CERESUltra

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ionchy
@ionchy

left: scans from lab
right: scans I did

more comparisons below the cut. these are all shot on CatLABS X Film 100 (respooled Kodak Aerocolour IV). I used my library's Plustek OpticFilm scanner and VueScan on their computers, with the colour balance set to "auto levels" rather than "white balance", and most other settings as default. for this pair in particular I think the colours turned out less saturated but more "accurate", but I'm glad the vibrancy of the red still shows up here.


made with @nex3's grid generator

I kind of like my lab's scan settings for a lot of these, they're warmer in a pleasing way

although sometimes you really only notice when seeing them side-by-side? and the original scans with the higher contrast also had less detail, where in this pair on the right you can see more detail in the flowers

for a bunch of these though the high contrast works really well to make it look more dramatic and fun, and my scans look a little washed out in comparison

but then again sometimes I can't decide which version I like more. do I like the original scan, where the higher contrast makes it look more summery with the harsher shadows? or do I like my own scan, where the lower contrast gives it a more summer-bleached look? this particular pair was also one of the rare instances where the auto settings produced warmer tones than the lab scans

for this one I definitely like the lab scans more. there's a hauntingness to the dog's eyes there, while my scans make the dog seem rather normal and ordinary

I don't know if the next roll I develop I'm going to do all the scanning myself, especially since it takes quite a long time. and on top of that, sometimes there's weird mishaps, like in this last shot of the roll where no matter how I tried to scan it, the software kept producing this weird magenta blob :/

of course I can continue to edit the photos after I've scanned them, but without the lab scans I wouldn't know what to edit them into, and any edits I make will always sort of feel like I'm adding something extra to the photos, even though there isn't really an objective colour tone to film scans anyway.

the other thing is that receiving the film scans back from the lab is a rather exciting thing that makes me want to post them, and having to scan all of them myself takes away that immediate excitement for me...


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in reply to @ionchy's post:

This is a really informative set of comparisons!

I'm also overly and irrationally precious about how much I'm post-processing my scans, but I think a big part of the gap between what you got in some of these versus what was in the lab scan was just a difference in black levels, and even to my mind that hardly counts as post-processing.

Totally understand about the experience difference between "paid some money and suddenly got sent (24-36) images ready to look at" versus the "I am queueing up (4-6) frames to then see come in slowly and move on to the next strip" though. I'm really happy with my Minolta 35mm scanner but I have thought about how nice it would be to get a Coolscan that accepts a whole uncut roll instead...