From: <scott@adrenaline.com>
First, if you haven't seen this page, take a look: it's got lots of sample
scans.
>>>>>>>>>>
(1) I haven't been so lucky with FP4+, where the highlights are blown
routinely even with extremely conservative development, as in
HC110 dilution H at only 8 minutes. I did some film speed tests
per Les McLean's book. Black cardboard, white cardboard, lots
of cloth, metal, glass stuff on top. Meter with an incident meter and
then shoot +2, +1, +0, -1, -2 stops for a whole 35mm roll. Cut into
three strips and develop different ways.
The coolscan barfed on the highlights (white cardboard) every time
except for the -2 stop exposures. But then the shadow detail was
unacceptable, as you can imagine.
<<<<<<<<<<<<
Try scanning your negatives as positives, and then inverting in your photo
editor.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I want to use slower films to support some larger enlargements. I'm
about to start experimenting with Delta 100 and Fuji Acros, but these
seem to have even less forgiving contrast curves than FP4+ from
what I read.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Yes. If you look at the response curves, you will see that the ISO 100 films
all have a much shorter tonal range (higher contrast) than the ISO 400
films. When I have my digital hat on, I love to rant that the film partisans
are sleazy snake oil salespersons with the egregious trick of advertising
the latitude of Tri-X (and the ISO 400 consumer color films) and the grain
of the ISO 100 films and not fessing up that you can't have both at the same
time.
>>>>>>>>>>>
I've been trying to tweak analog gain, but this is limited, because big
tweaks increase grain appearance, which negates the whole point of
using slower film in the first place.
<<<<<<<<<<<
Again, try scanning as positives and invert after the fact. Scan in 16-bit
mode and do your inversion and Levels/Curves adjustments in 16-bit mode.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(2) I often get what look like weird bright reflections off the grain. Not
in highlight areas. It's like bright specs, visible at 1:1 mag. This
stuff really
makes its appearance known during USM. I wonder if this is due to the
Coolscan's LCD light source? don't know.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Hmm. The only B&W films I've scanned on my 8000 are Tech Pan and TMAX 100.
Here's what the Tech Pan looked like:
Note the blown highlights in this crop:
>>>>>>>>>>>
Anyway, howdy to the list from a new member. I do need to experiment with
scanning B&W film as a positive and see what I get going that route.
<<<<<<<<<<
Didn't I just say that<g>.
David J. Littleboy
davidjl@gol.com
Tokyo, Japan
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