DSLR & Film latitude

Dominik Muench · June 24, 2005

Hi,

asa lot of you guys have mentioned before it is helpfull to take a digital slr ons et, setting the cameras to the same iso and aperture as your filmcam and get a preview shot of your scene, my question is, how cloes does that picture get to what ends up on film ? i know that digital slrs have a fairly wide range and keep a lot of detail in the shadows but how similar are those two formats exactly ?

Tim J Durham · June 24, 2005

Hi,
asa lot of you guys have mentioned before it is helpfull to take a digital slr ons et, setting the cameras to the same iso and aperture as your filmcam and get a preview shot of your scene, my question is, how cloes does that picture get to what ends up on film ? i know that digital slrs have a fairly wide range and keep a lot of detail in the shadows but how similar are those two formats exactly ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If I were going to try to get a repeatable way to match them exactly, I'd start by shooting a chroma chart with the film cam under studio conditions (repeatable), process it all the way into FCP on my powerbook, then from that image on my powerbook, I start shooting test frames under the same studio conditions and work my photoshop settings until I got them to match side-by-side when I import the Digital still into my timeline AND keep good notes on settings.

Then you have a set relationship between your film cam and the DSLR as long as you take your powerbook on your shoots to look at the digital stills in FCP. Sounds like alot of trouble, though.

June 24, 2005

Doesn't Kodak make some software specifically for this?

Alvin Pingol · June 24, 2005

Kodak Look Manager System:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products...=0.1.4.16&lc=en

Sorry John! ;)

Edited June 24, 2005 by Alvin Pingol

Stuart Brereton · June 25, 2005

I posted recently about having done this on a promo shoot. I've just done the same again today. I take stills with my Canon EOS 10D, then view them on my laptop. If we have time, i might put them through Photoshop, just to give the director (and Client) a rough idea of what it will look like graded.

I find it an invaluable tool, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of a shoot.

That said, I know that it has far more contrast than Film Neg, and that my highlights will not reproduce faithfully. It's useful mostly as a backup. If it looks OK on a digital still, then you know that it will be fine on your neg.

Dominik Muench · June 25, 2005

yes i thought so thanks.

i am trying the look manager software at the moment :)

Stuart: thanks, i saw youre from the UK, hows the work situation over there at the moment ?

Stuart Brereton · June 25, 2005

Here are some stills from the shoot today. I'll try to post up the actual screengrabs, so that you can see how they compare.

Dominik Muench · June 25, 2005

nice shots, what were they for ?

John Pytlak RIP · June 25, 2005

Many wedding photographers still prefer film to digital cameras, because film's much greater latitude helps capture fine detail in extreme highlights like lace and jewelry. My daughter's wedding photographer insisted on using film for her upcoming wedding: B)

http://www.thombell.com/

(Remember, these are scanned images displayed on a computer, so you don't see the detail he showed us in the prints).