I recently did a personal experiment to see if I was still happy with the way I was handling my film scans. When first getting into film photography, you naturally exercise a lot of trust in your equipment and the past results of seasoned photographers. I knew the color profiles of my favorite film photographers and I just jumped right in, but I felt now was a good time to step back and see what was best for my work. So I enlisted the help of my film lab!
You should have the kind of relationship with your lab that allows you to ask questions and give input, so when I requested that The FIND Lab scan my images with both scanners, they gladly obliged! (By the way, did I ever tell you about the time that Belinda from The FIND Lab recognized my name at a film workshop? Total fan girl moment!)
Let’s jump into the technical details, but remember, ultimately you should make your decision on what’s best for your work.
Exposure
How I exposed this roll: We had very clean light so I was able to shoot how I normally like to: by overexposing by two stops with a variety of side and back light
These are basic scans from The FIND Lab with some minor adjustments in lightroom to correct the white balance and match my style a little better. Even though these scans are “basic,” my film lab still knows my preferences and will choose to scan for my preference, which is usually to scan for the shadows, neutral color, brighter exposure, and neutral contrast.
Notable Characteristics
Skintones: Noritsu has been known to veer more pink, but both came in as basic scans relatively green, which is a characteristic of Fuji 400. Frontier naturally has more of a punch to it that supports golden skin tones. After some basic white balance tweaks, you can see how both scanners produce beautiful skin tones.
Contrast: Noritsu has a pretty muted black point, and for my own preference I love to have a clean and true black point so that my images retain a pop. It’s the one aspect of my style that keeps me from labeling my look as “light and airy.” While the Nortisu can sustain the light and airy pretty seemlessly, I love the vivid but not over-saturated colors that I get from shooting Fuji 400 with Frontier scanning.
My Takeaway
Overall: There’s no right or wrong scanner! I can see where having a flatter film scan could be more beneficial in some lighting scenarios. Of course it all comes down to preference and for me, I just love the clean look of the Frontier.
I encourage you to perform this experiment yourself! Next time you send a few rolls to your film lab, ask them to do a few scans to see for yourself if you are choosing the right scanner or tone preferences. Until then, enjoy the spoils of my experiment, complete with puppy frolics and golden light. Frontier is on the left column and Noritsu is on the right.
