Scanning Pyro negatives

[Curt]

I have the Epson 4990 scanner. Do Pyro negatives require any special settings for scanning that non Pyro negatives use? For example should I use the color setting instead of BW negative?

Thank you,
Curt

[mrred]

That depends on your process. Scan them the way you would scan any other BW neg, and enjoy the extended dynamic range.

[Loris Medici]

I scan pyro negatives in RGB positive transparency mode then convert to grayscale in PS. I use channel mixer and the channels palette to decide which channel(s) are going to be included and how much, depending on the image plus the following factors: noise, sharpness, grain and tonality. I don't have a fixed formula for the conversion. I then continue with inversion, gamma adjustment (with levels tool, gray slider) and then local tonal corrections/manipulations...

[Loris Medici]

See this as an example:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loris-m...41092/sizes/o/

7.56 x 7.44mm crop of the original negative (1/15 times the area of the full frame), scanned with a Minolta Dual Scan III. Slightly underexposed Ilford Pan 100. (Should have rated it 80, not 100...) Souped in Pyrocat-MC.

[pellicle]

you could also scan in RGB positive, invert and then look at each of the channels and try blending them ... the stain may give different effects in the R G and B channels.

[Don Bryant]

I have the Epson 4990 scanner. Do Pyro negatives require any special settings for scanning that non Pyro negatives use? For example should I use the color setting instead of BW negative?

Thank you,
Curt

I use Vuescan and scan pyro stained film in RGB and have the green channel converted to 16 bit grayscale (there is a setting in Vuescan that will do this automatically if it is turned on.)

Works for me.

Don Bryant

[sanking]

File sizes are a lot bigger when you scan a pyro negative in RGB rather than grayscale to be sure to test to make sure you are getting something for the effort. You will not get the kind of control of tonal scale that you get when scanning color negative film in RGB so all you really have to gain is less noise and perhaps sharpness.

Whether it is worth your time to scan pyro negatives in RGB is a scanner specific proposition. I gain absolutely nothing scanning in RGB with the Leafscan 45 because all three channels are equally clean (or noisy, depending on how you look at it). So I just scan in grayscale as it saves a lot of time. Same is true with the Evesmart Pro, nothing is gained by scanning pyro negative in RGB.

So do the test for yourself and make sure you are getting something in return for the bigger files.

Sandy King

[Don Bryant]

File sizes are a lot bigger when you scan a pyro negative in RGB rather than grayscale to be sure to test to make sure you are getting something for the effort. You will not get the kind of control of tonal scale that you get when scanning color negative film in RGB so all you really have to gain is less noise and perhaps sharpness.

Whether it is worth your time to scan pyro negatives in RGB is a scanner specific proposition. I gain absolutely nothing scanning in RGB with the Leafscan 45 because all three channels are equally clean (or noisy, depending on how you look at it). So I just scan in grayscale as it saves a lot of time. Same is true with the Evesmart Pro, nothing is gained by scanning pyro negative in RGB.

So do the test for yourself and make sure you are getting something in return for the bigger files.

Sandy King

I'll have to review my pyro scanning methods though I recently scanned 3 MF Verichrome negatives processed in PMK and had Vuescan save the Blue channel to grayscale because I seemed to get smoother less grainy results with that method.

Don

[Loris Medici]

I don't keep the RGB file. I keep the converted grayscale file as master. Therefore size isn't much an issue, except for the case where your scanner's data transfer rate is too low. (Mine is connected through the FireWire port and scanning RGB or grayscale takes approximately the same time. In other words, I have nothing to loose doing that way. YMMV of course...)

Regards,
Loris.

[Curt]

Loris, which scanner has a firewire connection? I'll have to scan in different modes and see what's going to be best.