Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Don" <elixirs4me@y...> 
wrote:

> 
> Do you really just lay the negatives down on the scanner?  Not in the
> holder?  wowo.  How do you keep the negatives flat?  I would like to
> try that on my 2450 but I didn't think it possible...
> 
> Don Karner

It is!  But you need to be clever about it.

If you look at the holders, you will notice a notch that runs along the top.  When the 
scanner sees the notch, it knows that the item being scanned is a transparency, not 
reflective media, and configures itself for transparency scanning.  So you have to use 
something to replicate the notch on the glass to make this work.

I do this several ways.  For scanning a frame of film, I took an 8x11 piece of matting 
board -- really, any similar material will do -- and cut out a notch at the top, and cut 
an opening the size of one film frame somewhere in the middle.  I then position the 
negative to be scanned on the glass, lay the board on top so the right negative frame 
appears in the cutout, close the lid and scan away.  You can cut the board so the 
opening's edges overlap the film's rebates (edges), or else you can cut it wide enough 
so that the rebates get scanned as well -- for an example of a full-frame scan, see 
this image of mine:

http://www.pbase.com/image/20916529
http://www.pbase.com/image/20920361

I also use the Epson flatbed to do rough scans of whole strips at a time, as a 
substitute for contact sheets.  I scan a strip at 600 dpi and that gives me plenty of 
detail for deciding which images to print and which to pass over.  For this, I have a 
thin strip of cardboard with the notch cut into it, that I position at the top of the 
scanner glass.  Then I just lay the strip on the glass, close the lid and scan it.  The 
strip won't be perfectly flat but even with moderate curl the scanner gives a good 
image of the negative, good enough at least for proofing purposes.  If the curl is 
excessive, I've been known to weigh the negative down with pennies at the edges -- 
not elegant, but it works.  Or, you can sleeve the negatives and scan through the 
sleeves.  Again, the image is more than adequate for proofing/reviewing a strip.

Finally, I sometimes shoot Polaroid 55 b+w negative film in 4x5 sheets.  Polaroid 55 
negatives are too big to fit in my Epson 4x5 film holder.  Again, I lay the negative 
directly onto the glass, and lay the Epson holder down on top of it, just as I do with 
the matting board on top of the 120 roll film negatives.  It works -- here are a couple 
of examples:

http://www.pbase.com/image/24159622
http://www.pbase.com/image/21566869

I've found that, for my 3200 at least, Tri-X and other b+w films behave better this 
way than in Epson's film holders.  If you do this, don't forget to flip the image in PS!

Sanders McNew
www.mcnew.net