Scanning B+W Film

[david choo]

I'm archiving thousands of B+W film images of all sizes and types on an Imacon 848.

 

Any suggestions on scanner settings? Any suggestions on a B+W color space?

 

I'm fairly new to scanning B+W and hope to do this right from the beginning.

 

I'm experienced with scanning color neg and slide film in terms of color operating, usm,

etc

 

Any suggestons or help would be greatly appreciated. :) Thank you.

[scott_eaton]

Use the biggest color space as possible (16-bit for greyscale if the Imacon will handle it). Or, scan in color if 16-bit greyscale isn't available.

 

Scan to capture as much dynamic detail in the neg as possible, even if this results in a slightly muddy image. You can always correct later.

[mawz]

I scan in 16bit colour and edit in the ProPhoto space.I find scanning in colour gives far more

room for correcting for exposure than scanning in Greyscale. I also leave my shots in RGB

mode, allowing for toning (I've a nice set of curves for selenium and other tones I scored

from http://www.butzi.net ) and for printing at a lab as well as at home (Digital printers at

labs typically require RGB mode files)

[jan_brittenson]

Scan it in color, then when you have time open it in PS and turn the channel in best focus into a gray scale. (In PS select the channel then do Image->Mode->Grayscale.) The reason is the film is in a curved plane but the imager is flat at a width of ~50 scanlines, so there will be some mismatch. Focus calibration is generally done on the green channel since it's physically in the center, but I think the Rodenstock lenses used by Imacon might be a little sharper at the blue end. Generally, the red channel is the softest and it's a pick between green or blue. But not always, and not with all films.

 

The default amount of sharpening in FlexColor is fairly good, i.e. turn it on and set it to 0. If you need more than that, use the new smart sharpen in PS CS2 with the lens blur filter once you've reduced the file to a single channel grayscale. But generally no input sharpening should be needed. I use it more to match up the channels for color work (before CS2 I used Focus Magic for input sharpening of color scans).

 

No B&W film will have density beyond what these scanners can capture, no matter how long you developed it the scanner will pull the full scale with plenty to spare. Open up the levels dialog in FlexColor and make sure to set black and whitepoint roughly right, you can tweak it by small amounts in PS afterwards, but at scan time these settings affect the input gain and offset on the three ADC preamps. (One per channel.) Scan as color neg.

 

Once you have a settings as a Profile, e.g. "120 TMX" or some such so you can reuse the same later. I try to get blackpoint, whitepoint, and gamma about right for my B&W scans, and make these part of the profile, but with B&W they will vary from roll to roll so are more of a starting point. If you were to make negs to scan you should aim for a low gamma (reduced development) and use a long-scale film.

 

When resizing for print (for me that's ImagePrint 6 and Epson 7600 MK usually on Moab Entrada 300wt with carefully maximized inkload) I've found bilinear interpolation in PS to 360 ppi works well, no sharpening needed with IP6, with the Epson drivers I'd go to 240 ppi and give it a boatload with PK Sharpener. (The Epson drivers don't resolve nearly as well as IP on this printer.) Generally, if it looks good on an LCD screen it will look good printed with IP. I never scan directly for output. If the print is too big for 360ppi I set IP to 180ppi instead and use that as the downsize target.

 

Just some starting points. Enjoy!

[jan_brittenson]

<i>Once you have a settings as a Profile</i>

<p>

I meant to say, once you have settings that work, save them as a Profile...

<p>

If you're concerned about Dmax, do this: take a piece of opaque film (or create it by throwing a sheet in a tray of developer in daylight, then fix and rinse it) and write something on it with a sharpie. Put it in the scanner. You should have no difficulty seeing what you wrote on it in the preview. If you want to know where in the histogram "black" falls, stick a piece of gaffer tape on the film.

[david choo]

Scott, Adam, Jan, thank you.

 

Jan your advice was particularly helpful. I was doing tests between scanning 16 bit

grayscale and 16 bit color... and found almost no difference in quality and didn't feel the

extra drive space was worth scanning in color... however, I will play with the RGB channels

and take a closer look at what flexibility it allows.

 

Again thank all of you. Back to testing, I'll post my results before I begin this seeming

triathlon of scanning. :)