Back to real photography with a new challenge.

[John Bragg]

It has been far too long since I posted anything on this forum but I am back with renewed enthusiasm having taken delivery of a brand new Plustek 7400 scanner and I am very impressed with its performance so far. For now my beloved Kaiser enlarger remains mothballed but I am hoping to make more regular contributions as i have really missed this. Here are my first attempts at scanning.

Tri-x in Rodinal

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7067/7026304367_96148ef298_z.jpg

Neopan 400 in Rodinal

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7273/7026251833_9078c809f5_z.jpg

 

[J. Borger]

I would not be happy with those scans. The tonal range is clipped and there is a colorcast in picture 1 assuming it is supposed to be a B&W picture.

The Plustek with Silverfast or Vuescan is almost a guarantee for overexposed, too contrasty and noisy scans with blown highlights.
I settled for scanning the files as POSITIVES with Silverfast with all scanneroptions set to OFF and do the conversion and further processing in photoshop. I Get much better results that way!! Give it a try.

 

[John Bragg]

Thanks for commenting. As a starting point I think they look ok on my monitor and that is the key. They are just that. A baseline and somewhere to start the journey from and not the result of fine tuning and tweeking or anything like the final journeys end.

 

[david.elliott]

I quite like the first photograph.

 

[John Bragg]

Thanks David. It was taken in extremely contrasty lighting and against the light. it was scanned in colour but perhaps grey scale would work better ? I am on a learning curve after nearly 30 years of wet printing but I don't want to change my film dev times as I have that side nailed and should I require a silver print then I want to be able to still do that with ease.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

I had a look at your gallery and think you have some very pleasing shots there. There's a gentle "eye on the world" feel to many of them, that agrees with my temperament.

 

[John Bragg]

Thanks sir. you are very kind.

 

[david.elliott]

Thanks David. It was taken in extremely contrasty lighting and against the light. it was scanned in colour but perhaps grey scale would work better ? I am on a learning curve after nearly 30 years of wet printing but I don't want to change my film dev times as I have that side nailed and should I require a silver print then I want to be able to still do that with ease.

I always scan everything as color neg. I dont see why you should have to change your developing habits. Scanning is tricky business though, for sure.

Check out these links:

http://benneh.net/blog/2008/04/21/better-colour-neg-scanning-with-vuescan/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ishootfilm/discuss/72157608204093047/

 

[John Bragg]

Thankyou for those links David. They are useful. I have gone back to the original scan of the portrait and the information is there. My interpretation of it was too high key and the whites were lost. All part of the learning curve.

 

[david.elliott]

Be sure to post your new version of it 🙂

 

[John Bragg]

Here is the revised portrait. it looks better to my eyes.