Digital BW, The Print

I have used digital capture with medium format with a good workflow 
and printing.

I have missed the conventional darkroom from a processing 
standpoint, but not for printing.

Alas, I have been shooting film again(BW only) and I was interested 
in any input in terms of the workflow for scanning negative BW film 
right up to the point of photoshop. With digital, it's "capture one" 
with RAW image processing in photoshop.

With film, (I have a NIkon ls 9000 scanner) for best control of the 
negative in a raw sense, does anyone have a reliable workflow? 
Vuescan or silverfast ai software? Grayscale or RGB scan modes, etc.?

Many thanks!

> With film, (I have a NIkon ls 9000 scanner) for best control of the 
> negative in a raw sense, does anyone have a reliable workflow? 
> Vuescan or silverfast ai software? Grayscale or RGB scan modes, 
etc.?
> 
> Many thanks!

I use the latest version of VueScan with three different scanners, 
but not with the N 9000. However I scan in 48 bit RGB TIF and try to 
set the white and black point slider at the ends of the preview 
histogram.

This usually leaves a flat image which is adjusted later in PS. You 
can play with the gamma settings to do some midtone adjustments. 
Practice makes perfect. Sharpen in PS not VS, also set the RAW file 
output to on. That way if you need to make an adjustment at the 
scanner level you don't have to rescan the film.

You can use the RAW file in PS or the regular TIF. I would suggest 
using the regular TIF file to begin with.

Don Bryant

I scan my medium format negatives in a Polaroid Sprintscan 120 with 
Silverfast. By selecting the negative mode the Negafix component of Silverfast 
automatically takes over. I think the following workflow should be appropriate 
for most scanning software,though. Choose the bit depth that you want to 
scan in (36-48 is preferred unless you have a real memory constraint). Scan 
your black and white negatives in RGB not grayscale. Do the grayscale 
conversion in photoshop. Some advise scanning at the resolution required for 
the ultimate print size  you want, but many , including me, scan at the highest 
resolution the scanner will do. In my setup that is 4000 dpi, enough to capture 
full information from the 6x7 negative. That results in a pretty large file, but if 
you archive it on a CD or external drive, you don't have to scan again when 
you change your mind about print size. I do a simple levels adjustment. (black 
and white points) Silverfast has an exposure slider as well, and I use that to 
kick up exposure on negatives that  look underexposed to me. But go easy on 
this step. If the scan is difficult to work with in Photoshop, you can go back and 
rescan with another overall density adjustment. The main objective of the 
scan is to get all the information, as noise free as possible, from the negative. I 
rarely use curves at the scanning stage, preferring to do most of my local 
contrast and other adjustments in photoshop. I do not sharpen in the scan 
software. After checking that my scan settings are what I want (RGB,  4000 
dpi, 36-48 bit), I hit the scan button. When the scan is complete and it opens in 
Photoshop, the first thing I do is prepare the file for archiving. Viewing at 
actual pixels, I inspect the whole file cleaning up spots and artifacts with the 
clone tool or the healing brush. Then I make a copy for a working file and 
rename it, saving the original in an archive folder on an external device.