Converting color scans to black and white

[Kirk Gittings]

"Color neg is perfect for a workflow where the photographer shoots the scene and translates that scene into a print with little or no assistance from others."

Henry, you nailed it.

[Stew]

I think that Henry's point about control is important.

I'm going to take the photographs for the project in relation to which I asked my original question, but at that point the process becomes collaborative. Because I am not going to get into the drum scan business, the scans will be done by a lab. Because I am disinclined to get into the Photoshop business, there's a good chance that someone else will execute what I want done with the digital file. At this point, the original chrome or negative becomes irrelevant, because the digital file is what will go to the printer of the book for which the photographs are being made. With luck, I may have some input into ensuring that the printer prints what the digital file shows.

If it is possible, from a technical point of view, to produce scans of negatives and chromes that are more or less qualitatively equal, there would seem to be some good reaons to go with negatives if what matters in the end is not the negative or the transparency, but the digital file.

What I'm getting from this discussion is that I need to have a talk with my lab about ITS preferences, and maybe talk with a couple of other labs before settling on who will do the scanning.

[bob carnie]

Kirk
I appreciate your concerns on price issue and such, I just think that within a very short time this will change as the backs drop in price.
re negative scans vs transparancy scans , We do not experience any problem with either . If I was in the position that you are describing Kirk I would choose negative material as well.

[Stew]

Today I visited two well-regarded labs in Manhattan to talk about the choice between reversal and negative film. One lab told me that it uses different scanners for negative and reversal film, that negatives require a bit more work, and that the results of negative scans are fully comparable to reversal. To my surprise, the other lab said that in its opinion, in the real world, scans of negatives actually produce better prints than scans of transparencies. Both labs said that the majority of scanning being done in New York is from negatives, not chromes.

[Kirk Gittings]

Jeff,

Interesting, well I guess New York is afterall new York and I am in New Mexico. labs here think just the opposite. I think a good NY lab would know what it is talking about.

[Bruce Watson]

I have two problems with the Tango. First, its minimum aperture is 11 microns.

Nope. I was wrong. The minimum aperture for a Tango is 10 microns. I just needed to correct this bit of mis-information for anyone who might read this long dead thread in the future. Sorry.