Overexposed negs and Dmax

[itf]

OK, sorry I'm only using these forums just for questions so far, but I'm trying to get sorted out for scanning and there's so much to wade through.

The question is, some of the negatives I want to scan are overexposed in varying degrees and I was wondering if a scanner's D-Max is going to effect, and maybe decide, how acceptable the scanned image will be. The negatives are HP5 at 400, I've printed from them in a darkroom before and they required very long exposure times. I've given the prints away and would rather not have to print in order to scan.

Cheers.

 

[kaiyen]

I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you asking if a scanner's dmax will have anything to do with the quality of your scans from these overexposed negatives?

The basic answer is yes. But only because of the other information you give. Overexposed is one thing - you get more shadow detail, less contrast. But if you're having long exposure times, that means that you overdeveloped, too (or, perhaps to be more fair, you did not sufficiently adjust your development time to compensate for the increased exposure). This means a dense negative, and all scnaners have trouble with dense negatives.

Higher dmax scaners will help, as will long pass exposure in Vuescan. CAn't say if it's worth it or not to scan until you try it. I have some IR negatives that look WAY dense that came out more than acceptably once I used long exposure with VS.

allan

 

[itf]

Thanks, that does help. The problem was that it was a roll taken over 2 different dates, correctly exposed for the first half but overexpesed for the second because conditions were so bright that the fastest shutter speed and smallest aperture just wasn't enough.

Sorry for the poorly phrased question but, yes, what I was wondering was will a scanner's dmax be a deciding factor in whether these negatives scan successfully or not, and are there other things I could do to help?

I'm pretty new to scanning, thanks for you're help.