The SilverFast Black and White Scanning Workflow
After spending many hours learning how to get the most from the analog to digital conversion form the equipment I have, I thought it would be a good idea to share this information via a mini video series. I use a simple but effective black and white scanning workflow which produce good quality images for print.
Background
In this digital age, you would think the number of people using traditional film cameras would be small but you may be surprised to hear that sales of used film cameras and accessories are steadily on the increase.
I have been using digital cameras for many years but my personal involvement with film is relatively new. I shall be writing a blog post on my personal website in the near future about this but in the meantime, what I can say, is that analog film photography is a completely different experience.
One main challenge I have found, is getting a chemically developed negative into the digital world without losing the tonal rang. There are many ways in which we can do this conversion, from actually photographing the negative with a digital camera using a macro lens all the way through to performing high quality drum scans.
My personal method is to use a flat bed scanner, in my case this is an Epson V800. Although the software supplied with the scanner, Epson Scan will produce a digital file from the negative, I was never really happy with the results. After extensively trying a wide range of other software, I have eventually settled with Silverfast AI Studio by Lasersoft.
SilverFast Black and White Scanning Mini Video Tutorials
In total, there are 5 individual videos, each one has been compiled in to the mp4 format making them compatible on most devices which supports either the Windows or Mac operating systems. Also included is a step wedge which can be used in photoshop to evaluate your image for tonal placements within the zone system.
Included Videos
- Silverfast Interface – 6min 3 seconds
- Negative Prescan – 5mins 58 seconds
- Negative Manipulation and Final Scan – 27min 18 seconds
- Workflow Pilot – 5min 52 seconds
- Bonus – Using a step wedge in Photoshop to check tones against Zones – 9min 48 seconds
