Scans better from negs or pos

Hi all

 

I have to get a prof. scan from a 6x9 neg. or pos. for an enlargemnet

of around 16x20 inch. Do I get the better digiprint from the slide or

from the negativ? What gives me the sarper and better print!

Did anybody doing a test negs against slides from the same scene and

then print out booth? Wich was better?

 

Thanks for all tips!

In general, a well exposed Velvia or Provia F slide (or comparable film... those are the ones I use) will have better grain characteristics than negative film. A good professional scan should have no problems with the dmax of these slides (prosumer gear might which is why some people have an easier time scanning negatives). This means the slides (assuming tight grained film) should win.

 

Note: The above leaves out lots of variables. If the scene is too contrasty to make a good slide, obviously a slide would be a bad choice, etc.

 

Look at it this way... Pro scanners (I'm talking good drum scanners here operated by a competent human) basically see everything there is on the film. Your only questions are "how grainy is my film?", "how sharp is my film?", "how much of my scene was clipped by lack of exposure lattitude?".

 

By the way, from 6x9, I don't think you're going to have any problem getting a good 16x20 from either slides or negatives (unless using very fast film).

The difficulty when scanning a neg is to have the right colors. A positive will always give you some excellent information on the original colors, a neg won't. If the scanner is calibrated with an IT8 or HCT target, you will get the most accurate colors. Negative films use masks and each brand has it's own tints, therefore it is very difficult, but certainly possible if the scanner is well targeted, to reproduce the colors faithfully. I have always found that color negs were a pain to scan. I know this was not the point in your question, Armin, but if you can use indifferently any of the two, go for chrome by all means!

It is easier to scan a good chrome. The question is-"can you always get a good chrome of what your shooting?". Us architecrture guys often prefer NPS (color neg) because it can be very trying to get perfect color on a chrome. All things being equal, the chrome will yield a better file. However, a great neg scan will look better tha a sloppy chrome scan obviously.

Will the better file look better on print? Again it all depends. Is this is an Epson print, is the paper matte or glossy? Is it OEM ink or Gen4 ink? Fujix print? 8 bit or 16 bit scan? All these things affect the quality of the print. The Epson will need a minumum ppi of 180 at final output size. This will translate into a file size of 30MB. A better ppi for the Epson will be 360. At 8 bits, this is a 119MB file. Other printers will have other requirements. Will your native scan meet these file size requirements? If you have to res-up, all bets are off.

Color neg by design is grainer than chrome of equivalent speed. The grain usually "cancells out" with the paper grain once printed. If the scanner sortware or Photoshop has unsharp masking set too high, this grain will be very apparent. To get a good neg scan, I set the scanners USM (unsharp masking) at about half of what I would use for a chrome. When I am ready to create my final file for output, I do not use Photoshops built-in USM. It is too aggressive and creates grain everywhere. Instead I use an action from

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/smart_sharp.htm

This action works on a "find edges"principle. There is an excelllent tutorial at the site. The only way to really know is to do some tests. I feel confident scanning either because I've been at it for a couple of years now.

Places like Nancy Scans and West Coast Imaging have experience scanning negs, I've found most local service bureaus do not. Both Nancy Scans and West Coast Imaging will advocate the "archival scan"-meaning scan it at a high enough resolution to fulfill all your needs, present and future. You can res it down later in 10% increments to re-size (always apply your USM after re-sizing) but res-ing up can be risky.

Hi all

 

Thanks for the input. I take booth with me and ask the scan operator what he pefers. But I also tend to the chrome in this case!

Great response John!