Digital BW, The Print

Anthony, I agree 100%; _if_ you are willing to accept the unknowns about
image permanence with this film (will it last refrigerated?).    As nearly
as I can tell, it is a true 400 speed.This image was taken at f1.5 handheld,
1/30.    Based on memory, it captured what was there.
www.kencarney.com/sanctuary_chimayo_window.htm

  --Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2003 4:08 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] Portra 400BW example


> I was very lukewarm about chromogenic B&W for quite a while, but I've
> discovered that Kodak Portra 400BW, at least, isn't bad at all (I haven't
> tested others enough to say).
>
> I went out one chilly evening and took some shots by the river with a
tripod
> and a 6x6 MF camera, on Portra 400BW.  I recall using exposures of several
> seconds so that I could get some decent DOF.
>
> Here's one example that surprised me:
>
> http://www.mxsmanic.com/stairs.jpg
>
> The shot surprised me for several reasons:
>
> 1. Portra 400BW is extremely sharp.
>
> 2. The film also has amazingly fine grain, particularly for an ISO 400
film.
>
> 3. It scans extremely well.
>
> 4. This shot had a lot of stark contrast.  I was surprised and pleased to
> see that Portra 400BW had a great deal of headroom for manipulation, in
both
> shadows and highlights.  I was able to pull rich detail from both
> (seemingly) blocked shadows and blown highlights, making them look very
nice
> indeed, with no perceptible increase in noise or grain.  This allowed me
to
> reduce the contrasts and come up with a very balanced image that shows
> detail in just about every corner.  Note the subtle shadows on the water
> surface, the details in the shadows on the wall on the right, and the
detail
> in the highlight just opposite the lamp--much of that was extracted with
> Photoshop.  It was wonderful to be able to goof around with shadows and
> highlights and just see boatloads of extra detail waiting to be extracted.
>
> 5. This film handles a much wider range of light intensities than I
> expected--i.e., it's a lot closer to B&W range than I at first thought it
> might be.  I didn't expect chromogenic B&W to hold contrast so well.
>
> 6. Portra 400BW seems to work extremely well for night shots, just the
> opposite of what I had expected.
>
> This scan is extremely sharp.  For a full-size excerpt from the original
> scan, see
>
> http://www.mxsmanic.com/stairs1.jpg
>
> This was at 4000 dpi, and the grain is still hard to see in most of the
> image.  Fine details in the stone stand out.  I'm not sure where I had the
> focus set for this shot, as I set focus to maximum DOF rather than to
target
> any specific detail.  Most of the area near the lamp is very sharp,
though.
>
> Now, what I'd really like is to be able to get an image that looks like
this
> on paper, with a dedicated B&W ink-jet printer.  How close could I come?
> Since this is MF an A3 enlargement would be easy to prepare.
>
> I have two other unusually successful examples of this film, one in MF and
> one in 35mm, but I accidentally overwrote the scans and I have to rescan
one
> of them first.
>
> Portra 400BW, in summary, seems to be a kind of poor man's Tech Pan for
me,
> as it has almost the same fine grain, and almost the same resolution, but
it
> is much faster and does not require special B&W development.  It does have
a
> kind of flat rendering like one sees in all truly panchromatic B&W films,
> but in these night shots, that doesn't seem to be an issue (sometimes it
> flattens day shots, though).
>
>
>
>
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