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The image above was taken with the Ilford Delta 3200 film, exposed and developed according ISO 1000 - because the real ISO of that film, is actually somewhere around ISO 800-1000, and not ISO 3200.
But - it is a very grainy film, even in the larger 120 film format (in this case a 6x6 cm negative). Yet, with help of Topaz Photo AI, the right settings, and blending the original with the digital output, around 30-40% - resulting into finer, natural looking, non- excessive grain, and without destroying the "character" of a very high ISO film like the Ilford Delta 3200.
That's how you do it.
You FEEL into the process, you remember, and you look at the results you are working with (back and forth) - how to "smoothen" things, without becoming too digital looking. Using film always means there is grain present. You shouldn't eliminate it. Sure you can do that, too - with careful handing - but somehow it eliminates the feeling of "analog, classic black & white film".
So, I usually avoid going so far, that the grain becomes extinct.
Natural classic film look
I think the result here, is showing off very nicely, being very natural. I simply LOVE that. The excessive grain when scanning negatives, has always been a sort of Bottleneck for me in the past - where I felt... damn, that even low ISO films look like if they are high ISO films - and I had no true good tools, to make the grain looks less pronounced while still looking natural.
It really took a DAMN long time, for digital "copies" from analog negative, to look like they used to look - like when you made a darkroom print. Especially with larger negatives, a print would always come out so nice and smooth with ISO 400 films. But when scanning those negatives, they just looked so coarse and far too grainy.
Well, that problem is now past. After frikkin' 20-25 years. Kind of strange when i think about it - that it would take such an awful long time, getting the old medium into the new digital medium - while preserving that natural look from real analog film.
But here we are. Finally. |
