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Print films
Minolta Maxxum 7,
300mm f-2.8 lens, 1.4X teleconverter, Flash extender, Fuji Superia 200,
1/125 sec at f-5.6. Bogen Monopod.
Color negatives are the most popular films. They are
widely available and allow you to make unlimited prints. Prints are much
easier to show than slides. You can make a portfolio of your images and keep
them in albums, or mount them and keep them in portfolio boxes. Prints are
also excellent for making bigger enlargements. If your prints are not
perfect, you can always fix them during printing. You can correct color
balance or exposure errors if you find your prints to be less than perfect.
There are several disadvantage to color print films. The main problem is
color. This is because print papers absorb part of the light which can
affect color. Slides give more brilliant colors than print films, and are
the choice of majority of publications. Very few publications accept print
films. Slides are easier to judge than print films. You can instantly check
exposure, color balance, or sharpness. You can learn from your mistakes with
slides. If your slides are perfect, give yourself the credit, or if they
have problems, blame yourself. With negative films it is difficult to know
if you or the lab made a mistake. Slides are made inside the camera the
moment you release the shutter. With print films, you are at the mercy of
the lab unless you do your own processing and printing.
Negative films have
a greater exposure range of +/-7 stops compared to +/-2 stops with slide
films. If you go over or under +/-2 stops with slide films, you'll end up
with blacked out or washed out images. The greater exposure latitude of
negative films allows correction for severely over or underexposures. The
sharpness of the final print is always lost to some degree. This is true
with all photographic films. Every time you duplicate a slide or make a
print, image quality won't be the same as the original. With negative films
a high quality paper and enlarging lens must be used for finer detail and
sharpness, especially when making larger prints. If you want to sell your
work or send them to stock agencies, use slide films. If you want to show
your work to other people or like to make larger prints, use negative films.
It is a good idea to do your own printing when you need larger prints.
You'll have total control over the print and can do a much better job than a
lab.
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