Originally posted by skyer To be honest, I don't like a colour rendition of many film shots I see. The main reason of this is because of a poor scanning. Images look like they are from Instagram. To me, such images don't have almost any advantages in comparison to applying different film like presets to digital images. Most people shoot on negative film and it's hard to get really good scans from them. That's why I want to move to shooting slides.
Originally posted by skyer I also thought that Ektar would deliver me great colours but in reality the scans I got from the lab have very poor colours.
I finally quit using lab scans because of poor overall quality (grainy with lots of artifact) and poor consistency.
Originally posted by Swift1 I tend to agree, except that with some work and understanding, you can get good scans from color negative films. Slide films are simpler because you don't need to deal with the inversion and color interpretation that involves.
I'd take Kodak Ektar over slide film any day, if I had to choose only one.
I am with Colton. Slide film brings its own set of issues (poor dynamic range for one) while the better negative films can provide very gratifying results.
Originally posted by cooltouch Ektar is an excellent film, but the main reason why I don't like using it is it doesn't scan or duplicate well. Scanning it with my Epson 4990, earth colors, like a light brown, scan as purple. yuck.
If you are getting a magenta tint with Ektar 100, it is because of poor exposure and/or poor processing. In my experience, Ektar 100 is less forgiving of exposure deviation than many other C-41 films. My experience (lifted from an earlier thread
HERE) has been:
Over-exposure- Significant decrease in contrast, particularly in bright colors
- Loss of color saturation
- Loss of highlight transitions in the reds in bright light at even +1 over
- Insignificant color shift
- +1 provides a nice boost in shadow detail
Under-exposure- Significant increase in contrast, again the affect is more pronounced with bright colors
- Exaggerated saturation
- Significant color shift towards the magenta end
- Insignificant increase in highlight texture
I generally shoot at box speed or +1/3 stop over and recommend no more that 1/2 stop over box speed.
I also got picky about my labs. When I first started shooting Ektar, I had several rolls with color shifts, poor contrast, and bad grain. My Ektar work improved immensely when I quit using Costco and the drug store. They were not as careful with machine maintenance or replenishment as they should. I get the same price per roll from the pro lab and much more consistent results.
I don't believe this one looks like instagram:
Steve