First Moroccan Film Scan
Today I received my Morocco films back from the lab. They’re Kodak Portra shots, C41 Processing, which means they are negatives. No contact sheets, so I’m just going through each roll, blind.
This is the very first image I’ve just scanned tonight, and it’s apparent to me that I will be shooting film for portraits from now on.
I was shooting all my material on film until about a year ago. It’s been a trial to move to digital because it simply doesn’t respond the same way or look similar. Digital’s biggest drawback is in the realm of portraiture. I’m sure I’ll be rubbing a lot of people up the wrong way, but I know because I’ve tried both. Rather than browse the internet for opinions, look at the images for proof, or better still, try it out for yourself.
Digital just doesn’t have this look to it. The skin tones are hard to reproduce in digital, and well, there’s something organic about film to my eye.
This was shot in Marrakech, near the main square. He’s quite hip isn’t he? I like his gelled hair, and he was very approachable. He is a modern Moroccan whereas many of the others I photographed seemed to come from a much older time.
I found a lot of the locals in Marrakech were very warm and friendly to each other, but not to the tourists.
It was a hard place to photograph as the camera is treated as a serious intrusion to their lives and religion. But now and then I’d meet someone who was a willing participant. I’ll post more in the coming days as I work through the films.
may I ask how you manage scanning C-41 material? I particular am still struggling with the typical c-41 color cast. Recently I’m using a scanner-specific Silverfast version with film profiles which work well. I was wondering if there are any other ways of getting proper images out of C-41 negatives? Just hoping to find new ways to experiment with.
Comment by MarcIlford — 7 May, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
Hi Marc,
I’m using a Nikon Coolscan 9000. Previously, all my Cuban and Cambodian shots were on Portra too, so all C41 Processing on a Coolscan 8000.
I did find that the scans on the 8000 were particularly orange and just needed a curve adjustment to sort them out. However, the 9000 has sorted out problems with scanning negatives and it ‘just works’.
I don’t use Silverfast, because I found it no better or worse than Nikonscan, and it was costly for the 8000.
Incidentally, if you are using an 8000, the 9000 doesn’t have banding issues, so you aren’t forced into switching on the Single CCD scan option. So scan times are faster too, and it’s full 16 bit.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 7 May, 2008 @ 1:26 pm