Digital BW, The Print

Mark,

I agree 100%. Get the best scanner you can afford and run it 
yourself. I have gotten much better results from Polaroid Sprintscans 
4000 and 120 then the drum scans I have had made. Not because their 
equipment isn't better but there are key creative choices that the 
photographer needs to make.

If you could get true raw scans from an out side source (something I 
wonder about) that would be fine but since my raw scans off the SS120 
are 550MB I would quickly be over budget.

Martin

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Mark Tucker" 
<mtucker508@y...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., SKID Photography 
> <skid@b...> wrote:
> > Try it yourself.  Go to Nancy Scans or some other good, high 
> end service bureau, you might be amazed. 
> 
> I agree with Martin; the tones seem smooth and creamy. What 
> more could have been done, maybe more contrast work in 
> photoshop on the existing scan?
> 
> I have tried letting outside labs do scans for me, but even though 
> they mean well, and they're fine citizens and all that, it's just 
not 
> their image. Nor do they have any sixth-sense feeling about what 
> the scan should feel like. So, for me, I don't think I could EVER 
let 
> someone else do a scan for me.
> 
> I know I'm spoiled to the Imacon, with it's great preview 
functions. 
> But so much of the interpretation of the neg happens at this 
> stage of the game. Unless I had the permission to be standing 
> there while a lab made a scan for me, (which I'm sure they'd say 
> no to, because I'd be pacing and making suggestions and be 
> generally an annoyance), then I'd say ANY scan that YOU made, 
> even from an inferior-hardware scanner , would be better than a 
> scan from some high-end thing, made by someone who wasn't 
> there when you shot the image.
> 
> I know there are people who would argue this, but I also think 
> there's some mojo to having the photographer have his 
> thumbprint on all steps of the process. Somehow, you can just 
> feel it. Especially in your style of shooting, it's gotta be you 
doing 
> it.
> 
> Anyway, that lab would be in there with the Rubber Stamp tool, 
> trying to take out all those Scotch Tape lines. Wouldn't THAT be 
> special? No way. That musician in that shot would come out 
> looking like some Republican MBA after a lab got done "cleaning 
> up" your scan.
> 
> -Mark
> 
> PS. And I've just gotta ask: What does SKID actually stand for? I 
> can't figure it out. Every time I see this name, I think of "skid 
> marks" which doesn't exactly conjure up the most romantic 
> feelings. I've tried putting your names in various combinations, 
> but can't come up with SKID-anything...