I have started exploring Analog Efex Pro---a film emulation program---to see what it offers.  When people nowadays think of the film look, and when they go ga-ga over the film look, they aren't really going ga-ga over the look of film. They're fetishising a simulation of an idea. An implanted memory of something that didn't really exist. That's Analog Efex Pro.

 I'm not interested in its  gimmicks (eg., adding dirt and scratches to the image),  but  I am willing to explore  how the  various types of retro or aged looks would work with black and white medium format. Will  the software  add anything? Or should I just stick to  using Silver Efex Pro? 

 

More specifically,  I wanted to see if the software could  help  me to overcome the over-contrasty back and white scans of rocks at Venus Bay that have been sitting on the computer's  hard drive for  18 months or  more.   The scanned  files were too contrasty and over-sharpened from  the scan and the highlights are blown out. My  scanning is a weak area in my work process., given that one of the reasons black and white film has such a distinct look is because it has an enormous amount of highlight dynamic range – the rolloff to overexposure is gradual.  

So what could  Analog Ex Pro do? Could it help me to  avoid  having to re-scan the negatives? 

Unfortunately no. It basically refers back to the classical, vintage, and alternative processing techniques that photographers used so many years ago.  

 The medium format b+w negatives need rescanning since the highlights have no information in them.  The contrast needs to be reduced. So its re-scanning using  the knowledge that I gained from a scanning tutorial at Photonet Gallery in Fairfield, Melbourne. The key advice was to keep the scanning simple and avoid sharpening.  I'll re-scan the negatives so they are flat.