Advice on Digital Printing

[JADoss23]

Was curious if anyone had any tips on getting the best digital prints from negative scans? I have an Epson v750 and needing to make some prints for an upcoming show and wanted to get the best possible quality scans and files for printing. Unfortunately don't have access to darkroom so printing digitally. Any advice is much appreciated. thanks

 

[jtk]

Was curious if anyone had any tips on getting the best digital prints from negative scans? I have an Epson v750 and needing to make some prints for an upcoming show and wanted to get the best possible quality scans and files for printing. Unfortunately don't have access to darkroom so printing digitally. Any advice is much appreciated. thanks

T

Was curious if anyone had any tips on getting the best digital prints from negative scans? I have an Epson v750 and needing to make some prints for an upcoming show and wanted to get the best possible quality scans and files for printing. Unfortunately don't have access to darkroom so printing digitally. Any advice is much appreciated. thanks

Assuming they they follow Epson scanning instructions a person with a proper photo-dedicated printer and OEM pigments should be readily capable of better-than-darkroom prints...but they need to expend some effort in learning because it's no easier than darkroom work. My suggestion isn't technical, it's motivational.

 

[jim10219]

What size negatives are you printing? How big are your prints going to be? Are you printing E6, C41, or B&W film? How are your Photoshop skills (or whatever program you use)?

To get the best print, you need a high quality printer, high quality ink, high quality paper, and it usually helps to have your system calibrated with a spectrophotometer like an i1, especially if color accuracy is important to you. Of course, you'll also need the skills to manipulate the photos in the computer, especially if dealing with C41 color reversal film. Plus, unless you're scanning large format, a flatbed scanner like the Epson v750 probably isn't the best way to go. Scanning film is harder than printing, in my opinion.

My point being, digitally scanning and printing high quality photos isn't something that can be quickly learned. You not only need the software skills but also need familiarity with your particular setup and the quirks of each piece of hardware. What works for one person, may not work for another. I actually find it more difficult than darkroom printing.

So the best tip I can give you is to find someone local, perhaps another photographer, who has all of the equipment and experience necessary to make high quality prints, and pay them to do it. If you've been printing for a while yourself and have gotten to the point where you can do a pretty decent job, but are just looking for advice on how to get better, then we'd really have to know the specific areas you're having trouble with. It's certainly something anyone can learn, but expect it to take years to get good at it. It's as much of an art as it is a science.

 

[JADoss23]

I'm using 35mm and 120 C41 and E6 film negatives. I've scanned quite a bit over last couple years but always stuff I can learn. I use photoshop when need to make edits and the largest I plan on printing is 12x16. Don't need anything groundbreaking but just wanted a little advice on making sure prints aren't super pixelated or poor quality. thanks

 

[MattKing]

Make sure your entire workflow is calibrated, and that you are using the correct inks and printer profile for the paper you intend to use. Also make sure you view the results under good, consistent, high color fidelity light sources.
All scanned files require careful use of sharpening tools, and in many case different use in different parts of the image.
A 12"x16" print usually requires a file with something in the order of 3600 x 4800 pixels of real resolution for a high quality result, so if you are using a flatbed scanner, you are most likely either at the upper edges of its true optical resolution limits (usually about 1800 ppi) or exceeding those limits. If you have less actual optical resolution in the scan, you need to make careful use of software tools to enhance that resolution, in order to obtain pleasing (if somewhat artificial) results.

 

[4season]

My current technique is to scan with Epson V700 + Silverfast AI Studio @ 3200 DPI, and because multi-pass scans on my scanner don't seem to register very accurately, I don't rely much on auto dust removal or multi-exposure options. Silverfast AI has a number of film profiles, and where no exact match exists for my film, I just try one of the others and can usually get a pretty good match.

Although I have a 4x5 variable-height glass film holder from Better Scanning, most of the time I'm too lazy and just use Epson's carriers.

I recently picked up X-Rite's I1Studio monitor/printer calibration kit plus a Canon Pro-10 printer. Wish it weren't so large and heavy, but wow is the printer light years ahead of my ancient 6-color Epson - I see no strange tinges of color in black and white prints, and if I can see tonal value separations on-screen, they'll generally be visible in the print too. Sheen on my pearl-finish prints looks totally uniform too - I guess that Canon's Gloss Optimizer works.

Working as I do with profiled monitor printer/ink/paper, things are almost, but not quite, click-and-print simple: In Lightroom, I crank up print brightness somewhat. I do this from the Print tab where it acts as a global adjustment for any image that I print.

 

[jtk]

NIK.