B&W negative scanning technique

[Little Prince]

In another thread I mentioned a recently acquired scanner. It is a Minolta Scan Multi II. I have tried a few initial scans. The chromes come out fine. B&W negatives.. I'm not sure.

I guess I don't have a very strong basis to judge the scans because I've only scanned negatives that I have not printed in the wet darkroom. So I'm not sure the problems are not with the negatives themselves. I guess I'll scan a few that I have printed and see if the problems persist.

First, the results are grainier than I would expect. Scans were from the following combinations:
TriX (120), D76 1+1, normal times.
Neopan 400 (120), D76 1+1, normal times.
Delta 100 (120), FX-39 1+9, normal times.
Neopan 1600 (35mm), D76 1+1, normal times (but overexposed 2/3 stop).

Ok, actually ignore the Neopan 1600. I've never developed it before and don't know what to expect. The metering might have been faulty too as it was done on AE in backlit situations etc..

But even so, with the other rolls (120), the scans look somewhat unsharp as well. I'm not sure if it is a flatness issue. I guess I'll really have to make a few wet prints to judge.

I remember someone mentioning that they scan B&W negatives as color slides and then invert in PS. Can someone please elaborate this process with details. I'm really quite a 'noob' with PS. Have mucked around with a few filters and curves and what not, but don't really know what I'm doing.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Before you go down that path, a few suggestions (without being verbose): try to reset your levels and curves; also, check whether you're using Autoexposure/Autolevels rather than manual (perhaps the last color scans' settings are still there).

On the flip side, you actually may be getting what you need without realizing it; you are perhaps getting all the information from the negative, and all you need to do is adjust your contrast (with curves and/or levels) in Photoshop or something similar. It is better to scan all the information first and adjust later, than cut off the information from the beginning and not have much room to work with later.

Hope it helps.

 

[T_om]

Start here:

http://www.scantips.com/

he has a lot of info on flatbed scanning that does not apply directly, but there are also lots of tips regarding film scanning too.

Tom

 

[thpook]

If you scan as a color slide, when the photo opens in PS, just hit ctrl+i and it will invert. There will most likely be a color cast when you use this method, so you can use one of many techniques to turn the photo into a b&w photo.

I wrote a tutorial on b&w conversion methods, and you can find it HERE.

 

[Little Prince]

I will check out these links soon. Thanks.

 

[phototone]

First, the results are grainier than I would expect. Scans were from the following combinations:
TriX (120), D76 1+1, normal times.
Neopan 400 (120), D76 1+1, normal times.
Delta 100 (120), FX-39 1+9, normal times.
Neopan 1600 (35mm), D76 1+1, normal times (but overexposed 2/3 stop).

But even so, with the other rolls (120), the scans look somewhat unsharp as well. I'm not sure if it is a flatness issue. I guess I'll really have to make a few wet prints to judge.

I remember someone mentioning that they scan B&W negatives as color slides and then invert in PS. Can someone please elaborate this process with details. I'm really quite a 'noob' with PS. Have mucked around with a few filters and curves and what not, but don't really know what I'm doing.

Here is what I do, and I use a variety of quality scanners with the same technique and it works very well for me. I don't know anything about this scanning as a slide and inverting, so I don't do it.

What I DO, is I set the scanner software to scan in 16 bit greyscale. I do a overview scan, crop to the edges of the image, and then adjust levels to get every possible bit of image detail, even if this makes the image look to low contrast or "flat". Once the image is scanned, I open up in photoshop and adjust the curve to get a full tonal range photo, bringing down the blacks to black and perhaps lightening up the mid-tones a bit, and such. Sometimes I use the brightness and contrast sliders also.

I always scan at the maximum resolution possible with whatever scanner I am using.

Now after making these adjustments, and before I start "spoting" out dust I do an unsharp mask, as ALL SCANNED IMAGES HAVE TO BE SHARPENED. This is the nature of scans. Some scanners allow you to set a sharpening setting in the scanner software, I would prefer to do this in Photoshop CS, as I can control just how much I sharpen.

When the image is finished I convert (in Photoshop) to 8bit, then save on my hardrive in whatever folder I want.

This gives me excellent results.

 

[photodog]

I suspect you may have a grain aliasing problem. I have this problem also as my scanner is limited to 2700 ppi resolution. This only shows up in black and white scans when they are printed. If you do scan for use on the internet you will not see this. Possible solutions are to scan at a higher resolution(maybe get a better scanner) or use a finer grain black and white film.

If others have suggestions, I'd welcome them.