Scanning B&W negs

[Wolfboy]

I have been shooting traditional B&W film, and developing in a tank. I have then been scanning the negs using a flat bed 8000f , using csgear via Photoshop.

I was hoping to print the results digitally rather than spending hours in the darkroom. So far the scanned images don’t seem to match the quality (tonal range and contrast etc) that I know I can achieve in the darkroom. Has anyone had similar problems or know of any tricks in Photoshop to improve the quality of the print.

Wolfboy

[w10d]

Are you unhappy with the appearence on the monitor or in print? Big difference to the possible solutions...

Monitor: Is the scan quality good enough? (Don't know the model you mention, some flat beds are not great with film, does it have a transparenct adapter?) What is the histogram telling you in Photoshop? Have you made any edits in Ps to improve appearence. Are you scanning into Greyscale or RGB? (RGB can be useful for emulating toning)

Print: What printer are you using? Printing with colour or only black ink? Are you using a colour managed workflow?

With good scans and the right printer it is possible to produce good B&W, but I know it can seem a lot harder than producing good colour. Can't think of much useful advice without more info...

[Yance]

Try making several scans of the same negative with different brightnesses. Then combine the two or more scans together with photoshop to get an increased tonal range.

[Wolfboy]

w10d,

I'm not happy with the way the the image looks on the screen. I have produced a contact sheet in the darkroom and that's fine, so i know the negs are good.

The 8000f is one the top flat beds with a negative/slide adapter.

My printer isn't up to the job, so I had a test image printed at jessops. But they only use colour paper so the image had a majenta ting to it.

Greyscale seems to come out slightly better than RGB, but tones are muddy.

As for the histogram, i'm not really sure what i'm looking for. does anyone have a simple guide/advice for reading histograms.

regards

wolfboy

[stopbath]

A histogram is essentially a map of the spread of pixel values. The histogram may have 256 points (soid black to solid white with all the intermediate steps in between.)

If you had one pixel of solid black, two of the next shade, three of the next shade and so on, all the way to 256 pixels of solid white, you would have a steady slope in graph. If you had the exact same amount of pixels for each step, you would have a solid bar...

What you want to look for is missing black or missing white (assuming the negative has that!) If your histogram does not reach solid black and solid white (and the negative has those values) then your scan has lowered the contrast (which could result in the muddy tones.)

[PhotoAZ]

I hate to be one to say it but if you are looking for high quality scans from negs you are not going to get them with any flat bed scanner. Now the good news is that the prices on Film Scanners have come down in the last year. Since you are working in the 35mm range these scanners can be had for as little as $100 or as much as $300 for even an higher end one with Digital ICE for dust spots.

Once you have a better scan I think that your images will be much improved.

Couple of other tips;

Scan in grayscale mode negative and convert to postive in Photoshop. You tonal depth will be better.

Check the histogram for tonal range. You should be getting a nice Bell Shape Curve which extends across the histogram. This should be true in both the negative and positive views.

Make your adjustments to the tonal range in the scan and not after. A good scan makes all the difference.

In levels keep in mind that for printing there is no such thing as a white point of 255 or a black point of 0. Even the best printer outputs white at about 245 or even 250. The same is true of black. Most printers will print black at about 5 and not 0. Making the adjustment on the Levels at the output windows will results in better printing.

Set up soft proofs for different printers. I have about 10 different printers set up in my soft proofs so I will know much better how the print will look when I get it back. Might as well do the adjustments before than later.

You can get great black and white prints from digital. It just takes the right equipment and understanding of the process.

[atotos]

I have a friend who just bought an A3 Epson scanner that takes large slides for about 500 euros. He made a book scanning pictures with it and the printers found there was practically no difference from more sophisticated professional scanners. Here goes my two cents ;)