Digital Journey Update 1: Re-evaluation of Film Type Choices.
I began to think about what I wrote earlier about Fuji's film types and how to choose what I wanted as I try and make the best choice to mimic my film experience. I realized that I was being a bit stupid. I picked Provia because... Actually, I think because it was near the top of the menu, and I like Provia film. But in reality, if it is a good mimic of slide film it will be in some ways restricted. Probably by killing shadow tones. I have this great sensor why would I pick something that would limit dynamic range?
As I said I am trying to avoid all of the extra work required to process RAW files for most of my work. so, I looked through the choices again as I was walking Mollie. I was thinking I probably want the qualities of a negative film instead of a chrome film.
They have a few negative film profiles, but the best seems to be Pro Neg Std which in the camera description saws 'best for editing'. There it is right in front of me. I took a few test shots and indeed what I suspected was true. The Provia 'STD' setting produced more saturated images and the histograms are biased towards the shadow end of the distribution. I have probably been losing shadow detail whenever I used it. Below is an example.
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| Provia Film Profile |
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| Pro Neg Std Profile (note reduced saturation and contrast) |
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| Provia Left Pro Neg Std Right Histograms |
I played with the saturation and level on the Pro Neg version and found on Photoshop Elements if I increased the saturation by +20 I got a very close result to the Provia version. On levels if I raised the black floor by 14 LSBs I could match the contrast/crushed blacks of the Provia version.
I hope this leaves me a step closer to a useful workflow.
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