Scanning black and white negatives

[carl_neilson]

<p>Apologies if this has been covered, but I have been searching here for a while and couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.</p>

<p>I am currently trying to scan 6x6 black and white negatives with an Epson 4870 flatbed scanner and its bundled software. What I'd love to end up with is a flat result that has maximum detail that I can manipulate later in Photoshop, but I am having trouble achieving that. I have been trying to achieve it via the histogram settings on the preview scan prior to doing the final scan, but the results either seem to dark in the shadow area or too burnt out in the lighter area.</p>

<p>Ideally, directions to an online step by step guide would be fantastic, or any other advice here would be very much appreciated too.</p>

<p>Cheers,<br>

Carl</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>I have the 4490, but I think the 4870 is not too different. Do the best you can at setting the scanner software to get the exposure or range you need. Then make sure you do a couple of things (depending on what the 4870's software can do). Use 16 bit Grayscale + at least 300 dpi (depending on how you plan to use it) + quality of best + Unsharp mask. Use Medium or lower dust removal. Try it first without Digital Ice. This should give you a scan you can manipulate with PS.</p>

[carl_neilson]

<p>Thanks for the quick reply.</p>

<p>If all works well I have attached a screen cap of the histogram tool in the Epson scanning software. As you can see I have placed the black marker and white marker at the edges of the preview scan's input histogram, and I have dragged the black and white markers out to "0" and "255" on the "output" setting. Is this the right way to get maximum detail? Or am I totally on the wrong track?</p><div></div>

[scott_kathe1]

<p>I think you are on the right track. I have the Epson 4990 and run the scanner with Silverfast. With my 4990 I have found that the green channel is the sharpest but I can't just scan with the green channel so I do an RGB scan and throw out the red and blue channels in photoshop. From your screen shot it looks as if you may be able to scan each channel seperately. If not you can do the same thing I do in photoshop, go to your channels tab (usually next to your layers window), click on the flyout symbol and scroll down to split channels, now you have your red, green and blue channels. Next you can go to the top menu bar click on windows, arrange, tile. You can then zoom up to 100% for each color channel and see which one is shapest.</p>

[custom film holders for fl]

<p>>>What I'd love to end up with is a flat result that has maximum detail that I can manipulate later in Photoshop<<<br /> If your current method isn't to your liking, have you tried loading up the Silverfast SE software that came with your scanner and then scanning in the 48 bit HDR mode? The is similar to a raw mode and will produce a very flat image that should have a maximum amount of "information" without clipping that you can later adjust on your own in PS.</p>

[carl_neilson]

<p>Thanks again. This has been a big help.</p>

[akastenbaum]

<p>I have an Epson 4990 and have big problems with difficult negs. Thin contrasty negs, dense contrasty and a dense flat negatives all come out streaked beyong recognition. I tried adjusting the histogram but to no avail. Epson was clueless ant thought it was a scratched negative. It is not. Any ideas?</p>