Scanning B&W and making adjustments. Am I getting close?

[dogbunny]

I kind of jumped head first into all of this. I've only been home developing for a few months now. I picked up a used Nikon scanner about a month ago and I am still learning this scanning stuff. I am using vuescan. I set the scanner to 16 bit grey input and output. I save as tif. I also set the film to t-max 100. I use auto levels. Without the autolevels I seem to get overly dark negatives that I can't bring any life into. I keep the ICE turned off. So I scan, adjust the levels, then apply one curve, then apply one more curve. Below are two pictures. The first is the image out of the scanner with no adjustments. The second is the image after I make my adjustments. So, a few questions.

Does the negative itself look ok?

What more/less can I do to the image to get the most out of it?

Have I manipulated it too much? Not enough? I basically want a good tonal range, with as much detail as I can muster. I like contrast, but maybe I don't know where to draw the line. I've been playing with images for a while now. I keep getting to the point where I stare at them and manipulate them so much that I'm my own worst judge.

As always, any advice is welcome. I don't mind honest criticism.

Thanks,

DB

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Hard to tell at this resolution, but the tonality is very nice, I think. Seems to me your meticulousness is paying off.

 

[marcr1230]

I think the ocean and the boat are too contrasty
Although this might not be a good example to start with to judge your scanning and PP technique

Here's what I use for my starting point:

http://photo.net/learn/film/scanning/vuescan-black-white

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Yep, you're doing it right. The final version you showed looks good in contrast, but is maybe a little too light, but that's up to you how you like it to look. A lot of people take the flat, ugly image from the scanner and refuse to adjust it out of some silly fear of 'manipulating' an image. In the darkroom you have to adjust contrast too by selecting paper grade. Why some perceive it as a sin with scanned images, I will never understand. You're doing good!

 

[Peter S]

Yes, you are doing it right. How about putting both the scanned and the processed files on top of each other (as layers) and then trying to bring back some of the detail you have in the sky ? Second image is ok, maybe a bit too light (to my taste at least), but I think you can tease an even better image out of the scan.

 

[dogbunny]

try try again

try try again

Thanks guys,

I appreciate the comments.

I agree it is a bit light. I would like to get back a little of that sky detail. I'll play around with it some more. I like the detail of the boat, but it might have a bit too much contrast in comparison to the rest of the picture.

@Chris yeah, I was a bit apprehensive to manipulate images at first, but I finally just got it into my head that I can do whatever I want with it. I just save an original and mess around with as many copies as I want.

Okay, back at it.

Cheers,

DB

 

[Paddy C]

I've been working on this as well. Tweaking things to get B&W scans looking "just right" can be a real rabbit hole.

A few things I've found:
1. I fear contrast and my images are the worse for that fear. When I come back to look at "finals" I produced months ago I see that they need one last push to bring the contrast up. After it's as if the images were veiled previously. The new versions look much better.

2. It's good to finalize a few and walk away completely for a while. You can loose sight of what looks right when you stay with it for too long. When you come back you can evaluate your own work more objectively.

3. I'm developing my own workflow at the moment with a goal of having a few simple steps (mostly in PS actions) to get from a flat linear scan to a good B&W final. Not quite there yet but almost.