[filmscanners] Re: Ethics of digital manipulation

["Tris Schuler" <tristanjohn@mindspring.com>]

>Actually, personally, As nice as these wallpaper images are, I prefer
>Anthony's B&W "misc", particularly his street images.  I found Paris was
>amazing for street photography.  I have some very unusual images I took
>around the G. Pompidou (Sorry, if that's misspelled) Centre.
>Unfortunately, at the time I was working with medium high speed Fuji
>negative color film and the grain is the size of ping-pong balls on
>many.  That area attracts the strangest mix of artists and "odd people"
>(not necessarily one in the same)...  I think if I lived in Paris, I
>would be shooting tons of B&W street scenes.

This must have been some time ago, before the advent of Fujipress
emulsions, then. Now I'm _told_ that Fujipress is just Superia cut from the
middle of the run, but I don't know. First of all it's just hearsay, and
secondly my eyes tell me there's a difference in the way Fujipress 1600 and
800 render color than anything I've captured with Superia. I use the latter
emulsion and have no hesitation to do so in the street, but even with that
consumer film grain is never been an issue. I do _not_ use Superia at
night, however; for that kind of work I go with either a slow film such as
Konica Impresa 50, Reala 100 or Portra 160, or back to a faster pro
emulsion yet such as one of the Fujipress offerings, or maybe Supra 800 and
Royal 1000 from Kodak. Just depends on what I'm after (and also what I
happen to have loaded in the bodies I've with me at the time).

As for grain with Fujipress: the 1600 will show ugly grain in difficult
light situations _particularly if you have underexposed for the shadows_,
but then that's a known issue with negative films. The Fujipress 800,
however, is extremely fine-grained and if you don't believe me just try it
yourself. That is one very capable film emulsion. I often use the faster
stuff just because I work so much hand-held in pitch dark and need the
extra stop, even with my fastest lens (an f/1.2 50mm), and as long as I
don't underexpose it the results are okay. The 800 stuff, though, is a
better all-around film hands down.

For work in broad daylight I can't see how grain would be an issue for the
even the fastest Fuji consumer or pro films, unless you want to enlarge
your images to poster size, but for that final end you've no business
shooting 35mm to begin with.

One more thing re grain: it doesn't bother me as a rule. Of course I grew
up with Tri-X, the old emulsion with larger grain, so anything nowadays
appears to be almost micro-grained to these old eyes. Then again, grain can
actually add something to the piece in its own right. It doesn't always
work right, but often enough does.

Finally, I go out of my way to include overhead wires, telephone poles,
partial roof lines, bright street lamps and whatnot in my day and night
shots. That's all part of the street venue and I feel it ought to be
included to capture the authentic ambience. Plus it all adds to the tension
of the scene, an element I'm avidly after.

Tris

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