Scanning Advice

S

Steve Ashton

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Very new to the forum and RF photography and would like some scanning advice. I am using a M6 with 50mm and 28mm lenses Tri x or HP5 and have just got a scanner (Nikon LS5). Whilst very happy with my mono prints I am not having much luck with the scanner. Getting grain like golf balls!!:bang: Any tips or links you can give will be a great help.

Cheers

Steve
 
A few thoughts...

A few thoughts...

I do not know anything about that printer but my first thought would be that there are a few more pieces of information we might need to know!

How is the film being developed? Are you developing and if so with what developer and technique? Or are you having them processed in a lab?

Also perhaps an example picture to see the grain amount might help!

Good luck!

Nancy
 
If the prints do not have large grain, then it must be a scanning problem.

Rodinal will give large grain, but you did nor state what you are using.

Are you using a straight scan with no ICE or grain dissolver which will not work with non chromogenic film.
 
Download a trial version of Vuescan i have found it produces scans much smoother and with less grain than the NikonScan software that comes with the scanner.
I work with kodak Tx 400 35mm film.
 
Scanning is tricky. Vuescan definately helps. You can also try scanning in as RGB, shutterbug has a good, (old) tutorial on RGB scanning for B/W available online.

The best advice I can give you is to switch to TMax. The T grain films scan the best, especially in regards to grain. (not counting chromagenic film, which scans very well.) You will see a huge dif guaranteed. Second best for scanning would be scala.

You can also try developing for lower contrast. The lower the contrast the better your scan will be. You can always adjust back up in photoshop later. For TriX I've had very good luck with diafine.
 
I found on my Minolta scanner (I don't have yours,) that scanning at a resolution that exceeded the resolution I need for the print tends to enhance grain.On my 5400 DPI scanner the grain is best when scanning at 2700 DPI. Viewing the result on a monitor exaggarates the grain as well. It may look grainy on your screen, but often the print is fine. Scanner features like grain dissolver etc. in my experience don't really work, as they tend to soften the image and the subsequent sharpening brings back the grain, at a lower print quality. Hope this helps.
 
At what resolution do you scan? I used to scan at 400 or maybe 600 dpi and never got my scans as smooth as I wanted them. Now I scan b&w at 3200dpi or even 4800dpi and am really happy with the results.

Edit: I must add that this is my experience with 120 film on an epson 4990 flatbed. Yours might be completely different.
 
Last edited:
Hi!
I had many of your problems in the beginning - got some great advice here. I have used scanners related to yours; Nikon Super coolscan LS 4000, 5000 and 9000. The best advice (for me) turned out to be: Scan your b&w negs as positive RGB at 16 bits (well; anything over 8 bits that your scanner manages). Convert to grayscale (if you want to) and invert the digital negative in Photoshop. Don´t ask me why this works. It just does. Good luck!

leif e
 
Many thanks for the help loads for me to work on. For my next batch of film I will order some T-max 400 and see how we go. I have just purchased Vuscan and as you guys say it looks good compared with the Nikon software.

As a full time pro photographer who had shot Digital for 6 years now My wife thinks I have gone mad when I got a film camera. Looks like it could be time to get some darkroom gear as well. My first few films were sent to a local pro lab but not happy with the results (looks like they wipe the floor as the last stage in the process).

Thanks again

Steve
 
Steve Ashton said:
As a full time pro photographer who had shot Digital for 6 years now My wife thinks I have gone mad when I got a film camera. Looks like it could be time to get some darkroom gear as well.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the dark side...
 
There is a phenomenon known as "grain aliasing" which can exaggerate the apparent grain size in scans made from negatives. I don't have any references, but I'm sure Google would. Basically, the cure is to scan at a (much) higher resolution whether you need it or not and then reduce the size appropriately.

I first noticed this when scanning the Walgreens/Agfa films at 1200 dpi. HUGE apparent grain. Scanning at 3200 dpi fixed it.

Also, if you don't like grain, there's a Photoshop plug-in called Neat Image that can help. It was written to get out digital noise, but it works quite well on grain as well.
 
Neat Image (or any other noise-reduction programme) tends to give woolly, aquarel-like details or even a plastic, digital-like look. If you want to avoid that use it only on the areas where grain is really apparent, like the sky.One of the advantages of Neat Image is that it has sliders for all grain parameters enabling you to retain as much of the film character as you wish. Then it is great. As film grain is multicoloured on scan you can also remove just the colour from the grain and leave the grain-structure intact, thereby losing as little sharpness and resolution as possible.
 
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