35mm and you.

Hello there. I'm here to ask about 35mm cameras and Photoshop. You know that 'look' that 35mm pictures have compared to other camers? That look where it could be the most ametuerly taken photo and it still looks like a professional shot. Even digital cameras I have seen don't have the 'look'. Does anyone know any digital cameras that have that 'look'? And is there any special tricks Adobe Photoshop can do to make a scanned/digital pic have the 35mm camera 'look'?

 

I assume the look you are referring to is the automatic image enhancement done in the processing. Film also has a wider EV range than slides or digital meaning you can more completely get both the highlights and shadow detail. I’ve had top of the line 35mm gear most of my life and I don’t see anything that makes 35mm the equal of medium or large format photos. Other than convenience it is just a smallish negative that has improved with finer and faster film grains over the years.

There is no way to scan a 4 X 6 snapshot with a flatbed scanner and get enough quality to make large blow ups on your computer. This is a good read on the information available on a good photo: http://www.scantips.com/basics08.html Go on to the next page where he works with a photo he took with a 50mm fixed focal length Nikon on a tripod and can’t get more detail scanning over 300 PPI. The problem isn’t with the scanners but with how much information is on a photo.

You get much better quality from a dedicated film scanner. If you shoot with 100ASA film you can get a decent 13 X 19 print with a top photo printer. I’ve had a film scanner for years and just recently switched to mostly digital. A good 5Mp digital gives output not quite as good as a 35mm single reflex camera shooting 100 ASA film and a little better than I can get with my carry around P&S 35mm zoom loaded with 400 ASA. I think the next generation of digitals will equal the best 35mm and be better than anything you can do with P&S 35mm.

Most people learn to shoot digital with the histogram shifted slightly toward dark, about –EV 0.7, to avoid burning out the highlights. You can then bring out just about everything in Photoshop.

Many people dabble with copies of Photoshop that “fell off a truck” and never get competent. Most people who purchase it buy a graphics tablet to go with it and take the time and effort to get proficient. It is hard to dabble your way to competence in Photoshop, but if you put in the effort you can do wonders – both with scanned 35mm and with digital images. “Tricks” don’t cut it until you learn the basics. And Photoshop isn’t an easy program to learn to use well.

I bought a Minolta D7i because I like the manual controls, 28mm wide angle and manual zoom. It is more like a 35mm SLR in its controls than any other digitals other than the digital SLRs. And those are pricey. Most mid range digitals in the thousand dollar range are too menu driven and have dinky electric zooms. And a good SLR with decent lenses will cost you 4 or 5 times that. I think the D7i is down to around $700 with the newer D7Hi replacing it in the higher price range. One disadvantage of digital cameras is that you are going to see it cheaper and see better cameras not long after you buy one. Here is a sample of my wide capability: http://www.pbase.com/image/3081523/original

And this is a straight evening shot: http://www.pbase.com/image/4230470 And the same shot “tricked” up in Photoshop: http://www.pbase.com/image/3042210 You can do quite a bit in Photoshop.

 

I didn’t mean to try to put you off with Photoshop. Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels will do pretty much what the photofinisher does in tweaking up your 35mm photos.