Digital BW, The Print

Andre,

><paul.roark@v...> wrote:

>> 
>> With the Nikon and GEM enabled, the MF negs enlarge to 22 x 28 with
>> virtually no grain -- very nice indeed.


>Interesting. I see that you are using Nikon Scan as your scanning
>software. Do you use a fix number for digital GEM or are you able to
>judge before hand what level of grain reduction will be needed ?

I scan the negative twice.  With one scan GEM is turned off.  With the
second scan GEM is set to the maximum.  When the negative has not been
moved, it's easy then to clone over the sharp or grain-reduced (and a bit
softer) information as appropriate (the sky for GEM, in general).

>Also, is Nikon Scan Unsharp Masking worth using for early
>post-processing of b&w negatives ...

I never sharpen until I get into Photoshop.  I want the best raw scan
information as a starting point.  However, I've found GEM does a better job
than I could do in PS.  On the other hand, some of the 3rd party programs,
like Neat Image, are quite good and may even be used in addition to GEM.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com