How to get my ULF pictures into digital form so I can share on the web?

[DrTang]

got the 11x14 camera, holders, film, lens

took my first shots, developed them in a bad tank concept,, so out of three shots - one came out

BUT MAN..what a great neg from that one

now what?

the neg is too big for my scanner (v750) - I did find a guy in town who still custom processes B&W film (he just got thru contact printing 11 original Curtiss glass negatives) - and he made me a contact print from my neg

but how do I get the images onto the innernets? how do YOU I should ask I guess

shoot the neg on a lightbox?.. shoot the contact in a copy set up? buy a humongous scanner??

[diversey]

I was told to scan four quadrants and stitch them together, but I have never gotten a good digital 11x14 file after stitching.

[StoneNYC]

I do what Diversey suggests for both my 11x14 and 14x17 negs.

It doesn't take much photoshop (PS) skills, it just takes owning PS because the program does the work for you, you scan the 4 quadrants and then select an option that is "automatic stitch" and the program analyzes the 4 scans, and then automatically rotates them and aligns the edges etc for you, it's so easy, even I can do it... Which is saying something. Just scan in tiff, the negative is huge so even 1200 dpi is overkill, especially because the stitched file will be over 1GB in size. So I would scan much smaller DPI per-section.

You do have to do 4 quadrants because of the V750's limited scanning area, and that's a little bit of a pain, but it works for display purposes.

THAT'S WHAY I DO

Others have simply set the neg on a large white opaque table viewer (light box) and snapped an image of the negative with their digital camera and then used that as the "scan" I just don't own a light box that big.

There are free third party stitching software I'm sure (GIMP?) but I'm not experienced with them to comment on their usability, except that when I tried GIMP years ago I found it even harder to use than PS but my digital editing skills are very basic, so I know others find it acceptable to use.

Hope that helps.

(EDIT: here's a few W examples to show you how well the stitching works, there's no "seam" or anything, it's really quite good, I've included the edges so you can see there's no "break" line even.

JUST REMEMBER when you notate the white, middle, and black NUMBERS that the Epson software gives on the FIRST scan, you have to change the numbers on the other scans to the same numbers like usually it's like ... 40, 1.07, 205 ... the numbers that are roughly around that, you have to write down those numbers and make sure they match for all scans so the exposure levels of the scan match.

End EDIT)

11x14 pinhole stitched

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160629/dc8df9018cb134b8b6c0acab2a81bb43.jpg

11x14 with lens (150mm) stitched

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160629/716f884d6c8d141c544f338801782342.jpg

14x17 with lens (450mm) stitched (not the best image just was testing my camera I built).

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160629/64d34c792cf1ce47ce7a235e6b811e97.jpg

[DrTang]

my scanner has a 'lip' so that would crease the print or neg I think..I was thinking of making a light box to shoot the neg.. but getting even illumination would be difficult

[Oren Grad]

shoot the contact in a copy set up?

This is likely to be the simplest way to do it without spending much money. Getting even illumination in a simple setup can be a challenge, but in a pinch you can photograph a blank sheet of the same size under the same lighting and use that as a compensation mask.

There is a tabloid size print scanner that's not horribly expensive - the Plustek A320 - though I think the reviews on that are mixed.

[Corran]

I'm about to move but my scanner is still in place for probably about a week. If you can get the neg to me I'll scan it for you at whatever size you want and send it back, you pay postage both ways. Otherwise it'll be probably August before I can set the scanner back up.

Cezanne 5000, scans up to 14x22 or something like that.

[DrTang]

There is a tabloid size print scanner that's not horribly expensive - the Plustek A320 - though I think the reviews on that are mixed.


thanks!

I have some ebay bucks to play with..so I think I'll get that

might as well..in for a pinch in for a pound I guess

[Jim Jones]

Place a large enough piece of mat board or foam core outside where the sun strikes it at an angle. Hang the negative some distance from it, preferably where there are no reflections from the surface of the negative. Photograph the negative with a fairly long lens. Reverse the image. It doesn't take much of a camera to get a decent enough copy for the internet.

[Oren Grad]

thanks!

I have some ebay bucks to play with..so I think I'll get that

might as well..in for a pinch in for a pound I guess

If you go ahead with that, please do let us know how it works out. I tinker with ULF but can't justify the cost of one of the big Epsons or a pro flatbed for myself at this point, and I'm sure there are many others in the same boat.

[Vaughn]

I have photographed negatives on a light table, then invert in in PS. Works okay. The first is a 5x7 negative I did it with, using a Canon Rebel sort of digital camera. The second is an 8x10 negative -- showing what happens if you do not mask the negative on the light table (a lot of light bleeding in!)

[diversey]

1) Scan with the edges
2) Scan with the same numbers
Those make a lot of sense to me, will try them next time.
Thanks for sharing!


I do what Diversey suggests for both my 11x14 and 14x17 negs.

