How do you scan B&W negatives correctly?

seashaker

seashaker

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Steve
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Afternoon all,

I have had a little search on here and cannot find what I'm looking for.

I am trying to scan the negatives from my Polaroid 101 using my Epson PX700W, so far my work through has tried to scan them in B&W and Colour, then inverting them in Photoshop cs6.

I am not sure if it is the scanner not working correctly or what, if you focus on Spidey for a second, (top right) his eyes are fine as have converted to white but the webbing and spider on his suit have also converted to white.

The results have been pretty terrible.
(please ignore the dust, etc on the scan, I'm only interested in whats happening to the scan as it were to get the 'colours' right at this stage)

Hope someone can help out a bit, it's driving me mad!

First is an iPhone capture of the print:

9912063674_015ed44852.jpg
[/url]
photo 4 by steviejack, on Flickr[/IMG]

Next is the problem, negative as per above looks terrible, (this attempt was scanned in B&W, however the results are the same if it is colour)

10070253154_c7662f6ecc.jpg
[/url]
Untitled-1 by steviejack, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
is the scanner in "colour" mode. does it think your trying to scan a colour negative instead of B&W, ive done that a couple of times and you do get that odd look to the scan.
 
It looks to me as though the negative frame is within the dynamic range of the scanner, but the tonal range is being compressed. What scanning software are you using? If you are using EpsonScan in professional mode, make sure you adjust the histogram sliders to make the image look "normal". Be sure also to press the "output" button as well and check this histogram. If when pressing and holding the "output" button the histogram is clipping off the edges, release and bring the sliders inwards. I suspect what is happening here though, is that the whole dynamic range of the image is being compressed into a small tonal range towards the middle of the histogram. Spread the sliders out and that should make a difference.

If you're not using EpsonScan, let us know what software you are using and, if possible / necessary, some screen dumps of the software and your chosen options.

Also, be sure to set the scanner software to scan the type of film you are using. Scanning B&W film in colour (negative or positive) and converting later is, imho, not the best way to do it.
 
A quick google suggests the scanner you're using isn't made for film as it doesn't have a lightbox to aid the scanning. This is probably why your negative scans aren't coming out so well.
 
Cheers all!

I was not using Epson scan program initially, it stopped working so was just using the default scan from the printer, (not sure how to explain better, it is nothing like epson scan software)
I now have Epson scan working after a re-install.

With regards to the scanner not being suitable for film, not sure it would be an issue on these negatives, they are not traditional 35mm film negs, they are not transparent, if you are interested, see the below you tube vid, (sorry for the mad american!) the scanner he uses doesn't have a backlight either, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2wE81dc0iQ

Anywho, I am still getting the same results :( will have to keep on fettling.
 
I have done this before using fujifilm FP-3000 negatives.

If I recall correctly I scanned the negative as a colour photo (not negative) at a fairly high resolution. The scan was inverted in gimp (as I didn't then own Photoshop). Contrast etc was adjusted and the resulting image was converted to black and white.

Here is the result, a fairly uninspiring image but it was only a test for the Polaroid that I had converted.


polaroid test shot 001 negative inverted by wickerman6, on Flickr
the inverted negative


polaroid test shot 001 by wickerman6, on Flickr

and the original picture.
 
David, thanks, I have tried both b&w and colour photo scans. Can't do negative scan. Resolution was 800 DPI
 
You are scanning a print, the print is negative and low contrast.

I dunno if you can recover what is not there just by inverting and adding contrast.
 
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