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IanBarber
21-May-2018, 15:05
For those that develop black and white negatives for scanning, do you develop them for Zone 7 or 8

I have just exposed 2 sheets of FP4 and placed the darkest area with detail on Zone 3, the brightest area with detail was 4 stops brighter placing them on Zone 7

In this situation, would you do a N development or an N+1 to try and expand the mid-tones to give them more separation

Peter De Smidt
21-May-2018, 15:37
If the image would benefit from more mid-tone contrast, and most do, I'd go for Zone VIII. You'll still be well within the range of the scanner.

Bruce Watson
21-May-2018, 16:05
For those that develop black and white negatives for scanning, do you develop them for Zone 7 or 8.

I've written a bunch of posts on this very topic. Search around and you'll find them.

Alan9940
21-May-2018, 21:12
I agree with Peter. And, FWIW, I develop film the same whether for scanning/desktop or wet printing in the darkroom.

IanBarber
21-May-2018, 23:46
I've written a bunch of posts on this very topic. Search around and you'll find them.

Any clues Bruce, Ive looked at your started posts but not seen any specific titles relating to this

Bruce Watson
22-May-2018, 06:20
Any clues Bruce, Ive looked at your started posts but not seen any specific titles relating to this

Here's some of what I've written, in one of your threads:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?143195-Your-Thoughts-On-The-Zone-System-For-A-Scanning-Workflow&highlight=zone+system+scanning

If you want more, go to the forums search box at the upper right of the forum webpage, and type in "zone system scanning" and let it rip.

IanBarber
23-May-2018, 01:41
Thanks Bruce, I have all the information bookmarked now for offlne reading

Alan Klein
23-May-2018, 04:43
For those that develop black and white negatives for scanning, do you develop them for Zone 7 or 8

I have just exposed 2 sheets of FP4 and placed the darkest area with detail on Zone 3, the brightest area with detail was 4 stops brighter placing them on Zone 7

In this situation, would you do a N development or an N+1 to try and expand the mid-tones to give them more separation

I don't develop my own film (Tmax 100). The lab used Xtol and developed normally. I also bracket +1 and -1 stops around my metered exposure calculation. I don't use the Zone system.

What I've found is that all three shots will be scanned from blacks to whites with my Epson V600. Sometime I set the levels so that I move in the ends to right before I would clip at either end. No other settings are set for the scan. I use Lightroom or PS Elements for adjustments. I usually use the photo that's more towards the middle of the scan as the others are to the left and too dark. Whether this is the right approach, I don;t know. Some input from others would be helpful. Here are my results from this method.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums/72157642492618713