Scanning B&W prints to gallery

[gma]

Am I correct in assuming that typically B&W prints are scanned in color mode for the gallery pages? If so, is there any advantage in using color rather than grey scale setting, in addition to retaining the warm or cool tones?

 

[jim kirk jr.]

In my brief time here I've come to the conclusion that,at least with my scanner,If I want an image to come anywhere close to the original print I need to do it in color and then turn it back to b&w.otherwise,for me they turn out flat,with alot of detail gone and noticeably reduced sharpness.But again this is only my limited experience.

 

[shinn]

Could someone please give more tips on scanning for APUG galleries...

Last night I made my very first scan and I definately need some pointers.

Happy Days
Mark

 

[Leitz_Lad]

Ok,

I know from scanning monochrome negs, that u should scan it as colour, then de-saturate it in photoshop rather than using gray scale. Becuase u have 2 drop ur bit depth 2 work in gray scale, resulting in MAJOR info loss.

from my limited experience, would be nice to talk to some experts about it, eh.

 

[Les McLean]

All my images in the APUG gallery have been made from a 16 bit grayscale negative tiff scan for I do a lot of digital imaging as well as analogue so I need a large file to make quality digtal prints on art paper. The images are then manipulated in PS to match the analogue print that I've made. I then prepare a small file to submit to the gallery by downsizing the image to 72ppi jpeg file that is generally 100 to 175k in size. I used to scan in RGB and convert to black and white using grayscale but I've long since abandoned that road.

 

[Leon]

I too always scan (negatives at least) in 16 bit greyscale. do my local and overall contrast tweaks in 16 bit greyscale to match the print values, convert to 8 bit, then to RGB, then apply a Colour Balance layer (in photoshop) to match print colour/ toning, resize to about 550 to 600 dpi on the longest side, apply very small amounts of USM repeatedly until i get an acceptable sharpness, then use save for web feature of Photoshop.

Hope that hasnt upset too many purists ()

 

[gma]

It is ironic that we have to become so competent at digital imaging to be able to show our traditional photographic work.

 

[Andy K]

I scan in 8 bit greyscale 256 shades. Then I resize for display and display the picture.

I see no point at all in polluting my photos in Photoshop so they 'look the same' on screen because every monitor is different, and what I see as correct another might not.