Re-scanning some Ektachrome

Last year I treated myself to a roll of Kodak’s re-issued Ektachrome film. I shot the whole roll at a steam rally (none of those this year, sadly 😦 ) and was looking forward to the results. Unfortunately, they weren’t what I expected – or, at least, my scans weren’t.

The slides themselves looked pretty nice. One or two of them were a little off on the exposure and looked a a bit dark, but nothing extreme, and the colours looked great. When I scanned them though, the colours were off and the levels were out considerably. Lots of deep contrast and strange, oily tones to the more vivid colours. Shadow areas lacked detail and I had to adjust the Tint and Temperature controls to make them look halfway decent. Some of them were beyond even this rectification though (or at least my skills to correct it).

The scans were made on my Plustek 8100 and Silverfast, a scanner and software that serves me perfectly well for most of the other things I scan – although this is primarily black and white. I did the best I could with them and posted some to Flickr, and a few on this blog (here, here, here & here), but otherwise wrote them off as a bit of a disappointment.

Recently however, I’ve had a hankering to shoot some more slide film, and shot a roll of 17-years expired Ektachrome the other week which gave surprisingly nice results. Not perfect, but more than I could have hoped for given the age of the film and my scanning it using Epsonscan – a package that I’ve always struggled to get satisfactory colours with (again, probably due to my skills with it as much as anything else).

So, I decided to revisit my 35mm Ektachrome slides for a fresh attempt. This time I tried something different.

Back before I bought my Plustek, I’d tried some alternative scanning applications to see if I could improve my colour scans on my Epson V550. One of those was Silverfast, the other was Vuescan. Silverfast software is linked to your scanner, so the copy I have for my Plustek won’t work on my Epson (something I dislike – If I buy a piece of software, I’d like it to work with different pieces of hardware thank you. It came with the Plustek though, so I’ll not complain too much). Vuescan however, will work with anything you own and has free lifetime updates if you buy the Pro version. As I still had the demo version, I decided to try it with my Plustek and the Ektachrome transparencies.

Lo and behold, the results looked much more promising than the scans I’d managed with Silverfast. I was pretty happy about this and, as Vuescan is discounted at present, decided to fork out for the full, non-watermarked version and give my Ektachromes a fresh attempt.

It took a bit of trial and error, but I think I’ve found a setup that does a good job on them. Certainly an improvement over the original scans to my eyes, so I thought I’d publish a few examples here today. I think the new scans are a noticeable improvement – a lot of the horrible green tinge has gone (how I didn’t spot that originally I don’t know) and there’s a lot more shadow detail. They’re in before and after pairs, the before shots first.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Ektachrome.

Taken on 30 June 2019

Kodak Gold woodland

A couple of photos taken in woodland beside the Chesterfield Canal, the smell of wild garlic heady in the morning air. Although I’d started my walk quite early, because of the time of year the sun had already risen quite high by the time I made these photos.

This sort of scene, with sunlight dappling the woodland floor is beautiful to look at but often makes for disappointing photographs due to the difference in dynamic range between the sunlit highlights and the much darker shadows. While the eye deals with such things without issue, film and digital sensors tend to fare poorly. Still, I took a couple of shots because I thought I might get away with it in this instance as there was more shade than sunlight. I think they turned out quite well for a consumer grade film.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.

Taken on 31 May 2020

The white house (not that one)

It looked bigger than this when it was blown up by aliens in Independence Day…

Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.

Taken on 31 May 2020

Thorpe Salvin church early one morning

A photograph of the church at Thorpe Salvin which I made early one morning when out for a walk. This is a version scanned on my Plustek with Silverfast which I prefer to the lab scan done on a Noritsu on this occasion. My scan is a little noisier, but the colours and contrast are much punchier and not as warm as the lab scan.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.

Taken on 31 May 2020

Walking in the Moss Valley again

I’ll post a few more shots from the roll of expired Lloyds Pharmacy 200 today. Probably the last ones I’ll post from this roll unless I stick up a few odds-and-ends at some point. Tomorrow will likely mark the return to black-and-white.

I’ve been writing more diary-type posts recently and I’m wondering if I should illustrate them differently, or delay their contents – they’ll probably work better if they contain photographs from the events depicted, rather than stuff I already have to hand. The downside being that the events documented in words will likely be dated by the time I post them as it’s rare that I’ll shoot, develop, and scan a roll on the same day I shoot it.

I got up early today (for a Saturday, at least) and drove out to the Moss Valley again for a walk. I’d mapped out my route the night before and the app on my phone optimistically suggested it would take an hour. I can only assume that the app doesn’t take hills into consideration when calculating walking speed. Or stopping to make photographs, for that matter.

It was the first time that I’ve taken this particular route, or part of it anyway – the latter half involved a section of footpaths that I’d walked last year, albeit from a different starting point. It started off simply enough with a pleasant stroll alongside The Moss, the small river after which the valley is named, and I stopped to make a few photos of the river.

Soon, however, it was time to leave the valley bottom and ascend to the highest part of the route – a climb of over three-hundred feet. While I wasn’t worried that my heart would explode or anything, I was properly sucking in air by the time I completed the initial, steepest part of the climb. Shortly afterwards I discovered that I’d gone off-route into some private woodland (although a sign informed me that walking was allowed – good job I’d left the bikes and horses at home!). A quick check of my map showed me that this path would still bring me close to where I’d intended, so I carried on rather than turn back.

After exiting the woods and then skirting some fields of growing crops, the path took me towards a route through a farm that would exit onto the road where I needed to be. Or so I thought. Upon reaching the farm a sign on a gate informed me that I shouldn’t proceed further as the farm was self-isolating. I wondered for a moment if I shouldjust chance it and hurry the short distance through the farm, but I decided that I’m not that sort of person and so, with a sigh, turned around and went back the way I’d come.

Checking the map again showed another path I could take – this one would add about a half-mile to my journey, but at least it would be unseen territory and, hey, I was intending to get some exercise anyway, so what the hell.

Twenty minutes later and I was back on track on the planned route with the additional bonus of (apart from one short, but steep stretch) it all being downhill back to the car now.

I shot my twelth frame as I got back to the bottom of the valley (I had an extra roll of film in the bag, but decided the one roll would do for today) and finished the short distance back to my car. It had been a pleasant, if tiring, walk and I felt good for taking it. I’ll hopefully develop the roll tomorrow (today’s developing was set aside for the roll of HP5+ I shot the previous time I walked in the Moss Valley last weekend).

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Lloyds Pharmacy 200 (expired 2008).

Taken on 21 April 2020

Freedom part deux

The insect screen that hangs over the back door catches the wind pretty easily, and so it did while I sat on the back garden one day back in April. I liked the way the fluttering tassles looked against the blue sky so decided to take a photo. Obviously, as soon as I got my camera in hand this meant the wind dropped and I had to stand in place for five minutes before they blew into the air again.

This shot isn’t perfect – it has a significant vignette for some reason, and very few sections of the tassles are in focus, but I like the summery feel it has.

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Lloyds Pharmacy 200 (expired 2008).

Taken on 11 April 2020

Lone figure

I like the sense of scale in this photo. I’ve never really considered how tall these trees are before, but the figure in the distance gives some sense of their size. There is, to be fair, a little bit of perspective to take into play – the person in the shot is beyond the leftmost bit of the trees, but not by too far.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 22 January 2020

Dogwalker

Continuing my series of photos from the misty morning walk I took a couple of weeks ago, here’s someone walking their dog. Without the mist this would have been rubbish, I think, but as it stands the conditions plus the grainyness in this photo (and the ice filled potholes) work pretty well.

One thing I’m unsure about is the stuff in the upper-left of the image. At first I thought it was a mark on the film, but then I realised that it’s actually part of the cable-waterski equipment at the lake. I find it a little distracting and did consider cloning it out, but then I would have felt deceitful – I have a particular attitude to cloning stuff out of my photos. I’ll happily remove small distractions or fix flaws, but there comes a point where, even where could make a success of it, it feels like I’ve gone too far and have altered the reality of the scene too much. And so I decided that the cables would stay in the shot, even if they perhaps spoil it a little.

But hey, it game me something to talk about in today’s post. 🙂

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 22 January 2020

Floating leaf

I obviously thought that this leaf floating on the still water at the edge of the lake was worth photographing, but I’m very pleased with the resulting picture. At the time I though about using a polariser to remove reflections and increase the visibility of the lake-bed, but I’m so glad I didn’t. The reflected clouds are what make the photograph for me.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 22 January 2020

Still and misty waters

This is a photograph the lake at Rother Valley Country Park, not too far from where I live. It’s not generally a place I find condusive for taking photos because, while it’s good for walking, running, cycling etc., and there are a variety of watersports (as well as waterfowl) to enjoy, it’s location means that any sort of wide shot features the surrounding hills, most of which have either houses or industrial units upon them. While I’m sure there are plenty of great photos to be had, I’ve probably been spoilt by familiarity and don’t tend to find it very inspiring.

On misty days however, all that (literally!) fades away and the place takes on a wonderful serenity. The background distractions melt away into the haze leaving much more subtle sights.

Today’s photo is one of a pair I took at this spot. The first one shows just a ripple as the coot decided to dive beneath the surface just as I pressed the shutter. This one was taken shortry after it re-emerged.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 22 January 2020