Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/05/14

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Subject: [Leica] B&W analog-digital workflow
From: dr.chippendale at kontakt-mit-linsen.com (Dr. Chippendale)
Date: Sun May 14 20:23:50 2006

Adam Bridge wrote:
> So why use the scanner software at all and just do it in a tool
> designed for pixel manipulation: Photoshop?
> 
> Yes, you can adjust the input curves in your scanning software, but
> that's no different than adjusting the curves in Photoshop.
> 
> So lots of time spent scanning seems wasted - get the pixels in and
> then deal with them in Photoshop.
> 
> I'm totally willing to be convinced this is wrong-thinking but you're
> going to have to demonstrate why this is the case.

Adam,

You raise exactly the point I was trying  to make when I stated here
http://homepage.mac.com/chammann/foto/Personal35.html that I scan my B&W
negatives as positives. I think It does matter how you scan because, like
any digital recording medium (not different from a digital camera's sensor),
a scanner  puts the emphasis on the lower half of the light values (the
bottom half of the histogram). Values in the higher zones get less
differentiated. So yo get two different tonalities that can only be modified
later on in Photoshop.
Case in point: same negative of a rock abstract, scanned as a positive:
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/515678/display/5652501
And scanned as a negative:
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/cat/1758/display/5672679
Excuse thew slightly different cropping. I prefer the tonality of the first
one.
Greetings, Christoph



Replies: Reply from abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge) ([Leica] B&W analog-digital workflow)
Reply from philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent) ([Leica] B&W analog-digital workflow)