NEGATIVE ~ STOCK ~ PRINT
The film processing journey begins with preparing the negative, a ‘conditioning’ process using grading tools for exposure and white balancing. Next up, an important preparation process is colour balancing, density and separation, which can be expressed as negative ‘styling’.
Prior to the film stock (which in digital terms is the LUT a good example is the Kodak 2383), a negative curve can be applied to shape highlight behaviour, density and tonal relationships before the stock response. Each LUT (film stock) will respond in their designated behaviour patterns, therefore understanding how my negative styling and curve effects the LUT’s performance, is one of those important interactions; the relationship here is significant - a small adjustment will give outstanding results.
Then, at the final but highly critical stage of the film processing operation comes Print Finishing. Here another range of digital tools find their natural home, to make final adjustments in colour density, and textural emulations (grain emulation being a prime contender) prior to printing the film, or in digital speak, ‘rendering’.
In the original photochemical process the balancing of colour and its density was achieved using Printer Lights, which in this digital workflow still have their place and can be mapped into the digital tools.
‘Cause and effect’ underpins this approach where relationships are understood and nurtured. Where the digital tools no longer operate arbitrarily which commonly creates duplication and confusion.
ANALAGOUS CONCEPTS
In my experience of implementing this approach, where the relationship and interaction of the component parts matter more than the mathematical ‘correctness’ of the elements own parameters, and where frequency balancing within the piano tuning process depend on the relationship between frequencies across the entire spectrum of the instrument, i could direct your gaze to that elaborate art of music production and ‘master engineering.’
Here we see the same principals in operation with striking similarities. The journey of an audio production begins with the capture process(recording), of one or many component parts, which is then assembled together and balanced (the production mix), prior to moving to the final stages of final adjustments and tweaks (mastering), and then rendering or in the case of vinyl processing, the master would be ‘cut to disk’.
As with the colour grading workflow for film-emulation, in audio processing there are a myriad of tools for recording, balancing and mastering, which similarly require the correct sequential placement in the processes and have significance interactions with each other. For example should an amount of compression be applied in the mix, the mastering engineer will then be either limited or released to effect subtle changes that will enhance or subtract from the final master.
The overall ‘resonance’ of the track will be determined by these interactions of EQ, compression, limiting (to name a few) and at which stages they were applied and how the parameters were set.
