Black & White Film Negatives

DM
Posted By
Dennis_Menzenski
Apr 27, 2007
Views
465
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Hello,
I wish make the move from a conventional wet B&W darkroom to scanning and printing 35mm Black & White negatives to make black and white prints. Has anyone in the Photoshop user community done this? Can you give me some advice on first steps. Scanners? Printers? Is Photoshop appropriate? Many thanks.

Dennis Menzenski
Related Tags
black black and white film negative white

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Apr 27, 2007
Photoshop is very good for this.

For 35mm, you need a good scanner. Certain Nikons sre quite good, but Nikon concentrates on color, IMO.

Epson flat bedsa are excellent, and 1/5 the price of the Nikon. The 4990 or the 700 is where to look.

Some here have had issues with the Epson 700, but I haven’t seen any here in Portland.

If you have a good store catering to pros, they might be open to letting you test scan.

I have been doing 120 b&w and color scans for at least 5 years now.
TT
Toby_Thain
Apr 28, 2007
Drum scans work fine too (commercial repro), if you’re aiming at highest quality.
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Apr 28, 2007
Correct. But at $50 per, you can buy a scanner that does 90%+ of your needs in only 8 or 10 drum scans.
KS
Kenneth_Seidman
Apr 28, 2007
I use an Minolta Multi Pro with excellent results for medium format 100 TMAX B/W. I use it in B/W Positive mode with a device called a Scanhancer.

<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/multipro/>

It also does 35 mm but unfortunately it has been discontinued so your only alternative would be to get one used. Based on a little experience with an Epson flatbed scanner I think if you plan to print 11×14 or larger you will want a film scanner. The Nikon 5000 may be a reasonable alternative. (Check Yahoo Groups for a dedicated user forum).

Photoshop is great for doing B/W, either from scanned input B/W or from color film scans converted to BW (I use Velvia or Astia 100 F which make very high quality, sharp and low grain B/W images). I still maintain a wet darkroom after 20 + years but the B/W prints I make on my Epson 7800 are invariably better than any I could make in the darkroom. The amount of control and creativity that Photoshop provides is terrific.

Printers: The Epson line of printers 3800, 4800, 7800 is excellent for B/W (and color) printing. You can tone your prints using the Advanced B/W mode with the Epson Printer Driver (e.g. to get any degree of selenium toned look, or a warm tone, etc). There is a huge variety of papers. Not enough space to go into it here but check out sites like:

<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/EpsonWideFormat/> <http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/>
www.photo.net
www.dpreview.com

There is a lot of info available on-line. It can be overwhelming but I think the results of searching through it to find what works for you will be worth it.

Good Luck,
Ken
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Apr 28, 2007
I have printed 30×30 from an Epson scanner. When I got that order, I sprung for a drum scan. So far as sharpness, no difference at size, but overall scan quality, we always picked the Epson as the better scan.

The film is Tech Pan.

Most people make the mistake of thinking the output is soft. It sharpens brilliantly, and from my point of view, a better job can be done after scsnning.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections