cadman342001 wrote:
Moving on to Tongariro NP now, still on the North Island.
3 main volcanic peaks there, Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu. Mt Ngauruhoe is Mt Doom from the LoTR films.
On the road to the ski field/village is Gollum's Pool - The Forbidden Pool in The Two Towers (Tawhai Falls) where Gollum sings his song about catching a fishy before he is tricked by Frodo and captured by Faramir and his men. (see clip)
See if you can see any resemblance to the actual location ! It is fleeting but it is the actual location. Water height, processing etc. makes it look a LOT different and they added in extra real estate !
serge07 wrote:
My bad specially since did some reading on the Shard before before positing. Original post corrected.
Fantastic series above!
Take care,
Serge
No worries Serge, made me laugh is all. I would say good to see the home land but I've probably only been to London 2 or 3 times. Just love the colours of the bridge steel, very reminiscent of the RAF roundel on the wings of a Spitfire to me !
Continued working the Z6 'scans' and the software tools.
My flow for negatives is a raw exposure with the Z6 on bellows and flash, using a 55mm 3.5. Raw is imported into LR classic to be converted into a JPG positive by negative lab pro.
A perfect negative scans well and yields a positive image with good color balance all over. An age damaged negative will produce lots of ugly artifacts in the positive image from the Z6 raw and negative lab pro software. It is not as much the damaged negative or the Z6 raw exposure, it is the way NLP analyzes the image and assigns color. There is a new 3.0 version of NLP that may improve things, keeping better color balance across frame for old negs, not released yet.
To understand how bad my Z6 >LR> NLP scans can be I went and got my old trusty, barely used, Nikon Coolscan V. I like what it does but it is soooo slowwwww
Interestingly, On1 Noise was not improving the Z6>LR>NLP images but it did improve the Coolscan a lot.
Apologies for making myself the subject, but this negative was the most challenged one available.
Here is the Z6 scan, after much post processing, there are tricks to reduce exposure contrast in NLP and improve color balance and brightness across the frame, just getting familiar with them. It is not light leaks that are damaging the rendition.
Thanks so much for sharing Rafael! Great information and convinces me not to get rid of my Coolscan regardless of how slow it is.
rafaelcasd wrote:
Continued working the Z6 'scans' and the software tools.
My flow for negatives is a raw exposure with the Z6 on bellows and flash, using a 55mm 3.5. Raw is imported into LR classic to be converted into a JPG positive by negative lab pro.
A perfect negative scans well and yields a positive image with good color balance all over. An age damaged negative will produce lots of ugly artifacts in the positive image from the Z6 raw and negative lab pro software. It is not as much the damaged negative or the Z6 raw exposure, it is the way NLP analyzes the image and assigns color. There is a new 3.0 version of NLP that may improve things, keeping better color balance across frame for old negs, not released yet.
To understand how bad my Z6 >LR> NLP scans can be I went and got my old trusty, barely used, Nikon Coolscan V. I like what it does but it is soooo slowwwww
Interestingly, On1 Noise was not improving the Z6>LR>NLP images but it did improve the Coolscan a lot.
Apologies for making myself the subject, but this negative was the most challenged one available.
Here is the Z6 scan, after much post processing, there are tricks to reduce exposure contrast in NLP and improve color balance and brightness across the frame, just getting familiar with them. It is not light leaks that are damaging the rendition.
Just outstanding images from your trip and what a great behind the scenes for LOTR fans.
G
cadman342001 wrote:
Moving on to Tongariro NP now, still on the North Island.
3 main volcanic peaks there, Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu. Mt Ngauruhoe is Mt Doom from the LoTR films.
On the road to the ski field/village is Gollum's Pool - The Forbidden Pool in The Two Towers (Tawhai Falls) where Gollum sings his song about catching a fishy before he is tricked by Frodo and captured by Faramir and his men. (see clip)
See if you can see any resemblance to the actual location ! It is fleeting but it is the actual location. Water height, processing etc. makes it look a LOT different and they added in extra real estate !
James, great captures with the 16/3.5, a very special lens.
We were having pints at the Red Lion Pub made popular by frequent patron, Charles Dickens. It was also visited by every Prime Minister through the 1970s given its proximity to the Houses of Parliament. While enjoying the moment, a cold front arrived which created an interesting sky so headed out for a few minutes to capture the scene.
It was good to see Big Ben after the lengthy restoration.
Rafael,
The first thing I notice is there is a major sharpness different between the two examples. (Nikon's Digital ICE?) When I shoot transparencies or negatives I have been using a light panel for the light source, and the EFH (Essential Film Holder) that Dean showed this thread awhile back + NLP. The reason for me was simple - Dean gets what I consider to be perfect color out of his negatives. Something that I rarely ever see from film regardless of how it was digitized. I own multiple - formerly high end - scanning hardware, and also had many very reputable commercial firms scan some of my film. The time investment alone made this the most dreaded part of digitizing my film, and the results many times were disappointing. Personally, I think Nate at NLP is a genius, because he seems to base his color profiles on the films foundation/base color (which always varies) - then accounting for that variance using LR's eye dropper tool. It is simply brilliant - IMO. I think some of the issues you are seeing "scanning" with your Z6 are light source, and how the film is being held flat. Again, just my opinion.
Enjoy the trip down memory lane
Jim
rafaelcasd wrote:
Continued working the Z6 'scans' and the software tools.
My flow for negatives is a raw exposure with the Z6 on bellows and flash, using a 55mm 3.5. Raw is imported into LR classic to be converted into a JPG positive by negative lab pro.
