Digital BW, The Print

Frank,

Right off the bat ask them to upgrade to the current version of Silverfast
for the 120 which is version 5.5.2r20 for Windows, 5.5.2r08 for the Mac OS
or 5.5.2r11 for Mac OS X. These are free upgrades and the 5.5 will be very
important for you. With the 5.2 version you cannot scan directly to 16-bit.
You can only get 16-bit with version 5.2 by doing a raw scan or what
Silverfast refers to as a HDR scan.

So if you are working with Silverfast 5.2, under options set the gamma to
2.2 (to match PS 2.2 grayscale), check the "for HDR output" box, scan
everything to 16-bit HDR Grayscale. Scan at 4000 dpi to get the most info
out of the negs. This will give you raw tiff files that you can edit in
Photoshop. They will look rather compressed but will expand out just fine.

If you have version 5.5 also set the gamma to 2.2 but scan directly to a
16-bit grayscale file and use Silverfast's level's command to set the white
and black points just outside the data range. This will save you time in PS
and will translate the scanners 14-bit data over a broader portion of the
16-bit space of the file. You could use the other functions in Silverfast
but time will be money and you can do the same things later in PS.

The solution to perfect flatness with the 120 is to use the glass carrier.
If it doesn't come with one, I would not be concerned in regard to flatness.
The problem with the medium format carrier and, to a lesser extent, the 35mm
carrier is that they are not full frame. On my medium format negs I lose
about 1mm on the sides. This may vary depending upon the camera you used
since not all camera have the same frame width.

Definitely scan in 16-bit! You can switch down to 8-bit later in the process
but you want to do as much as you can in 16-bit at the start.

As to scanning in grayscale or RGB there is debate. Since you are on the
clock the grayscale route would seem to be the way to go. An RGB file is
three times as big as a grayscale file.

What are they going to charge you to use the scanner and how long is the
"day"? You will probably find that you will use the first day just getting
acquainted with everything. After you have taken your scans home and worked
with them you may find you want to rescan some of them.

Do your math. If you really have a mountain of negs be sure you don't wind
up paying for a substantial portion of a 120 bit by bit.

Also, how will you get your files home? You will need to burn them onto a CD
and this takes time as well. A 4000 dpi grayscale scan of a 6x6 neg will be
about 160 MB so at best you will only be able to get 3, maybe 4 scans on a
single CD.

Of course if this is a rental you can bring home and hook up to your
computer it will be a much better deal or if you have a lap top to take to
the scanner to transfer files.

Martin Wesley

http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html



----- Original Message -----
From: "frankg_photo" <frank@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 2:55 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] tips please -SprintScan120


> I cannot afford to purchase one of these Polaroid 120 film scanners
> but a local photo equip rental house has a unit with Silverfast 5.2
> available to rent on a daily basis - I have a mountain of black &
> white 120 & 35mm negs to scan.
>
> Can you offer any pointers to help me get the very highest quality
> scans possible ?
>
> One thing I searched the archive for but I didn't turn up any
> results  - apparently there is a way of keeping the film flatter
> (particularly the 120 negs) for a sharper result ?
>
> I guess I should scan 16 bit not 8 ? Comments ?
>
> Should I scan in 256 greyscale mode ?
>
> I'm using Photoshop6 & Windows98SE
>
> Thanks
> Frank
>
>
>
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