[filmscanners] Shadow speckling

["Peter Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net>]

I love CN Black and White film.  It has a beautiful look and tonal range,
and it scans well.  But there's one problem.  Take a look at the following
picture, a crop of a larger scan, reduced 50%.  It's a picture a friend
took of me with strong sidelight, on Kodak Portra 400 B&W.  It's 138K, no
adjustments besides the size and conversion to Jpeg.

http://www.2alpha.com/~pklein/temp/25PeterSidelightSummilux.jpg

See how the shadow side of my face is all speckled?  Instead of fading to
black, the scan fades to grit.  I used to think that this problem was just
grain aliasing with my 2700 dpi Nikon LS-2000 scanner.  But this shot was
scanned with my friend's 4000 dpi Poloroid (the one that takes both 35mm
and 120 film).

I've been plagued with these grungy shadows whenever I use CN film in
available-light situaitons.  Can I get the expertise of the group on how
to avoid them?  If I have to expose supposedly 400 ISO film at 200, that
limits the usefulness of CN film.  I loved printing for rich, black
shadows in the wet darkroom.  I'd like to get them out of scans as well.

Thanks,
--Peter Klein
Seattle

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