Scanner quality? or is just poor photo quality? Please Help!

streetshoot

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Im shooting using a Bessa R2 with Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.4f with tri-x and developing with rodinal and Tf-4. Im new to this setup and just really curious about why the quality of my photos aren't coming out more crisp. I'm using a rather old scanner the epson 4180.. I'm just wondering if this could be the issue of why my photos aren't coming out better? Please let me know your opinions! is it worth upgrading my scanner? https://www.flickr.com/photos/141715231@N07/26488996112/in/dateposted-public/
 
When I click on your photo, and enlarge it to the max size that you have posted it, it looks pretty sharp. Judging by the fence wire etc. The issue seems to be that it looks underexposed (underdeveloped?) and low contrast.

To test to see if your scanner is at fault, do you have any other negatives that you know gave good results? Scan those to see if they still do. That will then tell u if the scanner is the issue.

it could also be not using the scanner correctly - maybe incorrect settings on it? Hopefully someone w/ scanning experience (I send mine out) will chime in.
 
Flatbed scanners are not that good when compared to modern digital cameras, but as previous poster said, this image is under exposed and/or developed as well 🙂
 
Well, tell us your experience with film.

I've been using a canonet for about 3 months and now just switched over to this set up. I wasn't quite able to get down the regular development with rodinal so I've been using stand development for one hour with a 5ml dilution. My canonet didn't have a light meter so I was mostly just taking guesses and majority of my photos came out well and the bessa r2 does contain a light meter so I've been going off that now.
 
Flatbed stuff can always benefit from a bit of sharpening, and that made this one better for me, but there's something weird happening with the cyclist's leg so that sharpening would have to be selective leaving that area out. Try some crude sharpening, though, and watch the details pop out.
 
I don't think it is scanner. This model is good one, actually.

Exposure, developing seems to be source of the issue. Also, not sure is Rodinal as old time developer for slow emulsions is suitable for 400 film. I have similar results with Rodinal and Foma 400.
 
I'm having very good results with Rodinal and stand development.... at least with HP5+ and Tri-X....

Using a 1/100 dilution (3ml Rodinal in 300ml water) to develop for 1 hour, one minute slow agitating and then reading, watching a film or listening to music for 59 minutes.... more or less.

I think this was a case of under-exposure....
 
You can get away with a bit of error in scanning. It's hard to tell though without seeing the negs themselves.

I never had good results with tri-x rodinal stand developed. I avoid stand developing as much as I can. Films werent designed for it and sometimes they can give weird characteristics that may not suit the look you may be going for. Not to mention that processing a roll goes from a 20 minute job to 1h 10min.

Start narrowing down the variables. I think you should shoot a roll and have it processed by a lab and see your results. If there still is an issue you will then narrow the issue to the light meter or the scanning.
 
I really appreciate it guys, It seems my best bet is to get it developed by sending it to a lab which could be sometime but ill post the results eventually!
 
The only problem with sending a film to a lab is that you may well like the results—but it will not tell you why there has been an improvement. I'm not particularly pro or anti stand development. I can see its usefulness in certain circumstances. I've tried it a few times with reasonable results. But it is always good to have some grounding as to why you do things the way you do.
Eg: why a RF; why that lens? Why Tri-X? Why Rodinal?

Now before I upset a bunch of RF shooting, Voigtländer loving, Rodinal developing Tri-X fanatics (because yes, some people are definitely fanatical about shooting Tri-X) let me add you could also ask: Why not....
But the issue is why are you using this workflow and what are your goals from it? Your goals or preferences for image characteristics, should inform your choice of inputs.

Any chance you can get some D-76/ID-11? Stand development can yield good results, I have seen plenty of evidence of that, but, if you are trying to nail a general quality problem—go back to basics. You can eliminate Tri-X as a "fault". It's not a film I shoot a lot of (though I'm using it more than I did) but it is a high quality film. Keeping things simple with Tri-X, in my and a lot of people's views, means developing it in D76 for the recommended times.

Then there's the matter of exposure. You're using the camera meter. What's it set to and how are you metering? Are you exposing for the shadows? This will nearly always yield the best results for black and white, unless your scene or creative preferences dictate otherwise, of course.

I have never used a Bessa and am not privy to its metering peculiarities (average, matrix, spot etc.). What I will say is that shot includes a lot of sky. The light in the frame for this can potentially induce a lot of different camera meters to underexpose as the substantial light from the sky can bias a meter to underexpose relative to the remainder of the frame that is not as bright. I don't know how susceptible a Bessa meter is to this issue. But it's quite common across decades of TTL metering systems. If you have the ISO set to 400 and the sky is feeding too much light into the lens it could be simply an under exposure issue.

I'm a firm believer in understanding the basics of how meters work, where you should point them to take a reading and why. Yes, you can certainly get by with Sunny 16 and with practice get by very well. It's a good skill to nurture. But it's also good to meter effectively with your choice of meter for certainty of results, particularly when you're finding your way initially. I'd encourage you to do some reading on exposure and metering theory and technique for black and white. In the interim you may wish to adjust the meter of your Bessa to 200 or even 125 in order to "force" it to increase the exposure given.

Having ensured your Tri-X is adequately exposed, and correctly developed in D76 you can the assess the results. You may well like them so much you lock in these variables. If however you wish to pursue Rodinal/Tri-X the next step is: same exposure, different developer. Ideally not stand. Assess as above.

You can clearly see where I'm going with this. Start at the basics, then, change one, and only one, input at a time. It's really the only way to definitely nail almost any prob and we haven't even discussed your scanning methodology, which is another input in your workflow.
 
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