From: Bob Kiss (bobkiss@caribsurf.com)
Date: 04/15/00-02:53:30 PM Z
DEAR BOB ET AL.
Forgive me, it has been a long time since I have taken a densitometer to
a transparency but I recall that E-6 films can have a density of nearly 3.0
in their black (D-max) areas and rather low base plus fog yielding a rather
long density range of up to 2.8, which translates to a transmittance ratio
of more than 160:1
This is one of the reasons that we former advertising & fashion
photographers used chromes instead of prints. Firstly, color prints are one
more step away from a camera original image (which a chrome is). Secondly,
color prints have MUCH more limited density range and lower sharpness and
color saturation, whether qualitative or quantitative, because of the
turbidity of the gelatin (through which the light must pass TWICE instead of
once for chromes) and diffuseness of the reflective substrate (baryta and
paper).
But I digress. Back to the density range of E-6 chromes. Those of us
who shot for photomechanical reproduction (magazines, catalogues) had to be
careful not to have chromes which had too great a density range for that
rather narrow range printed medium.
I also converted chromes to B&W negs from time to time using first
Plus-X then T-max 100 and a flatfield lens on my 4X5. Due to the density
range of the chromes I usually had to do a bit of the "Over expose-under
develop" act to make a neg that held good separation in both highlights and
shadows....of course depending on the chrome.
One rather entertaining catch was that a brilliant looking chrome (often
due to contrasts in hue and saturation rather than value/tone/density) was
actually rather flat in terms of density range.
In summary, I greatly prefer to shoot B&W negative film...it is MUCH
easier and, by eliminating the additional image degrading optical and
chemical steps, yields more beautiful negatives (IMHO) that I prefer to
print. However, I defer to James' point that, if you have a wonderful image
on a chrome that you feel would work beautifully as an alt monochrome print,
do what you must...the end result is really the point.
CHEERS!
BOB KISS
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