Film Scanning: Resolution

[WhaleDaughter]

I would get the high-res scans and only print what you want to print. To get it rescanned, you'd have to do it locally or send the negative back to the lab for them to rescan and then print. Not a huge deal, but kind of a PITA. If, however, you already have the high-res scans, then you can just use the digital file to print at whatever printing service you like.

Luckily for me, right now, it is local (theyr'e about a 20 minute walk from my house). I may take some of my negatives I have now and try my parent's scanner.


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~Aristotle

 

[WhaleDaughter]

I arrived at this totalView attachment 136928 cost: $5.49 for the B&W or C-41 color negative development, then $11.99 for the roll at their highest resolution scan size.

That's the right price for color processing. B&W processing is $7.60. Which is hard for me because I love shooting B&W, but my employer doesn't seem to take that into account when setting my pay scale.


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~Aristotle

 

[WhaleDaughter]

Isn't it a requirement that to be a photographer to have more money than time?

I must have missed that chapter, seeing as i have neither time nor money.


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~Aristotle

 

[Gary A.]

Developing B&W at home is easy and relatively cheap.

 

[Ysarex]

The lab you linked -- their high res scan is close to an 8 megapixel camera. The medium res scan is only good for posting to the internet. Curiously they list proportions that do not match a 35mm aspect ratio. What they list is an 8 x 10 print aspect ratio. Do they crop your scans? If you print one of the high res scans to 16 x 20 your input PPI from the scan will be 150 PPI which is pretty marginal. I'd feel better keeping the res closer to 200 PPI, but you'll have to try one and see what you think.

Joe

I'm used to working with dpi. I won't scan anything at less than 300, usually I want 600 dpi for a scan. I'm going to see what the other photo lab that is local to me offers for scanning.

Thanks for helping explain this.


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~Aristotle

DPI is dots per inch and refers to ink on paper. PPI is pixels per inch and refers to your digital photo either from a camera or from a scan. They are not equivalent measurements. If you're scanning 35mm film (approx. 1 x 1.4 inches) you want scans in the 2400 PPI range. Beyond 3000 PPI you begin to enter the area of diminishing returns -- no benefit trying to scan between the film grains.

PPI for any given image is variable over output size or to put it another way the value only has meaning when the size of the photo is specified. For example the same exact photo that produces a 300 PPI 8x10 print will produce a 214 PPI 11x14 inch print or a 150 PPI 16x20 inch print. The bigger the print area the more you have to spread the pixels to cover.

300 PPI used to be the industry standard to address a 2400 DPI image setter for offset press output. You got professional standard quality. A 35mm neg or slide scanned at 2400 PPI coincidentally is that standard and gives you an 8x10 print at 300 PPI. I said used to be because we've made a major change. That standard was set back when we created press plates with line screens. The trouble with line screens is they would start to show a subtle pattern at lower resolutions because of the uniformity of the screen. We've stopped using those and modern printing is down with stochastic screening. We can therefore relax the resolution requirement a bit with no loss. As long as you can get the output PPI up around 200 with today's printer tech you're going to be happy with the result.

Another factor that plays into this is that the larger we make the print they farther we back away to view it and so the resolution requirement can also be relaxed a bit for large prints to account for the increased viewing distance. So for a 16x20 inch print you should be happy with 180 PPI.

So to scan your 35mm film with sufficient resolution to make an excellent 16x20 print you need a 2880 PPI scan from a good scanner honestly capable of that resolution.

Joe

 

[WhaleDaughter]

Developing B&W at home is easy and relatively cheap.

Right now my living situation doesn't allow for this. Maybe someday when I have my own place again.


"Rule 408: Time is not the boss of you"

 

[gsgary]

The lab you linked -- their high res scan is close to an 8 megapixel camera. The medium res scan is only good for posting to the internet. Curiously they list proportions that do not match a 35mm aspect ratio. What they list is an 8 x 10 print aspect ratio. Do they crop your scans? If you print one of the high res scans to 16 x 20 your input PPI from the scan will be 150 PPI which is pretty marginal. I'd feel better keeping the res closer to 200 PPI, but you'll have to try one and see what you think.

Buying your own scanner will soon pay for itself

Joe

I'm used to working with dpi. I won't scan anything at less than 300, usually I want 600 dpi for a scan. I'm going to see what the other photo lab that is local to me offers for scanning.

Thanks for helping explain this.


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~Aristotle

 

[Michael Mc]

The 2000 x 3000 option is gonna give you scans that are the equivalent to a decent flatbed scanner. So they'll be okay -- just okay. But good enough for you to decide on ones you want higher resolution scans of. That might be your most economic route. Then send the negs back and have the ultra high rez scans done to only the ones you want. You can then take those scan files to a local processor for printing. I use Costco. They have one of those giant Epsons for enlargements. I've gotten the results and I gotta say that it does a really good job.

Thanks for the link, by the way. Austin's just up the road a piece from me.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

You're in my neighborhood. I use Precision (who sends to Holland, I work next to Precision otherwise Id go directly to Holland) to develop my film but scan it myself. My scanner sucks but it was only $40 from craigslist and has paid for its self already. I did drop off 4 or 5 sheets of 4x5 for them to scan though. Ill have them back next week and can report back how they turned out. I opted for the 2400 dpi "High Scan".

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Scans turned out great! Quite a bit of dust removal though but over all, Im happy with the results