How to get my ULF pictures into digital form so I can share on the web?

[DrTang]

got the 11x14 camera, holders, film, lens

took my first shots, developed them in a bad tank concept,, so out of three shots - one came out

BUT MAN..what a great neg from that one

now what?

the neg is too big for my scanner (v750) - I did find a guy in town who still custom processes B&W film (he just got thru contact printing 11 original Curtiss glass negatives) - and he made me a contact print from my neg

but how do I get the images onto the innernets? how do YOU I should ask I guess

shoot the neg on a lightbox?.. shoot the contact in a copy set up? buy a humongous scanner??

[diversey]

I was told to scan four quadrants and stitch them together, but I have never gotten a good digital 11x14 file after stitching.

[StoneNYC]

I do what Diversey suggests for both my 11x14 and 14x17 negs.

It doesn't take much photoshop (PS) skills, it just takes owning PS because the program does the work for you, you scan the 4 quadrants and then select an option that is "automatic stitch" and the program analyzes the 4 scans, and then automatically rotates them and aligns the edges etc for you, it's so easy, even I can do it... Which is saying something. Just scan in tiff, the negative is huge so even 1200 dpi is overkill, especially because the stitched file will be over 1GB in size. So I would scan much smaller DPI per-section.

You do have to do 4 quadrants because of the V750's limited scanning area, and that's a little bit of a pain, but it works for display purposes.

THAT'S WHAY I DO

Others have simply set the neg on a large white opaque table viewer (light box) and snapped an image of the negative with their digital camera and then used that as the "scan" I just don't own a light box that big.

There are free third party stitching software I'm sure (GIMP?) but I'm not experienced with them to comment on their usability, except that when I tried GIMP years ago I found it even harder to use than PS but my digital editing skills are very basic, so I know others find it acceptable to use.

Hope that helps.

(EDIT: here's a few W examples to show you how well the stitching works, there's no "seam" or anything, it's really quite good, I've included the edges so you can see there's no "break" line even.

JUST REMEMBER when you notate the white, middle, and black NUMBERS that the Epson software gives on the FIRST scan, you have to change the numbers on the other scans to the same numbers like usually it's like ... 40, 1.07, 205 ... the numbers that are roughly around that, you have to write down those numbers and make sure they match for all scans so the exposure levels of the scan match.

End EDIT)

11x14 pinhole stitched



11x14 with lens (150mm) stitched



14x17 with lens (450mm) stitched (not the best image just was testing my camera I built).

[DrTang]

my scanner has a 'lip' so that would crease the print or neg I think..I was thinking of making a light box to shoot the neg.. but getting even illumination would be difficult

[Oren Grad]

shoot the contact in a copy set up?

This is likely to be the simplest way to do it without spending much money. Getting even illumination in a simple setup can be a challenge, but in a pinch you can photograph a blank sheet of the same size under the same lighting and use that as a compensation mask.

There is a tabloid size print scanner that's not horribly expensive - the Plustek A320 - though I think the reviews on that are mixed.

[Corran]

I'm about to move but my scanner is still in place for probably about a week. If you can get the neg to me I'll scan it for you at whatever size you want and send it back, you pay postage both ways. Otherwise it'll be probably August before I can set the scanner back up.

Cezanne 5000, scans up to 14x22 or something like that.

[DrTang]

There is a tabloid size print scanner that's not horribly expensive - the Plustek A320 - though I think the reviews on that are mixed.

thanks!

I have some ebay bucks to play with..so I think I'll get that

might as well..in for a pinch in for a pound I guess

[Jim Jones]

Place a large enough piece of mat board or foam core outside where the sun strikes it at an angle. Hang the negative some distance from it, preferably where there are no reflections from the surface of the negative. Photograph the negative with a fairly long lens. Reverse the image. It doesn't take much of a camera to get a decent enough copy for the internet.

[Oren Grad]

thanks!

I have some ebay bucks to play with..so I think I'll get that

might as well..in for a pinch in for a pound I guess

If you go ahead with that, please do let us know how it works out. I tinker with ULF but can't justify the cost of one of the big Epsons or a pro flatbed for myself at this point, and I'm sure there are many others in the same boat.

[Vaughn]

I have photographed negatives on a light table, then invert in in PS. Works okay. The first is a 5x7 negative I did it with, using a Canon Rebel sort of digital camera. The second is an 8x10 negative -- showing what happens if you do not mask the negative on the light table (a lot of light bleeding in!)