[pct-l] RE: Slide vs. print film

["Eric Lee (Office)" <elee@MICROSOFT.com>]

Lee wrote:
>
Most slide films do not have a greater latitude. I would say print films do
for sure. The advantage to print films is a lab can customize and color
correct a print. With slides, what ends up on film is the image you get.
There is no changing a slide since it is the positive and the end image.
>

Print film has greater forgiveness - you can get the exposure wrong by as
much as two or three stops and still get a usable print, because the lab can
correct it.  With slide film, you have to have the exposure correct to
within 1/2 stop or so to get a nice-looking result.

Slide film has greater dynamic range - you can capture light areas and dark
areas in the same shot and have reasonable detail throughout.  Slide film
will often have greater color saturation, too.  Print film doesn't have as
great a dynamic range and will tend to either make the dark areas completely
black or the light areas completely white.

Prints are far easier (and less intimidating) to show to people.  With
slides you have to own a projector and screen and go to a lot of trouble to
view your pictures.

In general, if you don't know anything about photography, go with prints.
While in theory you can get more spectacular results with slide film, the
average non-enthusiast will get better results with print film, and find the
prints more useful, too.

Eric
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