** Need a little help with scanning B&W negs **

[swirliepop]

I'm scanning b&w negatives of our wedding photos and the contrast is quite low. I know I can pull into Photoshop and adjust levels, but I don't want to blow out the detail. Can anyone give me guidance at the scanning level on how to increase contrast finitely. I'm using a pretty crappy Minolta Dual Scan II scanner, but with VueScan software which is alot better than the 6 yr. old crappy driver the rental place gave me.

I have basically every setting at my disposal, down to which film was used to shoot. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!!

 

[ksmattfish]

Whether scanning from prints or negs, I've always ended up with lower contrast scans than the original (easy to tell with the prints).

I have always been advised that Photoshop will do a better job than the scanner software, and this seems to be backed up from my experiences (I use Silverfast AI for scanning software). If you want more control than provided with levels, then start learning curves. There are numerous tutorial sites out there that can teach you to use them.

 

[swirliepop]

Thanks!!