New Plustek 8200i with SF SE+ 8 question

[Blooze]

I picked up my first dedicated 35mm scanner a couple of months ago and having finally received my new computer build tried it for the first time last night. I will be using it 99% of the time for B&W negatives.

I was wondering if someone may be able to direct me to doing anything different in my process?

So far the best look I've gotten is to scan using the setting for negative, color 48-24bit, Negafix set to the film at hand (in this case Delta 100), and adjusting the combined RGB histogram with the points to give me the widest tonal range and the midtone at zero. All sharpening, etc...is off. I've set the software to scan on Standard Photo with 3200 dpi and exporting as a tiff file.

I believe this is how I did the following scan (trying to remember off the top of my head). PP is CS4 with slight curve adjustment, dust removal, some dodge/burn, slight sharpening, and converting to sRGB.

 

[ctscanner]

To my eye the scan looks fine - perhaps a bit on the subdued side, but that's a question of taste, subject matter, what you are trying to achieve with the image.etc!

What I would recommend is that you experiment with some of the settings available to you in SF8. That would give you an idea of how you can adjust the image at the scan level - before you even bring it into your Photo-editing program for final adjustments. For example; an area I normally will tweak is adjustments to the Histogram: working with individual channels vs RGB, clipping vs setting Black and White points at each distribution end-point, and making mid-tone adjustments. I will almost always make Curve adjustents.

Enjoy your setup, and don't be afraid to experiment. Last of all, post some of your results on the Gallery - this place could use a little activity.

George

 

[Pioneer]

Likewise, the scan looks good to me. Contrast is low but I personally prefer this as it provides a good start point for post processing.

Enjoy the scanner. I use a 7600i and it also does a pretty good job on 35mm negatives.

 

[StoneNYC]

It would help to see the scans you thought were NOT good.

Scanning in B&W for a B&W negative makes a lot more sense than CN film

 

[artobest]

I always scan b&w in colour, then use the Channel Mixer in PS to isolate the sharpest channel.

 

[StoneNYC]

I always scan b&w in colour, then use the Channel Mixer in PS to isolate the sharpest channel.

But... B&W film has no color channels... That makes no sense. (To me).

 

[artobest]

The film doesn't, but the scanner does. For example, on the Epson V750, green is the sharpest channel - so scanning in colour and isolating green gives a sharper scan than scanning in "b&w" (ie, in all colours and converting to grayscale).

 

[StoneNYC]

The film doesn't, but the scanner does. For example, on the Epson V750, green is the sharpest channel - so scanning in colour and isolating green gives a sharper scan than scanning in "b&w" (ie, in all colours and converting to grayscale).

Hmm I'll have to try this but I don't believe it hah! But I'll try.

 

[ctscanner]

The other thing that I like about scanning "b&w" in color is the slight toning effect that can be achieved.

 

[StoneNYC]

The other thing that I like about scanning "b&w" in color is the slight toning effect that can be achieved.

What I don't like is the file size increases by 3... Seems to me a lot of wasted space, but I'll give it a try with the one channel color (if I can figure out how) and see maybe then the file isn't as big as it doesn't record the other channels?

 

[Pioneer]

I also scan black and white film in color, it just provides some extra processing options. Always nice to have options.

 

[artobest]

Stone, you use the Channel Mixer in PS. If you want, you can then convert to grayscale, but I prefer RGB so I can add toning if I want. Storage is cheap ...