There are pros and cons. You are right about slide film being sharper, at least in the sense that the grain is smaller. Color is better too, in most instance, but that depends upon getting the right exposure.
Getting the right exposure is trickier on slide film for two reasons:
1) Print film will handle a wider range of contrast (the difference between the lightest and darkest part of the picture) than slide film, so a scene shot on slide film is more likely to lose more detail in either the shadows or highlights than a print photo, depending upon which way the meter reading was most biased. (Usually with slide film, you want to expose for highlights and let the shadow detail go. With print film generally, you want to expose for shadow detail letting the highlights fall where ever they want to fall.)
2) Slide film exposure is more demanding, partly because of the above, but also because with print film the photographer exposes the film, but the lab makes the final determination as to what the "correct exposure" is when they print the paper copy. In essence, they can correct the photographer's mistake, as long as it's not off more than three or four f stops. Slide film, on the other hand, is far less tolerant, because there is no intermediate exposure being made. What you snap is exactly what you get. If you're off on the exposure, even one f stop, the slide may be completely unusuable with either completely blocked up shadows, or completely blown out highlights.
That being said, you are right that BWJ and many other publications require slide film because of its good color, its fine grain, and the ability for the photo editor to see the scene in the color it was shot. (Imagine trying to figure out if the correct color of a flower, for instance, from a negative vs. a slide.)
The other advantage to slide film, is that it teaches you a more exacting standard of photography due it its narrower exposure lattitude. Slides are also easier to show to large groups than are prints, although prints are certainly handier with smaller groups because they are quicker to grab and easier to pass around.
As far as the type of slide film to use, I use Provia 100F. This is a pro film, but can be gotten at fairly reasonable prices from B&H in New York. It's the arguably the sharpest film around and has fairly natural color. Some say it's biased slightly towards green, but I really don't see that. It does have a tendency to go really blue in shadows, but under just certain conditions.
You can get prints from slides, but the slide generally has to have nearly perfect exposure. Contrast has a tendency to build up when you go from film to film or film to print, so printing from a slide that is a bit contrasty is likely to result in an even more contrasty paper photo. This is true, however, for traditional printing systems. Digitally scanning and then printing may avoid this problem to a certain degree, especially if done on pro or near pro equipment, but I've not had much experience with this.
Depending upon where you live, there may be facilities nearby that allow you to digitally scan your slide and then print it. For instance, here in Roseville, Minnesota, National Camera and Video, a local photo store, has that equipment available. I've scanned a couple of slides and printed paper copies on this equipment and I doubt if anyone could tell if they were digitally printed or were printed using traditional means. You just pop the slide into the scanner, make some adjustments on the monitor using a touch screen and following the instructions, and then press the print button. It's not cheap, I believe about $8 per 8x10" sheet, although you can put several different prints on one sheet depending upon the size you want.
This equipment looks pretty generic, that is it is probably pretty widely available, at least in bigger cities. The slide scanning may not be as available as just regular print to print on these machines, since it appeared to be added on to the workstation, but it might be something to look into in your area.
Hope this helps...
Gordon Dietzman
|