It doesn't take much photoshop (PS) skills, it just takes owning PS because the program does the work for you, you scan the 4 quadrants and then select an option that is "automatic stitch" and the program analyzes the 4 scans, and then automatically rotates them and aligns the edges etc for you, it's so easy, even I can do it... Which is saying something. Just scan in tiff, the negative is huge so even 1200 dpi is overkill, especially because the stitched file will be over 1GB in size. So I would scan much smaller DPI per-section.

You do have to do 4 quadrants because of the V750's limited scanning area, and that's a little bit of a pain, but it works for display purposes.

THAT'S WHAY I DO

Others have simply set the neg on a large white opaque table viewer (light box) and snapped an image of the negative with their digital camera and then used that as the "scan" I just don't own a light box that big.

There are free third party stitching software I'm sure (GIMP?) but I'm not experienced with them to comment on their usability, except that when I tried GIMP years ago I found it even harder to use than PS but my digital editing skills are very basic, so I know others find it acceptable to use.

Hope that helps.

(EDIT: here's a few W examples to show you how well the stitching works, there's no "seam" or anything, it's really quite good, I've included the edges so you can see there's no "break" line even.

JUST REMEMBER when you notate the white, middle, and black NUMBERS that the Epson software gives on the FIRST scan, you have to change the numbers on the other scans to the same numbers like usually it's like ... 40, 1.07, 205 ... the numbers that are roughly around that, you have to write down those numbers and make sure they match for all scans so the exposure levels of the scan match.

End EDIT)

11x14 pinhole stitched

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160629/dc8df9018cb134b8b6c0acab2a81bb43.jpg

11x14 with lens (150mm) stitched

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160629/716f884d6c8d141c544f338801782342.jpg

14x17 with lens (450mm) stitched (not the best image just was testing my camera I built).

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160629/64d34c792cf1ce47ce7a235e6b811e97.jpg

[jnantz]

got the 11x14 camera, holders, film, lens

took my first shots, developed them in a bad tank concept,, so out of three shots - one came out

BUT MAN..what a great neg from that one

now what?

the neg is too big for my scanner (v750) - I did find a guy in town who still custom processes B&W film (he just got thru contact printing 11 original Curtiss glass negatives) - and he made me a contact print from my neg

but how do I get the images onto the innernets? how do YOU I should ask I guess

shoot the neg on a lightbox?.. shoot the contact in a copy set up? buy a humongous scanner??

i've scanned mine in pieces and puzzled them together. i've never used fancy automated thing, just lined up and melded ( self taught )
ive never bothered with rephotographing them, but i am sure that is probably easier than teaching oneself photoshop.

[Lachlan 717]

my scanner has a 'lip' so that would crease the print or neg I think..

Not true.

There is a significant gap between the base and the "lid" on V700/750. There will not be any creasing.

Before you spend any money, try the stitching method. You can get PS CC for about $8/month and use the stitching function it as.

Not often I agree with Stone; however, I stitch 7x17" negs (albeit only 2 frames) using a V700 directly on the glass. I'm about to make an 11x14" camera and I will use the V700 for those images I'll simply make 4 frames by putting the corners of the neg into the corner of the glass on the scanner.

Your biggest challenge will be handling the size of the completed file. Better get a BIG coffee cup to get you through the wait!

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I use my digital camera to photograph the print. Takes me a long time to post because you can't just whip out a carbon print.

[Greg]

Also shoot 11x14 and scan the negatives with an Epson V750.

I just use the center of the scanner to scan because of those elevated sides surrounding the scanners glass. I made up a 1 ply cardboard guide to align the film on the scanner with. Scan area is the sweet center spot of the scanner - 5x6 inches for me which negates the problem of the elevated sides of the scanner. On my 11x14" negatives I make small marks in the unexposed edges dividing the 11x14" area into 6 portions. This gives enough overlap to have PS easily merge the images together. Before scanning the negative I take Dmin and Dmax readings off the negative. Then I scan a step wedge and adjust the scanner to scan from 0 density to .15 over the negatives Dmax. Scans are done at 300 dpi since I'm not enlarging the negatives at all when printing them.

[Jim Michael]

I wonder if this is any good, looks like it might be able to do an 11x14 in one pass http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/917713-REG/epson_e11000xl_ph_expression_11000xlphoto_scanner.html

[StoneNYC]

For me, because when you're scanning the entire thing and because the area is so large, you're using the secondary lens within the v750, so even though there is some height of the edges, it doesn't really matter because the depth of field of the secondary lens is much wider than the first higher end lens

That, combined with the fact that the stitching software seems to accommodate for that since you're scanning a much larger area than just the edges, it's sort of just overlays the other image and properly shows the clear of the two areas.

I'm not sure if that totally made sense, just know that at least for me I didn't even have to make any kind of mask or anything, I just put a couple books so that the piece of film could rest flat and not bend when hanging off the edge of the scanner. That's it. Nothing special.

[Oren Grad]

I wonder if this is any good, looks like it might be able to do an 11x14 in one pass

For when the link breaks, that's the Epson 11000XL. It's a good scanner for tabloid size prints and almost tabloid size transparencies. But it costs $2800.