Flextight Scanner Assistance Request!

[Lolapalooza]

Good Day All,

I am new to this forum and would like some assistance if anyone could provide it!

I have been shooting expired Ilford XP1 400asa 4x5 film on a Sinar in studio (with flash) this past week, and I've scanned it in on a Flextight X1 at my university.
The images were intentionally shot dark; I want a dark background with a properly exposed model. I used a light meter to get the correct exposure. However, as you can see below, the scans are coming out incredibly light. Can anyone give me some advice on how to scan these in and maintain the atmosphere I was attempting?

The first image is the XP1 scan; the second image is shot at the same ISO/aperture/shutter speed, on a Nikon D800E as digital back-up, and is how I want the 4x5 scans to look. Any help would be incredibly appreciated.

Thank-you very much,

David Clarke

114894

114895

[DennisD]

The images were intentionally shot dark I want a dark background with a properly exposed model. I used a light meter to get the correct exposure. However, as you can see below, the scans are coming out incredibly light.

David,

Welcome to the forum. I have some basic experience with flextight scanners and can offer a few thoughts.

Assuming you have a correctly exposed negative, have you attempted to make levels and curves adjustments in the Flexscan software to bring your image into proper tonality ?

Are you using any particular preset in the Flexscan software ? If so which one ?
You can simply scan as grayscale 16 bit at the highest resolution. A properly exposed image should scan well as a preview and be adjustable in Flexscan to render a good final scan.

If the negative is badly exposed due to the expired film, you may be having a problem on that account.

If you continue to have difficulty you can call Hasselblad at 800-367-6434 and ask for tech support. Shar is a good person to speak to if she is there. I believe the hours are 9:00 am till 5:00 pm EST.

Hope this is helpful,

Dennis

[SHarris]

You may wish to read my write-up on this issue, about how I calibrated the gray midpoint for a Flextight
http://harrisfoto.com/drupal7/node/20#overlay-context=node/19

[koh303]

if the negative is too dense or too light due to its age. which is what it looks like you will have a hard time scanning.
simply having the correct exposure on the meter does not account for c41 degradation. who knows what this xp1, which was that good when new, indured in the past 10 or more years even if `properly` stored.
buy new film and all will be well. leave the expired nonsense for people with keystrokes to waste.

[Noah B]

In flex color there's a dialog box that has a histogram with RGB values. If you bring the farthest left point in to where the histogram rises, and do the same on the left you'll find that you can control the contrast a little bit. You can get it to a point where it's fairly close where you want it and then make your edits in LR or PS. FWIW, the d800e is an excellent camera, the files on it are comparable to 4x5 scans. Good luck!