Digital BW, The Print

Bruce,

I pretty much agree with your conclusions. However, I find color
transparencies to scan at the higher ppi resolutions MUCH smoother
than film does, like say Tri X or even color neg film, especially very
fast color film.

I also think this varies with the particular scanner. On my old
Howteks I actually see smoother less grainy rendition when scanning
the same output of 4x5 at 2000 ppi vs 4000 ppi. That is evaluating the
print from those scans as well as the file on screen. A lot depends on
how large you have to go with the print of course and how much
sharpening you have to do.

I noticed on the DPL software on an Aztek drum scanner( which I
personally don't have) that they have recommended settings that
actually scan negs at lower ppi than one would want for a particular
file size when printing at 360 dpi or so. In other words upsampling a
smaller file size scan actually was used in that case to achieve a 360
dpi print resolution.

I think the quality of the software used, the quality and age of the
scanner used, and the type of film all play a role but.. my overall
impression is that I never scan anything with higher scanner ppi than
I am going to need for a particular print size. In the end, I think
you have to get to know the qualities of your own equipment.

John

 
> My conclusion was that the second school was more fitting for my own 
> work -- no lower than 300 ppi output resolution at full print size. 
> Clearly YMMV and you should do your own testing to find out what really 
> works for you.
> --
> Bruce Watson
>