What Can I Do Better?

[Michael Heller]

Tmax is about as good as you can get for a copying film.
The device I mentioned, a Bowens Illumitran, can probably be found pretty cheaply if you keep on the lookout. It has a macro-bellows built into it, you use a 60mm enlarging lens, it has a built-in flash (you can vary the intensity). Because of the separate lens, you can use filters. Something to keep in mind if you want to copy a lot of slides.

I remember that name, Ilumitran. That might be an option if I cant get it to work the way I'm doing it. Thx!

 

[Graham06]

Michael, I enjoy your youtube channel. To your "what can I improve?" question. PanF has a 'look' and it looks like you have found it, and it's quite pleasing. By now you may have tried TMax 100. It has its own looks and I wonder what your best effort with that looks like. ( I bet also pleasing, but different. )

When fiddling with digital tone correction, I have noticed that when you get the contrast exactly right, the realism suddenly pops out at you. Filters that enhance contrast to draw attention to the subject work, but destroy any 'real' look, so what I do is leave the subject untouched but reduce the contrast of non-subject parts. TMax has a very straight response curve, so lots of opportunity for that 'real' looks.

For this photo the slide has lower contrast than the print, and in particular the contrast of the background is lower than the foreground with the blacks slightly less black. The blacks in the print are quite punchy. Perhaps the PanF print can be improved by making the background blacks less black, and leaving the highlights and the subject unchanged