Digital VS. Analog Ilford HP5 - a photo on Flickriver

Model:
Iana Little

Technical:
Left Side:
Nikon D300 Digital SLR, Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 AF, 400ISO
Converted to black and white using Nik Silver Efex Pro
(Default HP5+ film grain setting)

Right Side:
Nikon F100, Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 AF
Ilford HP5 Black and White Film 400ISO
Kodak HC110 (E), 8:10 @ 19deg C.
Scanned using Epson V600 (Epson Software)

Strobist:
Elinchrom BX500Ri in 72 in Portalite octo softbox , from the right
Elinchrom BX500Ri in a snoot back left

Description:

Here on one side I had taken a shot with my digital camera and converted to black and white using the Nik Silver Efex Pro plugin with the synthetic Ilford HP5 Plus film grain applied. The other side was taken with real analog Ilford HP5 Plus. I just wanted to see how close the two looked by default without getting super scientific. I could have set up a better laboratory experiment to test grain structure and tweaked all the settings to make both look just about identical. That was not the purpose of my test here. I was actually just curious to see how close the default settings would get me without putting any real amount of post processing time in.

I'm pleased with the results. In a pinch, if I was not actually shooting with film, and wanted to convert my black and white images from a digital source, Nik Silver Efex plugin is a fantastic option. My only observation is that if you are shooting at the same or higher ISO on your digital camera, the resulting grain will loose more detail than the real analog equivalent. I shot both at 400 ISO, but with my DX cropped sensor noise level, I lost some sharpness and detail that the analog source managed to capture. Also, the luminance range can be slightly different between the digital and analog sources, so some tweaking may need to be involved. That is why the left image seems a little flat in my opinion.

Originals:

My digital file was the RAW 12.3MP file, and my film scan was set to 3200dpi on the Epson V600. Both files have been resized in this example. Links to both originals are below.

Here is the analog Ilford HP5 Plus

Here is the digital Nik Sliver Efex Pro plugin

Some rights reserved

Taken on: February 22, 2013

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