H2F and 39MS as scanner

[nevjam]

I have a number of negs to scan and wonder if anyone has advice on what to adjust in either Flex or Phocus achieve more contrast. I mask off the neg on a Broncolor Boxlight and capture on multishot keeping the data to right of the histogram, then I take the image into Photoshop and invert it to produce a positive image. The results look flat and I am not sure how to achieve max black (film rebate) and paper base white with the histogram, is it just to move the sliders in Curves? Is there a digital Zone System? All advice welcome.

[NickT]

Neville you are on the right track.

in order to achieve maximum contrast in an image you need to set black and white points. These are normally defined as the maximum amount of ink that paper will hold (for black point and if printing) and the least amount of ink that the paper can hold (for white point and again for printing). What these numbers are will depend a bit on your output device but conservatively if you are setting these end points in RGB then something like 5.5.5 and 250.250.250 would be fine. On the shadow side of things the maximum black is determined (on the printing side) by a combination of paper quality, ink type, press conditions and budgets! For highlights it is NOT paper what (which is reversed for specular highlights) but rather the least amount of ink that will actually stick to the paper stock. Cation needs to be exercised when setting highlight points as is is easy to end up with 'holes" in a high key image.

Back to your question (sorry about that) I would use the histogram in phocus, dragging the endpoints in towards the "foothills" with the option key held down. Holding down option (and this works in Photoshop too0 gives you a clipping display so you can see what the darkest or lightest part of your image is and set those points to shadow/highlight. Finally to repeat the highlight is the lightest part of the image where you wish to hold detail anything lighter than that (specular) is either a light source (the sun itself is in frame) or something like a point light hitting chrome, and those are the only things you should let go completely (ie to paper white0.

Hope that ramble helps!
Nick-t

[nevjam]

Many thanks for your ramblings, Nick. Do you think the quality of the scans using the camera/back combination would be better than an Epson V700, which seems to be highly rated in the prosumer sector?

[NickT]

I would suspect they would be very comparable Nev though I don't know the V700. I have done multi-shot "scans" before and he results have been excellent..

[nevjam]

Spurred on by your advice I'll persevere with the 'blad and save the lab scan money for my Polaroid 600SE to sheet film conversion project! Cheers Nick.