P3D Re: slide film or neg film?

[Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>]

Dr. George A. Themelis asks:

> Why are we using negative film?  Is that a leftover from analog
> printing?  Would it make a difference if the printing was digital?
> (of course, in a digital world there might be little incentive to
> use film in the first place...)

In the present and even near-term world digital, we will: (a) still want
to use film, and (b) our choice of film will still be nagative film.
Here's why:

(a) We will still want to use film because it has a greater contrast
range and higher resolution than digital cameras can currently capture.
It also imparts certain intangable organic qualities to the image which
are desireable. Even if our final output is a reduced contrast and
reduced resolution one such as digital, we will still want to have the
broadband information recorded and available for future higher-output
deviced when available.

(b) We want negative film because is has twice the contrast range of
slide film, roughly 6 stops versus 12 stops! This provides that a
tremendous range of information will be recorded on the negative, and
even if the final output is a reduced contrast one (including a
conventional plain-old photographic print), we will be able to control
how the contrast is compressed or what portion of the full contrast
range is presented in the final output.

What negative film does not provide, as mentioned by others, is a visual
color reference. A visual color reference is critical in certain aspects
of commercial photography (and absolute color references are an area
which digital prepress technologies are still in the process of
developing), and as halftone reproduction is generally another low
contrast/low resolution output, even the slide film exceeds the output
so in this case the benefits outweigh the negatives (bad pun, sorry).

We will also use negative film because it is cheap! 8-)

Newspapers such as the Boston Globe do almost all of their photography
on color negative, scan, and go digital from there. I know some
magazines go this way as well, but most still use chromes because of the
color reference thang.


Eric G.


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