Lenny comes through....again

[Kirk Gittings]

I have a fair amount of experience scanning and have access to both the new Imacons and an IQSmart 3 (I also own a 750 and a Jazz+). When I need speed and a medium size print (not larger than 24x30) on a good sharp well exposed and processed negative I find the Imacon adequate. When I have the time I use the IQSmart 3 which does a fine job once you learn its quirky software for even very large prints. But when I have a problem negative say with somewhat underexposed shadows and very bright highlights I always spring for a first rate drum scan.

On a recent landscape I used a red filter (and with rapidly changing light) and where I should have given more exposure to lighten open up the green grass in the foreground and paired it with minus development to hold the detail in sunlit thunderheads, instead I gave it the usual filter factor and normal development resulting in the foreground shaded grass being nearly clear on the film-like big globs of nearly pure black looming large in the foreground. Anyway my attempts to do a good scan of this neg didn't solve the problem, but Lenny pulled it off extracting more detail and separation from those areas than I thought possible.

Thanks as always Lenny!

[Bill_1856]

I have a fair amount of experience scanning and have access to both the new Imacons and an IQSmart 3 (I also own a 750 and a Jazz+). When I need speed and a medium size print (not larger than 24x30) on a good sharp well exposed and processed negative I find the Imacon adequate. When I have the time I use the IQSmart 3 which does a fine job once you learn its quirky software for even very large prints. But when I have a problem negative say with somewhat underexposed shadows and very bright highlights I always spring for a first rate drum scan.

On a recent landscape I used a red filter (and with rapidly changing light) and where I should have given more exposure to lighten open up the green grass in the foreground and paired it with minus development to hold the detail in sunlit thunderheads, instead I gave it the usual filter factor and normal development resulting in the foreground shaded grass being nearly clear on the film-like big globs of nearly pure black looming large in the foreground. Anyway my attempts to do a good scan of this neg didn't solve the problem, but Lenny pulled it off extracting more detail and separation from those areas than I thought possible.

Thanks as always Lenny!

Who's Lenny?

[Merg Ross]

Who's Lenny?

Just a wild guess.

http://www.eigerstudios.com/

[Lenny Eiger]

Kirk, you are most welcome. Its always a pleasure working with you.

I have also had the pleasure of working with many others here. It is always nice to scan photographs from excellent photographers. There is nothing like this Large Format Group. It's the best.

Lenny
eiger@eigerstudios.com
707-763-5922

[Bruce Watson]

...resulting in the foreground shaded grass being nearly clear on the film-like big globs of nearly pure black looming large in the foreground. Anyway my attempts to do a good scan of this neg didn't solve the problem, but Lenny pulled it off extracting more detail and separation from those areas than I thought possible.

Yep. People talk about how drum scanners do with a really dense negative, and with good reason. But what I like about a drum scanner is how well it does with the really thin regions of the film. I often pull image detail out of the shadows of B&W films that look perfectly clear on the light table under a loupe. Drum scanning is amazing technology, as is film itself. I can't believe I get to use both, at least for a few more years.

[pozzello]

I 'discovered' Lenny recently when I needed some high end scans for my current project. I tried dealing with some local service bureaus in Montreal but just kept getting crappy scans. After a little research on the net I decided to give Eiger Studios a try and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Here are some comparisons between my first scan done locally on a Heidelberg Primescan 7100 by Photosynthese, one from my old Epson 3180, and one from Eiger Studios. Each one is 100% 8x10 crop of a 40"x40" scan of a 6cm x 6cm black and white negative.

http://www.paulozzello.com/scans/epson.jpg
http://www.paulozzello.com/scans/HeidelbergD7100.jpg
http://www.paulozzello.com/scans/eiger.jpg

And the full image:

http://www.paulozzello.com/images/slider/square.jpg (from my epson)

I can't wait for Eiger Studios to start printing !!


Paul

Who's Lenny?

[Zaitz]

Wow that Heidelberg scan is terrible.

[Tobias Key]

Wow that Heidelberg scan is terrible.

It's been specifically calibrated by Luminous Landscape for film versus digital tests!

[Zaitz]

It's been specifically calibrated by Luminous Landscape for film versus digital tests!

Too true...

[Marty Knapp]

As far as I know, there's only one Lenny-

Although I now do much of my own scanning, I continue to have Lenny make all the "critical" scans I need to make prints for discerning collectors of my work or for making much larger than normal prints. Lenny has produced excellent scans for me since 2007. It's always a pleasure when I get home and can see the fabulous nuances he and his Aztec pull out of my medium format negatives. I unabashedly endorse Messieur Eiger especially so for those of us who are transiting from film to digital in fine black and white work.