If you have a good scanner AND the money you can get better shadow detail
from the HCT targets that the wolf (using a 5400 Minolta). This is not
because the Wolf It8s are not good its just the HCT has a lot more dark
patches and gives the profiler more information to work with. I have had
good results with the inCamera profiling add in for Photoshop (cheap easy
to use not much control but works). AVOID the daylight and color profiler.
It says it works with the HCT and is cheap but I have got CRAP profiles
from it... with hugue amounts of shadow and highlight noise, colour
reversals etc.
Effectively the It8 and HCT are almost film neutral in the sense that the
patches are measured after exposure and developing. However, because of
the way the different dyes and light sources act you do get slightly
different profiles from the different Wolf slides.
I tried experimenting with the Wolf A4 photographic target but the
resultant profiles where horrible using energy saving daylight blubs. The
profiling software estimated the colour temperature to be 9600+ and not
the 5000K I was aiming for i.e. way way to blue. The profile refelected
this temperature problem. There was also a lot of EXTRA noise in the
shadows.
I had trouble finding a good light source. Anything which has a rendering
index below around 98% turned out to be next to useless and 85% RI was a
joke. In the end I managed to source some solux 4700K halogen bulbs. Solux
say if you run them at 15V instead of 12V you get 5000K with 98% rendering
but it reduces the life time by an order of magnitude. (don't care)
At the moment rather than taking photos of the reflective target I copy
the slide target. Results are still experimentorary but Incamera managed
to make a profile from a raw scan of Fuji Reala which automatically did
the colour reversal, adjusted the contrast and gamma and got rid of the
base colour. However you can only tweek the brightness a little in
photoshop before the shadows or highlights develop a colour cast. Still
its a start. Results from fuji slide film go some way to eliminating the
head and tail linearising the response but additional noise is added in
BOTH the highlights and shadows. I still have work to do perfecting the
technique. InCamera also can make a profile from a black and white film
helpinh to linearise it. Ultimately what I want is a family of profiles
for each film I use that repersent correct exposure, -1/3, -2/3 etc so
that I can apply sensible exposure correction that minimise the damage to
the colours and saturation. Ofcourse this technique tries to minimise
differences between films. If you just want an accurate scanner profile I
highly recommend the HCT if you have a good scanner. The Wolf are good for
the price and certainly better than the 5400s own profiles.
James
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