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Topic: Photographing Super 8mm ...

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted June 30, 2008 11:02 PM

This is a subject that I have been long interested in and before I pursue doing it myself.

Recently, I recieved a number of screenshots of a print that I was curious about buying, but the screenshots didn't put the print in the best light. Perhaps the color was slightly better.

At any rate, what makes for a good "screen capture"? I know that if you use the "freeze frame" on your projector, you stand the chance of losing some light, (perhaps that can be corrected by bring the projector REAL close to restore most of that lost light?).

... but if you merely run the film and try to get a freeze frame, you stand the reel chance of getting "ghosting" from the frame before and after.

So, I'm appealing to the likes of Dan Lail, for instance, what makes for a good screen capture?

What kind of backing, (screen) should you use, perhaps even a piece of typewriting paper? That could be important as the wrong backing can affect the color of the capture, affecting the color of your photo.

I think this could be a good topic for those on the forum who wish to sell prints and the right or wrong image of your film can either sell or not sell your film.

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Jean-Marc Toussaint
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: France
Registered: Oct 2004

posted July 01, 2008 01:12 AM

Osi, the first thing you need to master is the white balance setting on your camera. Most people use the pre-set functions such as daylight, cloudy day, artificial light, but if you can switch to manual and set your camera by aiming at a piece of white paper (in the light condition of the pic you want to take), you'll be surprised how true the colours will look in comparison to the subject.
I usually put the camera on a tripod and shoot sequences of pics during quiet scenes (to limitate blur), then keep the best one. If I don't need Hi-res, I'll take a short Quicktime film and isolate the best frames later.
Or I will directly scan the film into the computer (my scanner and display are calibated).

Shot with a camera:

Scanned:

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The Grindcave Cinema Website

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Martin Jones
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1269
From: Thetford , Norfolk,England
Registered: May 2008

posted July 01, 2008 02:54 AM

Another way is to use either a "Slide Copier" which fits on the front of a still (film or digital) camera zoom lens and gives a direct copy at the magnification required, or a "Zoom Slide Duplicator" which replaces the still camera lens and provides up to 2.5 X magnification of the frame, processed for size later. Both these types of items are regularly available secondhand on Ebay.
Those of us with "telecine" capability direct from the projector gate (or via a field lens) simply stop the projector on the frame required and capture electronically. Because the lamp employed is only 3 to 10 watts, which does not harm the film, there is no problem with light loss.

Martin

[ July 01, 2008, 09:09 AM: Message edited by: Martin Jones ]

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Retired TV Service Engineer
Ongoing interest in Telecine....

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted July 02, 2008 08:23 PM

Hmm, it appears that scanning would be best, though it appears that the scan is definitely darker, (but that may just be that particular scan.

By the way, that photo cpature of "raiders" I noted the subtitles underneath. Was that a feature or a digest?

Just curious

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Jean-Marc Toussaint
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: France
Registered: Oct 2004

posted July 03, 2008 01:39 AM

Raiders pic comes from a 16mm print of the feature.
I usually leave the scan untouched as it's truer to the print's state when selling a film. It will always look better once projected.

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The Grindcave Cinema Website

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