Scanning 120 B&W negatives

I have a Hasselblad that I have always printed the negatives from

conventionally onto fiber or RC paper. Years ago I had my own wet

darkroom but would now like to do this work with Photoshop. I

primarily do b&w, but a little color. I do not have a med. format

scanner and do not do a lot of volume, so I would be using my local

lab for scanning. In their brochure, they state that they will do a

25 meg scan for $5 + .30 per meg over 25 meg.

(1)Is this sufficient for 120 film printed to 16x20?

(2) Do I have the scan burned to a CD and then do my work in

Photoshop and put the file back on the CD a take it to them to print

it?

(3) I read about different printing methods. What should I ask for in

the way of printing for prints worthy of display?

I've read a lot of material about scanning, Photoshop, printing,

etc., but nothing that answers these basic workflow questions.

As you can see, I am new to the digital darkroom and would just like

to be able to accomplish something similar to what I used to do in

the wet darkroom. Any help from you experienced digital darkroom

people out there would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Are you talking MP (pixels) or Mb (bytes)? 25 Mb is about DSLR quality (8 Mp), which will hardly do justice for medium format. You could get a 16x20 print from this file, but nothing to crow about.

 

I scan 6x6 at 4000 dpi, which is about 72 Mp or 440 Mb (16-bit/channel). That would come out abut $125/image at your rates, or about twice that of a drum scan. If you want the quality that medium format can provide, get a film scanner. Otherwise you'd be better off trading it for a DSLR.

I agree Edward. A lot of these places give you quotes as per file size rather than pixel dimensions. Rather than say 25 MB, I'd like to know that it's a 4000DPI 16 bit scan.

Blake,

 

Get yourself a flatbed scanner like the Epson 4990. Dont waste your time and money with the outside lab: the price quoted by the lab is for a 35mm negative scanned as 8 bits, greyscale.

 

In your case the scans ($40 per, minimum) are going to cost you a lot more than an Epson 4990! You can always use the lab for those scans your want to print to 16x20"

Blake - In regard to printing, the best thing to do is ask around among local photographers to find out what company/service is the best in your area for digital printing. Then go in an talk with them and ask their advice. Every shop works differently and has different equipment. Therefore, it is best to invest the time to go in and talk with them beforehand so that you develop a compatible workflow. It will save you both a lot of pain down the road!

<p> Doug<p>

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/mainintro.html">Dougs

MF Film Holder for batch scanning of 120/220 medium format film with flatbeds</a>

A flatbed scanner may not give you the results you expect from your negatives. I tried the Epson scanners and now have a Nikon 9000, which works great.

Which Epson scanners Robert? Which scanner software? What workflow?

I would venture that its all Epson scanners. They require too much post scan sharpening which alters the image. IMO they are not really suitable for larger than 8x10 from MF or LF. For a dedicated MF film user the epsons would not come close to their expectations.

 

Blake, you may want to double check with your lab. That kind of price sounds like batch processing. You would most likely want a more custom scan with a drum or film scanner.

 

The digital world has a LOT of choices, and it is a steep learning curve!

Owning both a film scanner and an Epson 4990 and scanning only B&W 120, I have to say

that I have been very pleasantly surprised by the Epson. It des take post-processing to get

sharp scans, but at least you can do it. The film scanner picks up the grain and often

exagerates it and that makes it very difficult to sharpen. After applying to both files the

maximum sharpening each can take, the results are surprisingly close. Scaled down to

2400 dpi, they are indistinguishable, even. That gives a comfortable 8x enlargement. A

film scanner allows you to enlarge more but then you depend a lot on impeccable shooting

technique.

 

I would add that the required port-processing for the Epson is scriptable and can be

applied in batch.

 

Software plays a role too. Silverfast gives the best scans with the Epson, I carefully

compared with Epson scan and VueScan.