post.<br>

many thanks</p>

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