Help with scanning | Shutterbug

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Submitted By: fotoman

Joined: Jan 28 2006

Posts:

Help with scanning

Posted: February 16, 2006 - 10:33am

I have scanned several negatives from different rolls of film under different lighting conditions, but the results I get is more or less the same every time.

The pictures that I get are a very unpleasing, flat "blah" of a mess. I have struggled quite a bit trying to figure out what it is that I am doing wrong, but I cannot seem to figure it out.

I am using a Dimage Scan Dual iV dedicated film scanner, so I doubt it is the scanner. It is most probably user error.

Do you have any thoughts? Attached is a picture that I scanned today.

Submitted By: David B. Brooks

Joined: Apr 19 2011

Posts:

Re: Help with scanning

Posted: February 16, 2006 - 1:00pm

You might read a basic how-to article on scanning B&W film that is available in the Shutterbug archives on our web site at: http://shutterbug.com/techniques/digital_darkroom/0902sb_bw/

Submitted By: fotoman

Joined: Jan 28 2006

Posts:

Re: Help with scanning

Posted: February 16, 2006 - 5:05pm

Thank you. I will definitely check that out. The problem is not only with B&W film though. I have some lovely prints from negatives that I have tried to scan aswell. The scans are aweful. I just cannot figure it out.

Submitted By: David B. Brooks

Joined: Apr 19 2011

Posts:

Re: Help with scanning

Posted: February 16, 2006 - 9:12pm

There are two components to scanning in addition to the hardware being used. One is the selection of software to both drive the scanner and adjust the scan on the basis of a preview scan before making a final scan. and the second component is operational skill which is made up of knowledge and practice.

Many scanners are supplied with a minimal software package programmed by the scanner manufacturer. Some scanners also are delivered with a much more sophisticated and effective software driver, usually Lasersoft SilverFast Ai6. Unless you have the latter, if you want to obtain effectively color corrected and adjusted image qualities, it is best to simply scan the film at the scanners full bit-depth without adjustment and saved to a raw 48-bit tiff file and then do all the color correction and image adjustment in Photoshop. For most photographers this involves a fairly steep learning curve supported by good how-to documentation and lots of practice. There is no magic bullet, and any simple one-click automatic correction and adjustment just yields mediocre blah to awful results when printed.

It's really no different than setting up a traditional darkroom and learning how to control the photographic process from ground zero if you haven't done it before, it's just a more pleasant, less smelly work environment doing it digitally on a computer, but really no easier. The principles that you have to understand and learn to control are the same.

I don't mean to be overly critical and discouraging, but usually anything very good like producing a fine photographic reproduction does not come easy, and if it did, doing it would not be of much value or very satisfying.