DR & Sharpness..Scanning color negs vs positives

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I have always used color positive film because scanning just seemed to be better. I now use the Nikon LS4000 ED scanner with Silverfast Ai 5.5 with NegaFix, and it seems to work very well. Now for my question: Prints have always seemed soft compared to slides, but what about color negs compared to slides (positives), are they just as sharp? I know that their tonal scales are greater and this seems to be pushing me toward the color negative medium. I have learned to expose slides correctly, but their lack of scale always provides for a trade-off in exposing. What I would do is to have the negs processed via the C41 process, then scan the negs. Any suggestions or comments. Thanks, Don

-- Don M (dmaldonadomd@excite.com), March 05, 2002

Answers

You will get better sharpness from the negs compared to prints, but other factors apply.

It may be helpful to remember that the tonal range of the final display medium should be considered when thinking about the range of the film and corresponding exposure determinations. If you are scanning for Web display, for example, the D-Max of computer screens is far less than the D-Max of high-end scanners, which, in turn, is far less than either chromes or negs. Thus, I wouldn't suggest switching to color negative film just to get additional tonal range if the target display medium is a computer screen.

Additionally, not all film scanners handle negatives well, and the orange mask of Kodak color negative films create additional problems for some scanners. I don't know how the LS4000 does on color negs, however - it might do well.

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), March 05, 2002.


One of the advantages of slides if you are scanning is ICC color management support. You can profile your scanner using IT8 targets and ICC compatible profiling software. There is no ICC standard for color negative material. Color negatives in my experience are not as sharp as slides when scanned. Despite that I still use color negative when I need the exposure latitude to get the shot. It is possible to get excellent results scanning negatives but it can be difficult without the sort of software support transparency material enjoys.

-- Hank Graber (hgraber@narrativerooms.com), March 05, 2002.

Thanks, I guess I'll just stick with positives (mostly) since I do have IT8 support for my scanner.

-- Don M (dmaldonadomd@excite.com), March 05, 2002.

I now shoot exlusively neg - this is only now possible due to the superb colour handling of the Nikon 4000ED - with my previous LS2000 I could only get good results from tranny . It's not a subtle improvement either! There is a case for using tranny if you want the finest grain and 'slightly' sharper edges but I'm now of the opinion that a good 100 film correctly ( slight under exposure = best negs for scanning) is a close second. It does however give you a broader spread of tonal info which tips the scales the other way. I still shoot E6 in my day job for large format work as the 'affordable' large format scanners are not up to the job of colour converting negs - one day! Why not shoot something side by side with a good neg and tranny film and see which you like best - if you can use Photoshop it's quite easy to superimpose one image on another to see any differences. Hmm - that's an idea.......watch this space!

-- John Griffin (john@griffinphoto.u-net.com), March 05, 2002.

In my experiences, negatives scan a little better than slides, lightness-wise (my slides always scan on the dark side), BUT negatives are more prone to scratching from mechanical and human mishandling when being scanned. It's a choice you have to balance-- do you want fast, easy scans with scratches that need repairing, or do you want to spend more time scanning and color-correcting, rather than fixing scratches? The worse scratch offenders, I've found, are the scanners that scan whole strips of negatives at once. Just one or two specks of dirt in the wrong place can really mess up your negs.

Then too, it's easier for me to go through my slides and find the good pictures than it is to look at the negs and guess.

-- Rich Fowler (richfowler@mindspring.com), March 05, 2002.



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