Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/09/12

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Subject: [Leica] basic scanning questions
From: don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory)
Date: Mon Sep 12 19:05:51 2005
References: <20050912233551.27540.qmail@web51013.mail.yahoo.com>

Bill,
First, are you using a flat bed scanner or a dedicated film scanner? 
If you are using a flatbed scanner then I would tend to scan either
medium or large format film or a finished print.

If you are using a film scanner then you can do equally well scanning
negatives or transparencies.  One fact of life is that B&W film does
not scan well with scratch and dust removal software turned on. You
will either learn to take really good care of your negatives or you
will switch to the chromagenic films that do allow scratch and dust
rumoval software.

As to quality, it matters most that you start with a really good
original.  Negative stock has a much greater density range so you can
take somewhat less care in exposure than with transparency films.

My experience in scanning film is that you need to start with an idea
of how the image should look.  Start with a pre-scan, set your black
and white points, adjust your curve to yield a transition in the
mid-tones that works for the image.  You should also do a fairly good
evaluation of color balance at this stage.  The more work you do
pre-scan the less mundane work you will have to do in PS.

0.02

Don
don.dory@gmail.com

On 9/12/05, Bill Smith <wrs111445@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Can you scan negatives as well as prints in B/W and color? Which is 
> preferable as far as quality? Is it better quality-wise to scan slides 
> rather than film negatives?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
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In reply to: Message from wrs111445 at yahoo.com (Bill Smith) ([Leica] basic scanning questions)