Digital BW, The Print

Brief comments on processing B&W film for scanning.

I've been trying various methods to optimise B&W film development for
scanning and digital post-processing over the past few years. I've
looked at grain pattern, acutance (or lack of it), density range and
the effect of staining developers. The idea was to get a good match
between the density range of the film original and the capabilities of
the scanner. The fact that it is a match between film and scanner
implies that different scanners will require different characteristics
in the original for optimum match. I've been doing my trials with the
Polaroid 4000, Nikon 4000, Nikon 8000, Nikon 5000, Nikon 9000 and
lately the Imacon 949. 
 
Reversal processing seemed to offer one good solution. I started
extensive tests with dr5, but David 'Doctor' Wood keeps getting upset
with my views on dr5 and just about everything else in the world, and
has attempted legal proceedings against me, so I'm going to keep
clear, apart from saying that dr5 is an excellent process with no
commercial equal that I am aware of. I honestly recommend that
everyone should try dr5 at least once.

The attraction of reversal processing is that you can get a large
density range without the high graininess that would occur if you
developed a neg to the same DR. However, the D-max can be too high. If
you do your own processing you can control D-max. If you are
developing for scanning rather than projection, image colour isn't a
problem, so your choice of second developers is wide.

With staining developers I found some grain masking effect, if scanned
in RGB followed by channel mixing, but the high acutance/sharpness
seems to work against the low graininess. It all depends on what you
want. Overall, I preferred XTOL or Perceptol 1+3 for scanning, aiming
for low graininess and low sharpness, with sharpness being recovered
later by USM or whatever. 

Comparing graininess in a truly objective and useful way is not easy,
of course. 

Best,
Helen