Shooting BW film for scanning

[Michael Bailey]

I'm not sure this is the right forum for this question, but since it gets more traffic, I'll give it a try.

I'm starting to shoot more black and white sheet film. My plan is to develop it in trays, then scan it. Back when I was printing film in the conventional darkroom, I could rely on techniques like "proper proofing" to judge my exposure and development times. But now with scanning I've got a whole new bunch of rubber yardsticks.

Can anyone help me, or recommend a reference, with information on refining this technique?

Thanks,

MB

[Chris_Brown]

I'm starting to shoot more black and white sheet film. My plan is to develop it in trays, then scan it. Back when I was printing film in the conventional darkroom, I could rely on techniques like "proper proofing" to judge my exposure and development times. But now with scanning I've got a whole new bunch of rubber yardsticks.

Can anyone help me, or recommend a reference, with information on refining this technique?[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I found the most important thing is processing the film to control details in the shadows and highlights to the point that a flatter negative, with more details, gives you more options when scanning, retouching and printing.

When scanning film you can set the endpoints and overall gamma of the scan to whatever you want, making the shadows as black as the printer will print and highlights as white as the paper base, with any contrast you want inbetween. By varying these input parameters you can scan a low contrast neg and give it high contrast.

However, you can't take a high contrast neg, one without details in shadows and highlights, and make a scan with those details. You can reduce its contrast in the scan, but the details will not be there because they aren't in the film.

To paraphrase Ansel, the neg is still the score and scanning & editing (i.e., post production) are the performance. You want a neg with all the detail you can get so that during editing you have more choices in post.

As for film, in the studio using strobes I always preferred Plus-X because it was so flat. I exposed at ISO 80 and pulled the processing a tad. But on location its ISO is too low and resorted to Tri-X and eventually T-Max 400. I never liked the T-Max films because I couldn't control the contrast as I could with Tri-X. Unlike, say, [a href=\"http://www.johnsexton.com/]John Sexton[/url], who uses the T-Max films very successfully.

Last month I shot a few boxes of Polaroid 55 and found it extremely fun to work with, but not as satisfying in post because I couldn't control the overall contrast of the neg. I could overexpose and get shadow detail but highlight detail separation was lost. Conversely, I could expose for the highlights but shadow detail was lost. It was a fun time though.

What films & processing techniques do you plan on using?

[Michael Bailey]

Thanks for your informative reply, Chris.

To answer your question, I am currently using Ilford HP-5 and developing it in ID-11 mixed 1:1.

Reasons: HP-5 because it's more easily available from my dealer than Tri-X. Like you I've never had much luck with T-Max films. Maybe they just need better development control than I'm willing to devote to them.

Why ID-11, 1:1? I never thought I'd go back to using a powder developer that I'd have to mix up so often, but in the 1 liter packets it's manageable and one-shot. I'd really like to use a long-life developer like X-Tol, which used to be my standard, or better still HC-110, but they just don't deliver the film speed I get with the D-76/ID-11 type recipes.

In 8x10 I really want the film speed. I don't shoot it for super grain or resolution. I shoot it for the way the 8x10 camera makes me approach picture taking, so if I can avoid having to do portraits at a half second, I'm happier.

While I'm at it, I'd like to refine my original question a little. When using this straight-to-scanner method, is there a way to determine a suitable file speed rating?

Thanks again.

[Chris_Brown]

To answer your question, I am currently using Ilford HP-5 and developing it in ID-11 mixed 1:1.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=149247\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

8x10 film! Nice!

I've never used Ilford films, just their papers which I thought were the best available.

What scanner & software will you be using?

I have a Howtek drum scanner and when scanning very coarse grain films I sometimes open up the aperture one stop and over-sample the film. This gives a softer edge to the film grain and prevents the grain from becoming objectionable during post.

[sergio]

I aim for low contrast negatives. What I do is underdevelop somewhat so that my highlights aren´t so dense thus helping the scanner to capture all the info. Sometimes I overexpose a tiny bit to compensate for the tonal shift underdevelopment can produce. It works very well and it scans beautifully. I shoot TMAX 100 developed with D76 1:1 @ 20C.

Unfortunately I cannot get film that easily nowadays. I used to shoot Polaroid type 55 and it works beautifully too for scanning. Aim for the negative, not the pola print, which have different speeds.

[Michael Bailey]

----What scanner & software will you be using?....

I use an Epson 1680 flatbed scanner with an updated version of the SilverFast it shipped with. (Very good software which takes a while to figure out.) It may not be the ideal tool for the job, but I've been very happy with it.