Chris,
These are very good photos. I wonder how you do it.
I have a 8000ED which I bought 2.hand for a small fortune a few years back. I even bought a new glass negative holder - an additional small fortune. I have scanned both MF and 135 negative color film with it, with mixed result. My experience is that it is steep learning curve to use it properly. And a lot of time. Of which I have all too little of.
The challange is to get the sharp negatives to look sharp as a digital file. Say, for internet use.
Could you be a bit more detailed in describing exactly what you do to make them look sharp?
Thanks Olsen,
I scan them at 4000 DPI, no matter what size I intend to print them, that way I can change my mind later and make larger prints if I want to. I don't use any sharpening in the scan software, nor do I use the levels and curves adjustments. I do all the tonal adjustments in Photoshop, which I think works better and is easier to use. I am using Viewscan software, but Nikon Scan gives the same sharpness. I use Viewscan because the Mac version of Nikon scan crashes constantly and is really slow on my old Powermac G4. ll my scans are done as 16 bit scans. 8 bit scans posterize when applying the fairly large contrast increases that scans from negs need.
If I am scanning slides or black and white negatives, I scan the film as a transparency. The BW neg scans I then invert in photoshop. I can get a bit more tonal range from then negs that way. Color negs I scan as color negatives because the orange mask is too hard to correct for if you scan as a transparency and invert in Photoshop.
After scanning, I open the photo in PS, and do the tonal adjustments for brightness, contrast, and for color photos I adjust color. I use levels and curves adjustment layers for that. I do a lot of dodging and burning using curves adjustment layers too.
To prepare a file for the web, I resize it in photoshop using bicubic resizing. I resize my newer stuff to 72dpi and 640 pixels on the long side of the image. My older stuff, like the last 3 photos I showed, were made smaller because years ago people used lower resolution monitors and 640 pixel wide images were too big. I then sharpen using the smart sharpen filter in Photoshop CS2. My settings for web resolution images are:
Amount is 104%
Radius is 0.1
Remove: Lens Blur
More Accurate is checked, though I see little/no difference one way or the other on that.
After sharpening, I apply a bit of local contrast enhancement to some images using the unsharp mask filter. I do by making a duplicate layer of the background after doing the smart sharpening, then doing the unsharp mask on the duplicate. This lets me adjust the opacity of the contrast enhanced layer to adjust the effect. Some images need the full effect, others less, and some none. My settings for local contrast enhancement using Unsharp Mask are:
Amount is 19%
Radius is 38.4
Threshold is 0
Then as I mentioned before, adjust the opacity of the layer you did the unsharp mask on to get the final look you want. Flatten image and save as a JPEG.
My regimen for printing is similar except that I size the image for 360dpi at whatever output size is needed. The amount of sharpening and local contrast enhancement vary depending on the image and the size it is going to be.
I've had a hard time with color negatives on my scanner too. I think that scanners just don't do well with the orange mask on the film, because I have to screw with the color a lot in Photoshop to get it right. I much prefer transparency film for scanning, it is much less hassle. I have done some good work from color negs, like this shot:
This was Fuji NPS. It looks good but I hate scanning color negatives. I'd almost rather shoot digital (eek!).
These two were Fuji's cheapie amateur 400 film:
