Scanning thin b&w negs

[Curtis Nelson]

Hi all,

I'm still learning the in's and out's of my refurbished Epson 4870. I've got a b&w negative that's a little on the thin side, and when I scan it, all of the shadow areas come out in just two or three different shades of grey.

Should I be able to get a decent scan from a thin negative? Are there any tips to get a better scan?

Thanks,

Curtis Nelson

[Bruce Watson]

I'm still learning the ins and outs of my refurbished Epson 4870. I've got a b&w negative that's a little on the thin side, and when I scan it, all of the shadow areas come out in just two or three different shades of grey.

Should I be able to get a decent scan from a thin negative? Are there any tips to get a better scan?

To answer your second question first, you should be able to get a good scan from a thin negative in general. In general, a negative optimized for scanning should be a bit thinner than a negative optimized for silver gelatin printing.

But, you can go too thin. The optimum density is going to depend on your scanner, software, and technique.

Since this scanner is new to you, I'm betting that your problem is mostly in technique at this point. The biggest battle seems to be learning to set your black and white points correctly based on the histogram you get from a pre-scan. And this is going to depend on the software you are using.

If you are using the Epson driver, you might want to investigate both VueScan (http://www.hamrick.com/) and Silverfast. (http://www.silverfast.com/overview/en.html) Both of these have their partisans.

[Ron Marshall]

Scanning thin negs is fine. I scan in color with Silverfast and then use the green channel.

[Curtis Nelson]

Thanks for the replies. I think I figured out what I was doing wrong.

Curtis

[Doug Fisher]

In case your are new to scanning as well as your 4870, www.scantips.com is a great place to start out and work through the tutorials. It will give you the information you need to do a Bruce suggested with the setting of the points.

Doug
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www.BetterScanning.com

[Ed Richards]

I use both Vuescan and Silverfast - there are negatives that each does better than the other. I have had the best luck with Vuescan on the really thin ones.