4x5 Negatives with Silverfast

[franklphoto]

Hello,

What is the best setting for a 4x5 negative to get a great 11x14 print with silverfast? With an Epson v750 pro...

dpi=
q factor=
lpi=
output equals=

Please help...

[Matus Kalisky]

Well, 11x14 is about 3x enlargement from 4x5. Let's say 4x to have space for bit of cropping if necessary. Now - most todays ink printers print at 360 dpi so you need 4x this much in the scan - that makes it 1440 spi scan. Because of the hardware you can actually scan at either 1200 or 2400 spi, you can scan at 2400 and then scale the image down. This gives you more detail and helps to reduce noise introduced by the scanner a bit.

the "q" factor with Silverfast is simply scaling factor, just set it to "1". The rest numbers should not be relevant once you set these two.

Still - to get a decent scan you need also be careful about the in scanner image adjustments (levels, curves). You may want to avoid the "auto" settings. Be sure to turn off any in-scanner filters (like sharpening) as they just screw up your image (mostly).

I use Silverfast with Microtek F1, so I hope that Epson users would chime in with more detailed answers.

[franklphoto]

does the output size matter? or do i keep it the original size of the neg/scan?

[Greg_Thomas]

does the output size matter? or do i keep it the original size of the neg/scan?

Output size doesn't matter if you're going to do any processing in Photoshop. DPI is what you should be concerned with, according to Matus' calculation I'd suggest 1600dpi which is getting close to the true max resolution (by most tests I've seen around 1800dpi to 2200dpi) of a V750 and then downsizing in Photoshop.

Also, as mentioned in other posts, turn off any adjustments. I also scan as a positive and invert negatives in Photoshop, I seem to get better tonality with b&w negatives this way.

[Matus Kalisky]

I also scan as a positive and invert negatives in Photoshop, I seem to get better tonality with b&w negatives this way.

That is also my experience. I get better shadows and better tonality.

[franklphoto]

ok thanks guys.
so now when i want to resize for a 11x14 print what should the spec be about?
sorry for the dumb questions...

frank

[Matus Kalisky]

Frank, just make sure that the quality factor is 1 and that you use scanning resolution large enough for the scan. It is now what that your scanner will deliver you image that would not need any post processing. So you can do the resizing at that stage.

[franklphoto]

yes but once scanned what whot be a good dpi for a 11x14 print?

[Matus Kalisky]

As I mentioned above. If printing with ink printers the best is to have 360 dpi, with lasers mostly 300 dpi (depends on the printer). Now your print is supposed to be 11 x 14 ich large - so you need to multiply this numbers with the dpi you want to print at. So for example for the 360 dpi print you need:
360 x 11 = 3960 pixels
360 x 14 = 5040 pixels

So your image should optimally be 3960 x 5030 pixels if it should be printed with 360 dpi in the size of 11" x 14".

Actually if you would have an image that is larger (has more pixels) that the one above you can still have it printed to the size you want - the printer will do the interpolation necessary. So what really matters is the size of the print you want and number of pixels your image has.

[argos33]

Frank,
Sometimes these scanning/resolution calculators can be helpful:

http://www.scantips.com/calc.html

Looks like you would have to scan at 882 to print an 11x14 @ 300 DPI