Tips and tricks for optimizing B&W negative scans?

[SvendN]

Hello All,

This is my first post on this board, and I am looking forward to joining in the discussions here and learning more about working with Aftershot Pro. While not new to photography - it's been a hobby for over 30 years - I am new to the digital darkroom. I shoot extensively in Black and White film (35mm and 6x6) for my more serious work, formerly with colour slide for casual shooting, although the latter is now digital.

I recently embarked on a project to "scan" some of the thousands of my black and white negatives using a borrowed Nikon D700 full frame DSLR, 60mm Nikkor macro and ES-1 slide copier adapted for film strips. Results using this setup for digitizing colour transparencies have been excellent, but I have been less pleased at the outcome when copying and importing B&W negatives. I am hoping to get some insight from anyone here who has worked with B&W negs, and is familiar with how to get the best out of them in Aftershot.

Some background on my process...

Camera:
-- negs are scanned by the Nikon D700 at ISO 200; aperature priority mode at F8; +/-0 EV; RAW output
-- white balance in camera is adjusted to give neutral grey with no neg in holder (works well; gives very accurate colour rendition when copying colour slides)

Aftershot:
-- raw files are imported into ASP with no presets applied
-- Step 1 = inversion
-- Step 2 = select B&W Simple preset
-- Step 3, etc... = adjust exposure, highlights, fill, etc.

The DSLR exposures of the negatives is one aspect that may need attention. Some of the RAW images come out rather dense from the Nikon, and while the negative image looks OK in Aftershot, when inverted the result looks severely washed out. Applying a bit of exposure compensation in the camera (-1 EV) improves this a bit, but when inverted in Aftershot they still appear overexposed. However, even negs with primarily mid-range tones and a normal looking copy in the Nikon will still appear washed out in Aftershot. I will experiment with exposure bracketing to see how this can be improved at the front end, but if anyone has any advice on this part of the process, I'd love to hear it.

But more importantly, I am keen to hear how you all work with the sequence of manipulation within Aftershot to get the best out of black and white negs. Is there a workflow that you have found which optimizes such images? Are there things I should be doing with presets, adjusting the tone curve, etc., to get the best image quality?

I have a lot to learn about the digital darkroom. This is my first time working with RAW files and the first time using a RAW editor. Steep learning curve, but I am encouraged by the potential here vs. the wet darkroom.

Thanks in advance for any assistance, and I look forward to hearing back.

Best,
Svend

[Azkaltia]

Hi,

I read with interest your post on optimizing B&W negative scans with Aftershot Pro 3 and, like you, am having teething problems getting results I'm happy with. I was hoping to get some pointers on how to improve the process.

My setup is essentially the same as yours, I'm using a mirrorless Olympus OM-D E-M10 camera, a 25mm extension tube (for 1:1 magnification) and a macro lens (OM Zuiko 50mm 3.5). I then attach this to a (cheap) Somikon slide copier which accepts 35mm strips and backlight the negatives with a smartphone displaying a bright white screen.

Once the RAW scans imported into Aftershot, I use the "invert" function and get severely washed out positive images. I then fiddle around with the Fill, Exposure, Highlights sliders etc. I've also found that playing with the color tone curves allows for acceptable results. I fiddle once more with the noise reduction / sharpening sliders and then consider the image "as good as it's going to get".

I noticed you mentioned using the B&W simple preset. I tried this, and am not able to see any difference. I'll add that I'm not entirely happy with the outcome, and am wondering if Aftershot is really up to the task.

If anyone has some workflow tips that well, work, I'd love to hear them.

Cheers,

Az

[Azkaltia]

I noticed you mentioned using the B&W simple preset. I tried this, and am not able to see any difference. I'll add that I'm not entirely happy with the outcome, and am wondering if Aftershot is really up to the task.

Well, after considerable searching as detailed in my previous post, I have found a solution to the washed out highlights and feeble detail that come from inverting a scan of a 35mm negative in Aftershot Pro 3.
The solution I found is called Adobe Lightroom 6. Works like a charm as far as inverting negatives go.


Az