FP4 grain from nikon 5000

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sojournerphoto

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A quick question for those scanning black and white with a Nikon 5000. I have been scanning both FP4 and HP5 developed in rodinal as well as kodachrome and portra 160. I am getting far more grain in my b&w scans than the colour scans and the FP4 appears more grainy than I would expect based on past optical enlarging experience (having said that I'm not sure my enlarger was sharp enough to show grain in small prints...)

Can anyone comment on this and what your experience is of scanning b&w with the Nikons

Thanks

Mike
 
Here's a tip for you Mike.
If you're scanning with VueScan (which works just dandy with the Nikon 5000), scan your B&W negs as "Color Negative" @ 24 RGB - do NOT use any of the dust/color tools that VueScan offers (similar to ICE) - you'll be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the image.

Cheers,
Dave
 
[ I am getting far more grain in my b&w scans than the colour scans and the FP4 appears more grainy than I would expect based on past optical enlarging

Mike[/quote] You will get far more grain from scans of the b+w negs, than the color, - which is a dye-cloud image, that's why for grain free results a lot of people prefer chromogenics for scanning, or color film converted to b+w later.
Dave.
 
Thanks everyone. I'll have a play with teh vuewscan and silverfast demos. I don't like the softening of the Nikon GEM on FP4, so another solution is required. It'll be interesting to see how my Adox fares when I get round to shooting it (CHS25 and 100 and CHM 20)

Mike
 
The grain looks huge on screen but doesn't show in small prints. Remember, when you look at a scan at 100% on screen, it is the size of a 16x20 or 20x24 print from a 35mm scan. Of course it looks grainy blown up that big!
 
Mike, if your scans are still showing too much grain, consider using something like Neat Image or any similar noise reduction software tools.

I use NI regularly to clean up scan alias grain in both colour and b&w, caused by the harsh LED-based lighting of the Coolscans. It works wonders. Go easy on the correction, you only need a little bit to get rid of most of the grain. You'll need to profile each type of film, but this is not a major task nor very time consuming.

And like others said: be aware that screen magnifications are not the same as print magnifications.
 
Chris, Nuno

Thanks. I think part of it is just that I forgot how much grain there is in 35mm enlargements - even to a moderate size. I suspect my inkjet is much sharper than my old enlarger was ever capable of as well. Plus, I'm much more used to printing bigger than 10 by 8 these days.

I give NI a try - I've got a trial version, but never use it on my digital files. It may be useful.

Mike
 
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