Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
I have a black and white darkroom. I use 4x5, 6x12, 35mm negatives and
have two enlargers. I would like to scan the negatives and invert the image for a contact sheet proof before printing the negatives. This is the only use that I have for the scanner and software. I have a PC and a printer, what would you recommend for a scanner and software to do this? If there are a more appropriate groups to post this to, that would also be appreciated. Thanks, Ken Kaiser |
Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
On 25 Feb 2006 14:21:05 -0800, "
wrote: I have a black and white darkroom. I use 4x5, 6x12, 35mm negatives and have two enlargers. I would like to scan the negatives and invert the image for a contact sheet proof before printing the negatives. This is the only use that I have for the scanner and software. I have a PC and a printer, what would you recommend for a scanner and software to do this? If there are a more appropriate groups to post this to, that would also be appreciated. Thanks, Ken Kaiser Epson 4990 is probably your best bet right now, though it's overkill if all you want is contact sheets. If the $400 is too high, look for one of the older Epson photo/flatbeds on eBay. Eg., even the old Epson 1640 will scan 4x5. One advantage of the 4990 is that the entire surface of the scan bed is available for transparencies -- that's not true for the older Epson photo/flatbeds or for the less expensive current models (3490, 4490.) Any image editor will do. Try Photoshop Elements or Photoshop LE, for example. rafe b www.terrapinphoto.com |
Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
Ken,
I just spent about a month shopping for a scanner for some old family negatives. I am getting an HP 4890 flat bed scanner. It comes with frames for 16 slides and negative strips. It is only about $200. Good luck with your project. Clint Herndon |
Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
rafe b wrote:
wrote: I have a black and white darkroom. I use 4x5, 6x12, 35mm negatives I would like to scan the negatives and invert the image for a contact sheet proof before printing the negatives. Epson 4990 is probably your best bet right now, though it's overkill if all you want is contact sheets. I think the 4990 is overkill in the mind of the OP and myself. I've a scanner to buy as well. A B&W negative and print scanning unit is needed. What of those integrated units; scanner-copier-printer? Any of those that do a good job of all three? The prices on those units seems ridiculously low. Dan |
Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
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Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
I had similar intentions and bought a Canon 9950F when they first came
out. After I learned to run the thing, I was getting very decent B&W prints when I needed something quick, especially from 120 and 4X5. I'm now quite pleased that I made the purchase as it has become usable for more than I first had guessed. I'm still 95% wet darkroom but these scans and a simple HP Photosmart 8450 (3 black/gray colors) can deliver surprising results with a bit of tweaking.... It might be a reflection of my darkroom skills, but I've actually gotten some hard-to-print negatives to deliver better via the scans and deliver good tonality on the printer that I wasn't quite getting in the darkroom... It takes a bit of courage to admit that publicly! On 25 Feb 2006 14:21:05 -0800, " wrote: I have a black and white darkroom. I use 4x5, 6x12, 35mm negatives and have two enlargers. I would like to scan the negatives and invert the image for a contact sheet proof before printing the negatives. This is the only use that I have for the scanner and software. I have a PC and a printer, what would you recommend for a scanner and software to do this? Craig Schroeder craig nospam craigschroeder com |
Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 18:45:40 -0600, Craig Schroeder
wrote: It might be a reflection of my darkroom skills, but I've actually gotten some hard-to-print negatives to deliver better via the scans and deliver good tonality on the printer that I wasn't quite getting in the darkroom... It takes a bit of courage to admit that publicly! I won't hold it against you, Craig. But others might. grin rafe b www.terrapinphoto.com |
Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
In article ,
Craig Schroeder writes: It might be a reflection of my darkroom skills, but I've actually gotten some hard-to-print negatives to deliver better via the scans and deliver good tonality on the printer that I wasn't quite getting in the darkroom... It takes a bit of courage to admit that publicly! What I've found is that a scanner (or my Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 as driven by VueScan, anyhow) is very good at extracting the full scale of densities from a negative, compared to printing. This is most commonly noticeable in scenes with cloudy skies; a scan produces noticeable, and even dramatic, detail in the clouds along with a good range of tones outside of the sky. A print of the same negative produces little or no detail in the clouds and/or lost detail in the shadows. The only way I've found to recover detail in both areas in the darkroom is to burn the sky in. (I've less than a year's experience in the wet darkroom, though; perhaps there's a technique I don't know about that'd do the job.) That said, scans of B&W negatives just don't cut it when it comes to recording subtle tonal changes, particularly in dark areas (of the final images; light areas of the negative); they tend to break up into harsh pixel patterns, and printing on an injet printer just makes it worse. Thus, with a little burning, I find it's usually possible to get superior results in a conventional darkroom. I've a couple of negatives I have yet to print satisfactorily in the darkroom but for which I have good scans, though. Still, I do expect to eventually learn enough to get them done. -- Rod Smith, http://www.rodsbooks.com Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking |
Advice sought on scanning b/w negatives
On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 01:29:57 -0000, (Rod
Smith) wrote: That said, scans of B&W negatives just don't cut it when it comes to recording subtle tonal changes, particularly in dark areas (of the final images; light areas of the negative); they tend to break up into harsh pixel patterns, and printing on an injet printer just makes it worse. Thus, with a little burning, I find it's usually possible to get superior results in a conventional darkroom. I've a couple of negatives I have yet to print satisfactorily in the darkroom but for which I have good scans, though. Still, I do expect to eventually learn enough to get them done. It takes some practice and experimentation, is all. Lots of scanner drivers (including NikonScan) misbehave badly on BW negatives. So one simple workaround is to scan them as positives. Try RGB (positive) and grayscale (positive) and see which works best. Scan in 16-bit mode. Then invert in Photoshop and apply the standard manipulations for tonal range (black point, white point, etc.) Here's a crappy old Tri-X shot scanned that way on the LS-8000. Scanned as 16-bit positive, grayscale, and inverted in Photoshop. Small overview of full frame: http://www.terrapinphoto.com/bw/bw_overview.jpg Full-res, 2000x2000 pixel (0.5" x 0.5") detail: http://www.terrapinphoto.com/bw/bw_detail.jpg Printing BW on inkjets is another whole issue. Again, not trivial but it can be done. The Epson 2400 has three "shades" of black and does an excellent job of it. rafe b www.terrapinphoto.com |
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