Digital BW, The Print

I shoot Portra at its rated speed.

I don't remember how XP2 works; does it have the orange mask or does it look
like B&W film?  That may influence the results you are seeing.  It depends
on how the lab sets up their processing.  Color film printed as B&W will be
very low contrast; B&W film (or chromogenic that looks B&W) printed as color
will have blinding contrast.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Kobrin" <skobrin@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 14:38
Subject: [Digital BW] Portra B&W


> I have shot a few rolls of Portra after using Super XP2 regularly. It
> seems to scan very nicely, but I have two questions and an
> observation.
>
> First, I shoot XP2 at 320 rather than 400.  Is that common practice,
> or do people shoot Portra at its nominal speed of 400? Second, and
> more subjectively, XP2 has a "creamy" or flowing feeling to it that
> seems to be missing from Portra.  Has anyone else noticed that?
> Last, based on two rolls -- not a large sample -- it seems that while
> Portra scans more easily than XP2 the prints I get back from the
> processor, which I use only as contacts anyway, are more contrasty
> and have a more limited tonal range than XP2.
>
> Steve