A perfect negative scans well and yields a positive image with good color balance all over. An age damaged negative will produce lots of ugly artifacts in the positive image from the Z6 raw and negative lab pro software. It is not as much the damaged negative or the Z6 raw exposure, it is the way NLP analyzes the image and assigns color. There is a new 3.0 version of NLP that may improve things, keeping better color balance across frame for old negs, not released yet.
To understand how bad my Z6 >LR> NLP scans can be I went and got my old trusty, barely used, Nikon Coolscan V. I like what it does but it is soooo slowwwww
Interestingly, On1 Noise was not improving the Z6>LR>NLP images but it did improve the Coolscan a lot.
Apologies for making myself the subject, but this negative was the most challenged one available.
Here is the Z6 scan, after much post processing, there are tricks to reduce exposure contrast in NLP and improve color balance and brightness across the frame, just getting familiar with them. It is not light leaks that are damaging the rendition.
Good to hear of the negative scanning experience Rafael. I still have multiple transparencies and negatives that should be scanned, can't bring myself around to it. I keep parking information like yours in the back of my mind for that one day .....
Incredible Mt Doom shot in the first pic Andy. What a cloud and color show.
Laura, thanks for showcasing the 55 again, I think it's been awhile since it's made an appearance.
Had about 10 minutes at the end of the day on Thursday with some light and opportunity with the 35-200.
Tonight's dinner is low carb "bubble & squeak". So here is a delicious meat pie Barb made November 2021, because we are on a diet now. D800 85mm f1.4 ais iso 1600
James Markus wrote:
Rafael,
The first thing I notice is there is a major sharpness different between the two examples. (Nikon's Digital ICE?) When I shoot transparencies or negatives I have been using a light panel for the light source, and the EFH (Essential Film Holder) that Dean showed this thread awhile back + NLP. The reason for me was simple - Dean gets what I consider to be perfect color out of his negatives. Something that I rarely ever see from film regardless of how it was digitized. I own multiple - formerly high end - scanning hardware, and also had many very reputable commercial firms scan some of my film. The time investment alone made this the most dreaded part of digitizing my film, and the results many times were disappointing. Personally, I think Nate at NLP is a genius, because he seems to base his color profiles on the films foundation/base color (which always varies) - then accounting for that variance using LR's eye dropper tool. It is simply brilliant - IMO. I think some of the issues you are seeing "scanning" with your Z6 are light source, and how the film is being held flat. Again, just my opinion.
I don't disagree with you James, I think Nate does an excellent Job with NLP. Implementing a setup with correct lighting and positioning of the film would get rid of most of my artifacts. I hope his version 3.0, which i bought in anticipation will help as well.
I own the problems with my negative conversion, they are mostly me; but i am disappointed that my PB-6 with slide copier and a well diffused flash are not enough. Also tried my iPhone 13 pro whatever as a light box and it gave me the same results as the flash. I will give the bulk scanning that I was hoping for a rest, and focus on getting a rig together that will actually works.
Back in the day they made a dedicated rig for copying film called a film duplicator. It was a good 35mm film body permanently attached to a heavy metal copy stand. Some had spring loaded masks, and some had hinged metal masks that held the film flat on all four sides. The Press had a beauty by Kodak, but the Honeywell is very much the same. The flash shot away from the opening - usually into a reflective white painted box that was the base of the whole rig. I tried using my enlarger negative carriers, but the lighting still wasn't even enough. The diffusion of a Raleno light panel + the diffuser on the EFH was what finally did the trick. I'd be happy to work on the jeep photo from the raw file if you want? (and document what I did)
Jim
rafaelcasd wrote:
I don't disagree with you James, I think Nate does an excellent Job with NLP. Implementing a setup with correct lighting and positioning of the film would get rid of most of my artifacts. I hope his version 3.0, which i bought in anticipation will help as well.
I own the problems with my negative conversion, they are mostly me; but i am disappointed that my PB-6 with slide copier and a well diffused flash are not enough. Also tried my iPhone 13 pro whatever as a light box and it gave me the same results as the flash. I will give the bulk scanning that I was hoping for a rest, and focus on getting a rig together that will actually works. ...Show more →
James Markus wrote:
Back in the day they made a dedicated rig for copying film called a film duplicator. It was a good 35mm film body permanently attached to a heavy metal copy stand. Some had spring loaded masks, and some had hinged metal masks that held the film flat on all four sides. The Press had a beauty by Kodak, but the Honeywell is very much the same. The flash shot away from the opening - usually into a reflective white painted box that was the base of the whole rig. I tried using my enlarger negative carriers, but the lighting still wasn't even enough. The diffusion of a Raleno light panel + the diffuser on the EFH was what finally did the trick. I'd be happy to work on the jeep photo from the raw file if you want? (and document what I did)
Jim
Thank you James, PM me your email and I will send you the best RAW of that photo as well as the Coolscan TIFF, will be very curious as to process enhancement. It is a very poor negative.
Thanks Ray, I also brought a 5.8 cm f/1.4 with me. Don't remember where I got it though... had to be somebody here I think.
pbraymond wrote:
Good to hear of the negative scanning experience Rafael. I still have multiple transparencies and negatives that should be scanned, can't bring myself around to it. I keep parking information like yours in the back of my mind for that one day .....
Incredible Mt Doom shot in the first pic Andy. What a cloud and color show.
Laura, thanks for showcasing the 55 again, I think it's been awhile since it's made an appearance.
Had about 10 minutes at the end of the day on Thursday with some light and opportunity with the 35-200.
