LR/ACR Preset: Kodak Technical Pan
[Adobe Camera RAW presets added 01132009]
Presenting final release for Halloween weekend. This one was hard, as it is a film I truly love, cannot get, and was extremely hard to emulate. I got about 10 hours invested in getting this preset as close to the original film as possible, but it is impossible to fully render this classic film with current digital technology.
Kodak Technical Pan is offically an extinct stock. The film was much more sensitive to the red spectrum than other panchromatic films, and was favored by astrophotographers for its ability to pick up this range of color. The film had a very very fine grain, leading it to be highly utilized by fashion photographers, military, and police due to the enhanced resolution that could be gained from such a fine grain.
The overall effect of the film has not been duplicated in the film world, and honestly, is impossible to properly emulate for digital. Given enough megapixels, such as a RAW file from a 50 megapixel medium-format, this preset MIGHT be able to make an image that looked as if it was shot om 135 format Tech Pan. Yes, it was that good.
This preset attempts only to capture the tonality of Tech Pan. Use it low contrast to simulate standard development, showing fine detail. Crank up contrast to get pictorial processing look. Once again, due to the uniqueness of this film, I know of no way to really nail the look of Tech Pan processed in Technidol, but this preset gets close enough to make my heart smile just a little bit.
RIP Kodak Technical Pan 1977-2004
