Hybrid Workflow

While I do not shoot digital images these days, I do scan negatives and prints.  I believe most film photographers follow a hybrid workflow.  That is, shoot film, then digitize the film images for editing, sharing and printing.

Let's face it, optical printing from a photolab is a thing of the past.  Optical printing is where the minilab printer will feed in the negative and then expose the paper from a light source passing through the negative, then a lens will focus in on the paper.  The paper is then processed in standard RA-4 color paper chemicals and dried.  This was the minilab standard for 20 years.  Because these printers will not accept any digital formats, nearly all photolabs have replaced them with digital printers that scan the negative, or input the image from CD's and memory cards and more likely from internet servers.  The printers, such as the Fuji Frontier and the Noritsu series digital printers convert the images and output them to lasers which are then used to expose the traditional silver based RA-4 paper.

This method really has many advantages.  Dust is nearly eliminated with Digital Ice technology. Color correction is more accurate and images can be sharpened.  All of these features are unavailable on traditional optical printers. I printed color negatives for many years using mainly Noritsu and Fuji optical and digital printers.  Trust me when I say there is nothing as beautiful as an optical print made from a properly exposed and properly developed color negative.  Eliminating dust is near impossible without chemical film cleaners and compressed air.  The printer must be kept in top color balance and each film type programmed in by bar code and then color balanced for normal, under and over exposed negatives using a control negative.   The control print is processed in the printer and then is read on a colorimeter and those numbers will correlate with a color balance.  I used a control negative, called Nora, for many years.  This included a mannequin for skin tone reference and color patches as well as an 18% gray patch in the center for neutral reference.

My typical workflow today consists of shooting film and developing it at home.  That includes B&W and color, 110 up to 4x5.  I do not process E-6 slide film.  It has been many years.  The chemicals are fairly expensive and the low utilization (not much volume to process based on chemical quantity) will allow the efficacy of the developer to dwindle quickly.  After the film is processed, it is scanned on an Epson V500 with digital ice to remove dust.  Minimal color is corrected.  I will then take the images into photoshop for final color, density, contrast and cropping before sending to a professional lab for digital printing on traditional silver based Fuji crystal archive paper.