Decent contact sheet with a flatbed scanner?

[chut]

Encouraged by many of the fine people on this forum, I've finally returned to souping my own film, and I've produced results that I am very happy with.

My next task is to create contact sheets from these negatives but I seem to have run into a bit of a problem. I usually store them in a ClearFile sleeve and I just tried scanning the sleeve with an Epson V700 flatbed scanner.

When I scan as 'reflective' using the white background, the scan I get is quite muddy (at 300 dpi resolution and 35 MB file size) and tweaking levels hardly produces anything workable.

When I scan as 'transparency', and the scanner uses the top lamp and lens, I get a much better scan, BUT it only scans a 8" x 10" area, as the scanner is designed to scan at this size using the top lamp and lens. Because of this, the A4 size contact sheet is cropped on all sides and it misses many of the shots at the edges of the sleeve.

Does anybody have a workaround for this? Is it possible to make a decent contact sheet using your Epson V700/V750 scanner?

 

[luketrash]

scan half, scan the other half, piece together in photoshop.

"only scans an 8x10 area" haha, color me jealous!

My epson only scans a little 2.5" wide strip.

I hear you though. You should be able to fit 35 frames of 35mm film into an 8x10 area. I make contact sheets using ClearFile 5x7 sheets onto 8x10 photo paper. A roll of 120 film easily fits onto 8x10 paper.

 

[manfromh]

So 8x10 is 18x24cm or 20x25cm?

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Somebody on here once suggested upturning a light box on the scanner, then scanning it as reflective with the box turned on. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like total genius.

 

[sepiareverb]

My proofsheets scan just fine.

😀

 

[Ducky]

Somebody on here once suggested upturning a light box on the scanner, then scanning it as reflective with the box turned on. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like total genius.

I don't have a light box but I used a 60w flourescent lamp bulb in a worklight reflector with a difuser on it. With the V700 you will get better results just following the advice of luketrash.

 

[Bob Michaels]

I have just laid the negatives on a light box for many years and remained convinced there is no better way. Contact sheets worked back in the old wet darkroom days, but looking at the original negs with a lupe gives the maximum info. Your eye immediately learns to convert neg to positive.

Remember that you are looking at the original film, not some second generation copy. There is simply no better way to judge content and sharpness.

 

[ItsReallyDarren]

Somebody on here once suggested upturning a light box on the scanner, then scanning it as reflective with the box turned on. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like total genius.

Ive done it before. Its a tremendous pain if you have a large or heavy light box. I gave up on that idea after the first try.

The lamp and diffuser idea seems like something worth trying. Guess Ill have a look through through the hardware store next time to rig up a device.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Maybe just lay a piece of white printer paper over the back of the negs and shine a bright light on it--that could be enough diffusion.

I think I'll try this later today.

 

[Ronald M]

4780 Scanner using lid light. All their soft are is similar.

Put strips in film holder provided. Clean. At bottom of PROFESIONAL scan dialog page, is a preview scan, on the right ride is thumbnail option. Click that option. Never use easy scan, quick scan, or auto anything. Software picks out each frame and makes a small individual pic. You may rotate individual pics and vary exposure/ contrast frame by frame. You can make a contact sheet in PS with the thumbs, title and file. Frame id follows each individual pic.

Option 2 is to make a marque around a strip of 6 frames. Dup that margue 4 or six times depending on holder design and software will make 4 or 6 pics all automatically.
Assemble strips in photoshop so it looks like a traditional contact sheet.

You can save this option 1 or 2 settings ir you name them ( tri x contact) at the top by overiding "current setting". Recall for next roll so you need not reset it all a second time.
Up the contrast some and make it part of the saved setting before adjusting individual pics.