Scanning 5x4 Glass Plates

Hi,

Does anybody know if there is a scanner capable of scanning 5x4

plates and at the same time producing avery high quality scan you

would expect with 5x4?

 

Thanks.

Any scanner that can scan a 4x5 negative (any with a large enough transparent media adaptor, or a separate bed for film) will scan glass plate images. You would have to work with care to keep the plate from scratching the scanner glass, but probably a bigger problem would be the tonal range of the glass plate; both wet and dry plates were inherently high contrast (they were matched with low contrast POP materials like platinum and albumen).

I scanned over 100 5X7 glass plate negatives that my grandfather took about 100 years ago. My scanner is an Acer that is no longer made. At 600 dpi they look very good. Epson makes a scanner now that will do negatives up to 4X5 at much higher resolution. I forget what the model number is, but it should do your job. I did not have much trouble with high contrast. I had more trouble with scratches, pinholes, broken plates, etc because my relatives had them store in a West Virginia attic.

I used an Imacon Progression II (the one that include a flat bed

section along with a Virtual Drum for transparencies up to 4/5) to

scan hundreds of glass plates as big as 8/10(and a little larger,

if I remember well). The flatbed section can be used for

transparancies and for reflective material.

On those plates the emulsion is often "detached"..."flaky" I mean

very fragil, so the general recommendation I'd give is to use

some "spacers" made with cardboard (thicker than the plate

itself...careful not all plates are of the same thickness) on each

side of the plate on the flatbed in order to avoid the top cover to

touch the emulsion (emusion on top of course)(in my scanner's

particular case the cover is also a glass plate).

You'll have to flip the image after.

I used a positive set-up in the scanner software(as if it was a

transparancy) in order to have an "original digital negatives" that

visualy looks like the plate(with all the little tints and color

shades that you usualy find in those B/W neg).

Then you convert and use different edited versions for different

purposes.

If you have many plates ... be sure they aren't larger that 4/5.(

glass plates were usualy handcutted and I found many, many

different sizes in a single group of images) Important if you use a

flatbed scanner with an adapter for 4/5 transparancies as a

recent Epson Scanner for exemple.

 

Hope it helps a little

Good luck

 

Salut

I have scanned numerous 4x5 glass negs on my Epson 2450. I laid the glass neg on top of the 4x5 film holder provided and it worked great. Clean the negs first with a standard film cleaner if they are dirty. Mine were very scratched, so the healing brush and clone tools quickly became my best friends.

Many thanks for your replies.You are right,5x4 is the main size but they are all different sizes.I have very early 1880's 12" x 10" plates,but I was'nt thinking of scanning them unless I'm very lucky.

 

The main reason for doing this is,I have already printed alot up on a old 1900's enlarger and got some really great results.At the moment I'm printing at 20" x 16" and still getting sharp results for that period of photography.But some of the plates have marks,scratches e.t.c. and I really want to clean them up in photoshop.Printing these plates is very time consuming so doing it on the computer would be really great.

 

My main point is,what is the quality like when scanning an old glass plates.Can you get every single bit of detail to a high resolution? Or is it a bit dreamy looking,like some other scans I've seen on the net?The contrast issue does'nt really bother me.Thats something I can work at on photoshop.

 

Thanks.

Hi Michael,

In my speciphic case I've been able to print very beautiful, high quality ink-jet prints, up to 16/20" on Photorag Paper with lots of details..

The scanner I use give files of about 8000 pix. on the longest side. So I'm sure I could go up to 30/40" without any problems or 24/36" if you're aware of the presence of grain.

I should say that ,in my case I didn't extensively retouched the scratches and peeling of emusion as , in a museum, this is considerd part of the "object" and this has to be documented as well.

Honestly, I could look at the prints (and original files on screen)for hours...so much details and things to look at).

Just take note that they are negatives...so the max density limitation of the scanner(DMax:4,2 for ex.) applies to dark areas of the neg... therefore the highlights of the positive image are affected.

Doesn't mean a different set-up wouldn't make a good job but it's the only one I used to scan glass plates.

Again, good luck and have fun.

 

Salut

Cheers for that.On that note I will go shopping for a scanner! I really want to do some 20" x 16" e.t.c.

 

I'm glad the scanner picks up all the detail.Thats was my main worry.Some results I have seen seem to be lacking in this area and in clarity.

Another thing. I found that my scanner did just as well scanning the plates emulsion side up. This keeps the emulsion from the scanning bed, but not from the lid, but you can put spacing shims to keep from putting any pressure on the plates. I was amazed at the depth of field of the scanner.

I've scanned 4x5 and 5x7 (as 4x7) glass plates on an Epson 2450. Emulsion down, with an index card at each end to space it off the glass. This improves sharpness, since these Epson scanners focus about 0.5mm above the glass.

 

I scanned at 1200dpi, rather than the full optical resolution of 2400 dpi, since I wanted the scans to take less than an hour each. (Newer Epson scanners have much better throughput.) While the scans aren't quite resolving film grain, a grain pattern is starting to show. (Also, the Epson optics aren't really good enough to have much benefit to scanning over 1200 dpi.)

 

In a group of interior shots, they are quite sharp enough to see that the lens was not sharp in the corners, and had curvature of field. There's this donut of sharpness. (They're interiors without extra lighting, so the lens was probably rather wide open.)

 

Actaully, all of the scans are sharp enough to see lens limitations. Loss of sharpness off-center.

 

The Epson 3600 is certainly a bit better than this scanner, and the 4780 might be better yet...

 

But I wouldn't expect any Epson flatbed to get "everything" out of a 4x5 negative. But they go a long way, especially for $400 street price scanners!