Digital BW, The Print

I have the same issue.  I've never used artificial light for portraits, but
now I'm pressed into service to do that, in situations where available light
isn't going to work.  I use 55PN quite a bit, and after a while you get
pretty adept at judging a good neg from the underexposed print (the
Polameter).   I will say the 55PN negative is really excellent for scanning.
It should be a champion portrait film given its smooth tonal range.  Anyway,
I'm ordering a lighting outfit from Alien Bees.  I was wondering the same
thing, the quickest way to experiment with lighting.  Since it is a studio
setting, won't it work to plug a point and shoot digital camera, like the
Olympus C4000 into a notebook and get instant feedback?  Then you could
calibrate to 55PN with a flashmeter once you get the formula down, burn one
to verify that the print is indeed light, then use the film to get a great
negative.  That's probably what I'll try.

--Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Gulstene" <kevin@...>
To: <digitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 11:39 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] Little OT -- Polaroid 55


>
> I had hoped to use Polaroid's type 55 film to help me understand
> portrait lighting.  I have never really done these in a serious way and
> hoped to use the positive of the film to see the changes immediately as
> I changed the lighting.
>
> The problem is that the contrast of the positive is drastically
> different from the contrast of the negative or any negative film that I
> shoot.  So what is in the deep shadows on the positive is barely in the
> shadows on the negative.
>
> I thought polaroid film was used for proofing all the time -- is type
> 55 wrong for proofing, do people compensate in printing, or was I just
> off base to start with.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> --
> Kevin Gulstene
>
>
>
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