Film Scanning VS Reflective Scanning

[bizarrius]

I have the Epson V600 which is a good film scanner and an excellent reflective scanner.

Would you scan your negatives for web use or print out at a lab or in your dark room and scan the reflective on the scanner?

Won't it be like a more "complete" creation if i printed in a dark room and scanned afterward?

Ideas? besides selling the scanner and buying a real one 😀

 

[ChrisN]

There are of course great differences between a wet print, a digital scan of a negative, and a processed digital image made from the scan. I think it would depend on just what you are trying to share on the web - a sense of the prints you make, or to show your digital creations, or to show what the negative captured. Horses for courses!

 

[ath]

It depends. For slides the film is pretty much the end result; in this case I scan the slide, adjust contrast and color as necessary and I'm done.
For b/w much of my creative work starts in the darkroom (paper choice, burning, dodging and so on). To show this it is easier just to scan the final print. Otherwise I would have to duplicate my creative way in PS or equivalent.
Color negative for me is only for family snapshots; these are treated like slides.

 

[not_in_good_order]

I think it would depend on your artistic goals and what work flow works best achieves those goals. Is digitally capturing the results of traditional printing methods important for carrying out your creative vision?

 

[dmr]

Scanning your print, assuming you have the negative or slide and a good film scanner, is one more generation removed from the original. There will be some loss and distortion in each generation of copying/printing/scanning/whatever.

 

[exlboy]

I originally use V600 but not satisfied.
Later got Nikon V ED and saw the huge difference immediately.
Strongly recommend you use a film scanner. (hard to find though)

 

[GSNfan]

I scan because I like the flexibility and ease of digital PP, for example I use spot healing and it takes seconds (spots on negatives are inevitable no matter how careful you're), I clone those lines that can appear on negatives and even places where the highlight is blown i could clone it back to shape. I also like to fix barrel distortion, dodge and burn digitally, all of that without wasting time, money and standing for countless hours. But most importantly i shoot ISO400 and above b&w film, i'm not after beautifully toned b&w images, if I wanted that I'd get a full frame DSLR and shoot RAW then go crazy with silver Efex. so wet printing is not going to add anything to my work at the moment. Scan and digital printing is adequate for me. you should also first decide what sort of look you want and then go the way of wet printing or scanning.