Anyone scanning glass plates v850

moziee · Dec 23, 2021

Hi - I'm sorting through / scanning a large archive of glass plate negatives and curious to know if anyone has done similar.
I've tested out various approaches using the v850 scanner and what seems to work for me is ->
Scanning the neg as a colour positive(!) transparency since this gives me access to some deeper scan options.

If I scan as negative B&W I get few options and the results are always very underexposed - also the final results when compared to a colour pos scan are not to sharp / refined.

Any thoughts ??

Also I'm scanning half and quartet plates at 4800dpi and the initial file size is 800+mg reduced to 300 when colour removed.
Is it worth scanning at this resolution? At what point is there no real gain in increasing the scan resolution?

All thoughts appreciated!

Malc

Nodda Duma · Dec 23, 2021

Hi Malc,

I scan plates at 16 bit grayscale. No real reason to scan color.

Adjust the black and white points during preview to cover the histogram of the plate, and then adjust the midpoint to give an acceptable looking preview image.

I always have to adjust those when scanning plates since the software doesn’t do so.

I usually don’t scan higher than 2400 dpi, and tbh usually scan 600 dpi if not archiving a digital copy of my plates.

Hope this helps.

digital_archivist · Dec 23, 2021

I've been getting nice results with a DSLR; I have an old Polaroid MP-4 with camera adapter that I use as a copystand, a D610 DSLR with a 105 Micro Nikkor, a Kaiser light panel and some cardboard masks. Much faster and better than I was getting with my Epson V750, save for the spotting.

alanrockwood · Dec 27, 2021

moziee said:
Hi - I'm sorting through / scanning a large archive of glass plate negatives and curious to know if anyone has done similar.
I've tested out various approaches using the v850 scanner and what seems to work for me is ->
Scanning the neg as a colour positive(!) transparency since this gives me access to some deeper scan options.

If I scan as negative B&W I get few options and the results are always very underexposed - also the final results when compared to a colour pos scan are not to sharp / refined.

Any thoughts ??

Also I'm scanning half and quartet plates at 4800dpi and the initial file size is 800+mg reduced to 300 when colour removed.
Is it worth scanning at this resolution? At what point is there no real gain in increasing the scan resolution?

All thoughts appreciated!

Malc

I have some old glass stereo slides that I scan with a V750. I usually do scan in black and white using the green channel of vuescan.

250swb · Dec 29, 2021

moziee said:
Scanning the neg as a colour positive(!) transparency since this gives me access to some deeper scan options.

That is how I would do it, scan full RGB not only because it gives more options as you say, but because if scrutinised old slides are rarely/never pure greyscale, Greyscale only exists in the printing industry and for people with the crudest view of 'B&W' photography. And over and above aesthetic considerations that photographers have always had, whether their print should be on a warm or cool paper, by making old slides Greyscale you are editing out an aspect of their social history, albeit it may be a small apart but if people saw a warm tone image projected scan it as a warm tone image in RGB.

Anyone scanning glass plates v850

moziee

Nodda Duma

digital_archivist

alanrockwood

250swb

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