print to scan

[Light Guru]

i also realize it doesn't look the same from display to display. drives me crazy.

thats where display calibration comes in.

you should also calibrate your scanner

 

[denada]

a moment on google suggests there is a sheet i need buy to make this happen? like this IT8 target? none of those are for exactly what i'm scanning. how do i pick which one?

and then i need to buy this DatacolorSpyder5PRO Display Calibration System to do my screen?

thanks!

 

[Ysarex]

a moment on google suggests there is a sheet i need buy to make this happen? like this IT8 target? none of those are for exactly what i'm scanning. how do i pick which one?

and then i need to buy this DatacolorSpyder5PRO Display Calibration System to do my screen?

thanks!

You haven't even calibrated your display yet: that means this is an entirely new area for you. Be careful here before you start spending money. The topic is color management and you have homework to do. You'll need hardware, software, targets and understanding. The understanding will cost little to nothing. Whereas the hardware and software can cost quite a lot and quite a lot more if purchased without the understanding first.

You have reading to do. Start here: Overview of Color Management

and here: https://www.xrite.com/documents/literature/en/L11-176_Guide_to_CM_en.pdf

and here: Color Management for Photographers: Hands on Techniques for Photoshop Users: Andrew Rodney: 9780240806495: Amazon.com: Books
Hint: Andrew hangs out over at the Dpreview Retouching forum under the handle digidog. You might go over there and tempt him with a few questions.

and here's another: Real World Color Management (2nd Edition): Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy, Fred Bunting: 9780321267221: Amazon.com: Books

Good luck,
Joe

P.S. Make sure and compare X-Rite products with what you found from DataColor.

 

[Light Guru]

a moment on google suggests there is a sheet i need buy to make this happen? like this IT8 target? none of those are for exactly what i'm scanning. how do i pick which one?

and then i need to buy this DatacolorSpyder5PRO Display Calibration System to do my screen?

The laser soft scanner calibration software and charts came with the epson v750 i have at work. Calibration for reflective scanning and film scanning are separate.

 

[table1349]

Good place to start. Making fine prints in your digital darkroom: Getting started

 

[vintagesnaps]

I'd think about if you need to get into a lot of expense for what you want to do (getting copies of darkroom prints and Polaroids).

If you're doing B&W darkroom work, you could make copies (wet prints) at the time. For any significant photos I would keep notes of what I did step by step, how many seconds exposure, if I increased or decreased a second or half second, what part of the image I burned or dodged, etc. Then I'd often make a copy or two right then. But I have notes if I'd want to go back and do another print.

I have scanned and printed some of my original darkroom prints (at a higher res setting on my printer). It depends on the quality/sharpness of the original image but I can get something comparable - it's obviously different in appearance (paper and gloss, etc.). I can often get a better copy scanning the darkroom print than a scan from the negative done by a lab, it just depends. I don't post much online but usually downsize to a low, low res copy for internet use which of course isn't as sharp.

I've gotten good quality scans of photos taken on peel apart Fuji and expired Polaroid films. I haven't gotten a comparable scan of an Impossible Project film that to me looks like the original; it just doesn't capture the appearance of it. (I guess the material is too different maybe, with more dimension, not as flat as a photo on paper.)

With Polaroids too I often take a couple of photos that are almost the same at the time I'm out taking pictures so I'll have a second photo that's almost a copy of the first one.

I have a Canon Pixma and eventually plan to upgrade to a more 'pro' printer since I've been doing most of my own printing. I've had a few of mine accepted into juried exhibits and shipped to a gallery, etc. But starting out I don't know how much expense is necessary for your purposes.

 

[xenskhe]

You seem driven to achieve a very exacting technical standard for a pictoral style which is low-fi. Technology isn't a magic wand that will compensate for a handheld polaroid of a brick wall. Calibration is good for printing - it doesn't guarantee how other peoples' monitors see your pictures. I'd scan the print, share it and move on to the next visual idea. High fidelity digital imaging requires either a digital camera or great scan/editing ability. There's no shortcut

 

[denada]

i appreciate the wealth of information. including from those providing despite disagreeing with my priorities -- which are unwavering. there's a lot of reading and info to digest. don't think i'm abandoning this thread; i'll be back when i've had a chance to shift through it.

in the meantime, i tried making my first "digital darkroom" photo with 35mm, the v600, and ps.

 

[denada]

Here's a head up for the OP: Epson instructions packed with the scanner tell you to place film in the scanner emulsion up in the holder. DO THE OPPOSITE! If you follow the instructions you'll be scanning through the film base -- dumb. Film emulsion down and then flip the image in Photoshop for a sharper more detailed scan.

the difference is so subtle i think the winner varies from scan to scan. not as in from frame to frame, but as in i scanned a frame five times, flipping it each time, i did not get the emulsion side being up or down consistently producing a better image. sharpness was always the same or of indiscernible difference; there were slight differences in contrast from scan to scan. what i noticed in the process though is that film curl is worse emulsion side down and either way the film curl distorts the image.

these film holders are unbelievably shoddy. that's not even their only problem. they don't fit the film horizontally or vertically -- with six in the holder it cuts the end off the last frame (so that i need to scan each strip of six twice or cut them into threes) and no matter how many frames are in the holder it's absurdly difficult to not cut off the tiniest bit of either the top or bottom of the frames.

if i could do this over again, i might have purchased a sub-$100 flatbed scanner for instant film and a dedicated film scanner for 35mm, as someone (ha, just checked and it was you, Ysarex) recommended to me in another thread (which i ended up posting in because i think it's more on topic vs a gallery thread). the office scanner i started using actually did a better job of picking up the texture in the polaroid frames, though i think the v600 does a better job with the much more important actual image. with how much time and money i'm sinking into photography, i guess $125 bucks is next to nothing. funny, because i joined this forum to ask if i should offer a little less than asking (which was just $200) for some used darkroom equipment. which i haven't finished setting up, because that is a whole other set of complications. i think that's where i am going to refocus my energy for a bit, as this scanning stuff is driving me crazy.

even as a consumer, photography drove me crazy. i'd want to throttle a publisher and/or photographer for posting or printing different looking copies of the same photograph.