Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Another look at some 14n samples  (Read 1599 times)

Ray

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 10365
Another look at some 14n samples
« on: February 21, 2003, 03:04:15 am »

I was just recently browsing the Kodak web site trying to find MTF curves of films and came across a new 14n sample of a stunning brunette. I downloaded the full 38MB tiff file to have a closer look (not that I would allow my judgement to be swayed by a pretty face, you understand!).

Again I'm disappointed with the 14n samples. My first reaction was - I've taken better portraits with my D60 (both esthetically and technically) but maybe that's just my ego getting in the way.

Again the Kodak 'photographer' has used F11, presumably to minimise the aliasing artefacts. But they're still there, in the hair, particularly evident immediately above the forehead in the highlights. Normally, with close-ups of the human face you'd expect to see clearly defined pores - except perhaps with a soft focus lens. This brunette does not seem to have any pores. Is it the make-up, the harsh lighting, and/or possible over-exposure?

Out of curiosity, I dug up a 10 year old Photo CD disc produced by Kodak. It contains Photo CD Access Software plus a couple of dozen 18MB photo CD sample photos. Sample #4 is described as - Portrait of Girl in Red (Studio) by Bob Clemens - Kodak Ektar 25 (35mm), Ref #P008630.

I cropped the 14n 38MB Brunette image so the face and shoulders matched as closely as possible the proportions of the Girl in Red. The 14n image then became 26MB as opposed to the 18MB of the girl in red.

I know this is not very scientific to say the least, comparing two different scenes taken by two different photographers under different lighting conditions. But Kodak does have a marketing department and I'm left scratching my head as to why a 10 year old (presumably drum scanned) 35mm sample image promoting their Photo CD system looks so much better than the sample images from their latest digital camera.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up