Ok, tried NLP and I'm sold. I started off with a "worst case" negative - expired film, extremely harsh sun and weird color casts from ambient reflections, developed in expired chemicals and ran it through. Following the directions, it took all of 5 clicks to get it 95% where I wanted it. Wowzers. Totally impressed.
Mar 01, 2019 at 10:06 PM
imagesfromobjects Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Practice outing with Minolta CLE and CV Nokton 40/1.4. Fuji Pro 400H (exp 2009) rated @ 320. All shots were between f/4 and f/5.6.
Developed with FPP C41 kit at home in the kitchen sink, pushed approx 2 stops, due to chemicals being verrrrrry old. Scanned with Epson V600 @ 3200 to a positive, inverted and treated using Negative Lab Pro Noritsu setting with Auto Density enabled. Spent literally 3 minutes as these were all in a row and pretty much the same (sh*tty) lighting. Spent another 3 minutes in LR tweaking WB and adjusting HSL sliders and voila. Far from perfect, but MUCH better than I was expecting and very impressed with how quick and simple the process was.
Interesting results out of NLP. So you’re finding it useful even with the flatbed? Epson’s software cured most of my woes with Ektar but if it can get even better... (though mostly shoot B&W now)
Got some XP2 back the other day. My first reaction was I’m never shooting this muddy crap again. But then I tried a couple simple adjustments and it came to life. Turns out the lab scanned it as color stock (since it is) which can lead to strange results? Anyway since it’s super easy to run might keep shooting it till I can home develop real B&W. Also the first stock that I’ve used that’s sharp enough to benefit from Contax lenses.
CY 139 w CY 85/2.8
Mar 02, 2019 at 08:22 AM
imagesfromobjects Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Mathieu18 wrote:
Interesting results out of NLP. So you’re finding it useful even with the flatbed? Epson’s software cured most of my woes with Ektar but if it can get even better... (though mostly shoot B&W now)
Got some XP2 back the other day. My first reaction was I’m never shooting this muddy crap again. But then I tried a couple simple adjustments and it came to life. Turns out the lab scanned it as color stock (since it is) which can lead to strange results? Anyway since it’s super easy to run might keep shooting it till I can home develop real B&W. Also the first stock that I’ve used that’s sharp enough to benefit from Contax lenses. ...Show more →
Yeah, I like your adjustments on these. I gave up BW when I figured out it's ten times easier (and much faster) to home develop C41 and just convert color stock to BW. Also, I like the romance and idea of shooting BW, but I just love color too much and I know I'd come across shots I'd wish had been in color. Go for it. though!
I really just played with NLP for 5 minutes, but it was enough to convince me the software was worth the investment. I have a few years' experience with VueScan, and am usually happy with what I can get out of it, but there are a few conditions where it feels like I'm just gambling against an algorithm- sometimes it works, sometimes it sucks. It's almost always shots with the sun in the frame, or low-key shots with dust on the negative. Throws the whole thing haywire and I've gotten very frustrated Granted, VueScan was written by one dude, and documentation is good, but there was a LOT of trial and error to get to where I am with it. That experience helped me figure out the basics of NLP pretty quickly, but I'm sure there's more to it.
NLP documentation suggests using a DSLR for the custom camera profiles, but it says you can use a flatbed if you want. I just used EpsonScan to scan the 6-frame strip as a positive, WB dropper on the unexposed areas, white and black points zeroed, export to TIFF, cuz it's very straightforward. Flatbed is fine for most of my purposes, and convenient to do 6 frames at a time. I don't have a good setup to scan with macro right now and don't foresee having the time to rig one up for a while.
I've been having my lab do my recent stuff because they have a Noritsu, and have been very accommodating to me over the years with my peculiar requests. Anymore, I've just been having them scan with "no corrections" (read: very flat, nothing clipped, desaturated) and I'll take those files and do curves in LR to bring them to life. 99% of the time, this gives great results, but $$$ adds up quick. 100 bucks for NLP seems totally worth it.
imagesfromobjects wrote:
Yeah, I like your adjustments on these. I gave up BW when I figured out it's ten times easier (and much faster) to home develop C41 and just convert color stock to BW.
I dont get this. Using Kodak HC-110, I can develop 2 rolls of 120 film, or 3 rolls of 135 in about 30 minutes time, including cleanup. Where do you find difficulty with black and white film? It takes seconds to mix 20 C water from the tap. HC-110 mixes very easily and quickly. I can't possibly see how C41 can be faster than black and white.
With a B/W "Monolbath" (there are quite a few now, including a new one from Cinestill), it literally takes 15 minutes from taking the film out of the camera to hanging negatives.
With the FPP Rapid E6 Kit (I'm sure the C41 kit is similar) it's closer to 35 minutes. Still pretty fast!
Huss - you're getting into my neck of the woods. I think Culver City probably requires them to keep what they consider historic signage. Just up the street, even though Dear John's was sold and re-named, it still has the old signage and I'm pretty sure that's what everyone still calls it.
Some night stuff and a requisite new-camera-mirror-selfie with Minolta CLE, CV 40/1.4 and expired Fuji NPH 400. Home developed and scanned, NLP treatment.
