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Alamy with Analog camera's


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5 hours ago, MDM said:

 

I'm afraid that image would not have any chance of passing Alamy QC. The main issues are noise and lack of sharpness as well as some chromatic aberration. If you sharpen it you will increase the noise. You have very few options as you are not working on a raw image as you could be if using a digital camera.

 

Agreed, too much CA and noise. I suspect the original film image just isn't good enough. Changing to a better scanner or processing is, in my opinion, unlikely to rescue this one for Alamy QC levels.

 

Mark

 

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I have to step up when people have written that 35mm Chromes are not "sharp enough"  My chromes are

sharp and have been for decades.  I also shot either slow E-6 or K-14 with what was high-end equipment at the

time.  I now only work with NIKON D800's and ED NIKKOR's and I do pay close attention to my f stop.

 

In my own opinion comparing film to Digital is a waste of time, but trying to scan 35 on a Canon Flatbed is as

well.  There are many great images shot over the decades that might not pass a full on Alamy QC, that is why

Alamy has made another option available for historically important images.

 

Scanning 35mm film is difficult and time consuming to do well, that is why I have not done it for years.  It is also

not worth the time it takes unless you have a really important image (s).

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1 hour ago, Chuck Nacke said:

I have to step up when people have written that 35mm Chromes are not "sharp enough" 

 

I can't see where anybody has said that and I agree with you - that would be an incorrect statement. It's not that film is intrinsically unsharp, it's the end result after digitising even with a decent prosumer film scanner that is poor in comparison to the results from a decent DSLR with a decent lens, never mind an excellent DSLR with an excellent lens. I used to have to apply very strong unsharp masking after scanning my Velvia slides shot on Nikon 35mm SLRs with Nikkor prime lenses on the Nikon LS4000 which made them very noisy. These print fine up to A3 size but they look terrible on the computer monitor in comparison to anything I have shot on Nikon DSLRs - D700 or D800 series cameras. I can get better (as sharp with less noise) results now shooting at ISO800-1600 on a D8xx camera than on my LS4000 with Velvia slides. Life has moved on. 

 

 

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When I joined Alamy in March of 2014, the minimum standard for resolution was eight megapixels. The initial submission was four images, for which I submitted two digital captures and two scans. The MF scan was fine but the 35mm tripod-exposed Velvia scanned on a Canoscan FS4000US film scanner failed. Since then I haven't had any QC failures, but also haven't submitted any 35mm scans except for old images with some historical value that couldn't be photographed today on digital.

 

The thing I wonder is whether the reduced resolution requirement, now at six megapixels, would make the difference. I'm too much of a nervous Nellie to just throw them at the wall to see what sticks, so I haven't tested it.

 

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I'm glad to hear of a student discovering the joy of photography through film; go the whole hog and try B&W printing in a darkroom. I still prefer the physical presence of a slide or print in the hand or arranged on a lightbox. Those of us who have an archive of earlier work have had to find ways of converting to digital, but I really can't think there is much to be said for starting out that way especially as a relative youngster. You have enough to learn just getting results out of a digital camera without throwing in learning to scan from film or prints.

 

You still have not said if you are hoping to convert from slides, or negatives or prints. It does matter! But I wouldn't encourage any of those things. I threw in the "analog" towel several years ago with many regrets.

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