Digital BW, The Print

Interesting method; I would be interested in the enlarging qualities of your
negatives. I too have 1000's of 6x7 and 6x9 negatives, and ended up with an
Epson V700. Does a fairly good job and with care can get a really good
looking 16x20. The down size is the length of time it takes to scan a
negative.
 
Mike

  _____  

From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jeff
Magidson
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 9:26 AM
To: digital bw group group
Subject: [Digital BW] B&W film Scanning with a DSLR



I thought I would relay this technique, maybe others can use it.

One piece of equipment I never got around to purchasing was a good 
film scanner for digitizing my older 6x7 cm B&W negatives. I did try 
some film scans on my Epson 2450 but it always felt the scans where 
lacking in comparisons to what I knew I could get with a good 
dedicated film scanner. There is no good way to focus the 2450 and 
none of the available software for this scanner does exactly what I 
want when scanning B&W negatives. I also contemplated sending out 
for scans but I was looking at $50+ for a good 16 bit scan and I 
really like doing these kind of things myself!

On a whim I tried shooting my medium format negatives with my Canon 
5D and I am thrilled with the results! Here is my setup:

I mounted my Canon 5D with a Canon 100mm macro F/ 2.8 USM lens on my 
copy stand. For a light source I'm using a Kaiser Prolight lightbox. 
I put down a sheet of black mat-board on top of the lightbox and cut 
out an opening the size of a single 6x7 cm frame. My exposures are 
approximately 1/6 of a sec at F/ 11. With these exposures I'm using 
the mirror lock up function of the 5D. I shoot in a dimly lit room.

I'm shooting Raw and converting the Raw riles using CS3 with camera 
Raw 4.1. Camera Raw allows amazingly good control over the contrast / 
tonality of the capture. Once in Photoshop I invert the image to a 
positive and do some further adjustments. I'm using the "reduce 
noise" filter in CS3 to smooth out the grain of my film negatives.

I'm VERY pleased with the final results... If I had sent out my 
negatives to be scanned at $50 a pop and gotten these results I would 
have felt I got my $ worth.

Has anyone else tried this technique? Anything to add?

-Jeff



 


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