Digital BW, The Print

Thanks,
By "horrible" I mean that any b&w negative I attempt to scan, when 
opened in Photoshop is very very dark.  Almost how a negative appears 
when you just look at it with no back light.  Plus, the file has not 
been converted from a negative to a positive.  The Photoshop 
histogram shows all the data at the very dark end of the scale.

My workflow with Vuescan is EXACTLY as you have described.

I normally always shoot slide film exclusively & can scan & print all 
transparencies fine.  It is the negative b&w film only that this 
happens to.  I say this to indicate that the entire workflow is fine 
for these types of scans and prints.

It is almost like I am attempting to scan while not using the 
transparency setting but that is not the case.  The previews in 
Vuescan look fine.  It is only when I open in Photoshop afterwards 
that the problem is noticed.

I am attempting to scan medium & 4x5 negatives.

Bruce


>It would be helpful to know in what way your results are "horrible." 
>However, if you can print B&W fine from desaturated (desiderated?) 
>color negatives but not from b&w negatives and if your negatives 
>appear as negatives when opened in Photoshop,  it sounds like one or 
>more of your settings in Vuescan may be wrong. What settings are you 
>using in the "Device" tab? "Scan Mode" should 
>be "transparency," "Media Type" should be B/W Negative, "Bits Per 
>Pixel" should be 16 bit gray. Preview Resolution should be something 
>very low to speed things along, I use 100 dpi, Resolution should be 
>whatever you want, presumably the max that the 2450 is capable of 
>with a medium format negative. Then under "Color" tab set your film 
>type, if your film isn't there try setting it for T Max 100, set 
>your CI (around .55 is a good place to start with a normal 
>negative). The three colors are all set to 1, set your black and 
>white points based on the preview histogram or as a place to start 
>you could just use 0 for black and 1 for white.  See what happens.

>If by "Quadtone for Windows" b&w printing software you mean Roy 
>Harrington's new QTR then someone else will have to help you with 
>that, I haven't yet tried it yet.

>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "btvarner" <btvarner@...>
>To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 11:31 PM
>Subject: [Digital BW] Scanning Black & White Negatives




>I am new to this newsgroup & I hope this topic is correct for the 
>group.

>I have gotten aware from black & white since moving to mainly 
>digital capture.  I am now attempting to re-enter producing black & 
>white images in the digital darkroom.  I am not new to digital, just 
>to digital b&w.

>I currently have an Epson 2450 scanner which works "ok" for medium 
>format transparencies.  When I attempt to scan b&w negative film 
>however, the results are horrible.  Here is my two current questions.

>1)  How do you get good scans of b&w negative film?

>2)  When I scan b&w negative film and then open it in Photoshop, the 
>file is still a negative.  It has not been converted to a positive. 
>Also, the exposure is wayyyyyy off!  Always to dark, even though 
>during the scanning process the exposure looks fine.  What am I 
>doing wrong?

>My work flow is:
>Epson 2450 scanner
>Viewscan 7.6.18 scan software
>Photoshop CS
>Epson 2000 printer
>Quadtone for Windows b&w printing software

>By the way, I can print b&w fine with desiderated color images.

>Bruce Varner
>Kansas City metro area