Re: Contrast range of B&W slides?, was Re: Direct negatives from slides

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From: Carl Weese (cweese@earthlink.net)
Date: 03/25/01-11:04:42 AM Z


>
> What contrast range (stops) is possible with reverse processed Technical
> Pan (or Tmax100), seems to me that the range must be higher than the
> mentioned 3 stops for chrome film
>

Maybe not. It's the reversal itself, I think, that results in limited range.
Also, the range of the chrome depends a bit on how you use it. In the 'old
days' when slides were reproduced by process cameras, it was customary to
shoot Kodachrome about half a stop under the rating: this gave the
highlights more density and the copy camera could 'dig in' and get a lot of
detail in the darker areas. So could seps for dye transfer. Now that
everything is scanned, films have become slower. That's because the scanner
can get good information from thin highlights that would have been
considered burned out in the old days, but can't reach anywhere near as deep
into the shadows as we expected from old-fashioned repro techniques.

btw, I was referring to a 1:3 *lighting ratio*. The reflectance range is
longer than that, something like two and a third stops above middle gray and
three stops below. Well, not three stops below any more, as noted above.

---Carl


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