Thanks Mike, I think I understand the process, what I'm trying to figure out is how the scanner in the store does what it does the way it does. <ouch!> I have a negative scanner, this was a "How does it work?" experiment gone awry. ;-) Just thought scanning some 6x6 would be nice. I'll have to stop back at the store and look again, I'm missing something, as usual.
Don > -----Original Message----- > From: mike wilson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 11:46 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: A Dumb (I think) Film Scanning Question > > > Hi, > > Don Sanderson wrote: > > > I was looking at an HP scanner at the store today that advertised > > '35mm adapter built in'. > > The adapter was just a film strip holder that slid into grooves in > > the scanners lid. > > No light behind it, no gap between it and the lid, all it appeared to > > do was hold the negatives flat and straight. > > Soooooo... I figured heck, all I have to do is lay a strip of negatives > > on the scanner glass and have at it. > > So I tried just that with a strip of 4 good 6x6 Agfa Optima negs, the > > result was less than impressive! > > Even with the best exposed negs the result was just a total mess. > > Dark, grainy, no contrast, no definition, nada! > > This was done with the negs face up and down, at every setting I > > could think of on my scanner. > > I could 'invert' the scan and compensate for the mask color OK > > but could get nothing usable at all from the image. > > I scanned at 300, 600 and 1200 DPI on my HP 750xi and > > brought the result into PS CS for editing. > > > > I'm obviously having a brain cramp here, could anyone please > > enlighten me as to what I'm doing/thinking wrong? :-( > > Film scanning is a transmissive process, whereby light is shone > _through_ the obect being scanned, rather than reflected off it. If you > really must persist with the idea (it will all end in tears) you can > build yourself a little magic pyramid from white card that scoops up > some of the light the scanner gives out and reflects it back through the > film. Like this: > > . > . . > . . > . . > . ====== . > ------------------------ > > Where -- is the scanner glass, = is your film and ... is the card. All > in section. The light goes up on the right, is reflected around the > card and (some of it) goes back down through the film. Quality will be > appalling. > > mike >
