Category Archives: Photography

Scanning film with a DSLR – video

Film

A brief video guide to scanning film with a DSLR.

For an index of all my Film related articles, click here.


The Lightroom preset includes exposure, contrast and clarity adjustments as well as invoking the Negative Lab Pro converter plugin which changes the negative image to a positive one. I also hit ‘V’ before saving the preset which ensures that the image is converted to black and white, any color casts being removed. Do this on your first ‘scanned’ image and save the preset in the Devlop module, Develop->New Preset->Name your preset. Start the tethering process (Develop module, File->Tethered Capture->Start Tethered Capture) and input the starting number of the first negative.


I have input the starting frame number in the tethering dialog. The number for the starting ‘scan’ is identical to that of the negative in my physical film strip binder.

Then tell the tethering panel to use that preset. In the case below the preset is named ‘D800 scan’.


The preset is enabled in the tethering panel.

Now when you ‘scan’ the negative the file will be correctly numbered when sent to LR and will have your exposure adjustments and negative-to-positive conversion automated.

Links for equipment used can be found in earlier articles.

The Nikon D800 outfit

Nikon bodies, Nikon lenses

At bargain basement prices.

Having returned to FF DSLRs with the Nikon D800 one year ago, I thought it might be of interest to show my outfit now.

When Nikon discontinued its DSLR range in favor of newer mirrorless bodies, with lenses to match, two things happened. The price of the latest gear shot up and that of the discontinued hardware crashed. As a result, if your psyche can tolerate a flapping mirror, just as most have these past 75 years, then look to keep your check book bruised but not battered as you acquire some of the finest photography hardware ever made.


The kit today.

  • D800 body, $475 with just 16,000 shutter actuations. Yes the later D850 comes with 45mp (you do not need that many) and costs three times as much. Your call. Need wi-fi and a fold out LCD screen? Try the D750 at the same price with a more than adequate 24mp.
  • 50mm f/1.4 AF-S G Nikkor, just overhauled by Nikon – $113. Front left. All prices include original Nikon hood and both caps.
  • 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S G VR Nikkor, $415. Rear left.
  • 16-35mm f/4 AF-S G VR Nikkor, $315. Rear right.
  • 85mm f/1.8 AF-S G Nikkor, $238. Front right.
  • 60mm f/2.8 AF-S G Micro Nikkor, on the camera with film copying attachment – $267 + $60
  • MB-D12 vertical camera grip – $37. Front.
  • New Nikon battery, in the D800 – $60

There is nothing I can tell you about these lenses that is not already known – outstanding definition at any aperture, dead accurate and fast AF and robust but not heavy for what you get. Resale value? 100 cents on the dollar.

The Micro Nikkor will be sold when my film ‘scanning’ project is completed, making for a net kit cost of just $1,653. A Nikon Z8 mirrorless body runs some $3,800 and lenses are extra. Can you spell ‘Bargain’?

For all my Nikon lens articles click here.

Epson ET-8550 – ink use

Epson ET8550, Printing

In a word, frugal.

For an index of all articles about the Epson ET8550 printer, click here.

One of the claims made by Epson for its ET-8550 ink tank printer is that is uses ink frugally.

Here are some data from my early experience. Bear in mind that about 1/4 of each ink bottle is used to fill the feed tubes and print heads when the printer is new, so the actual ink use is even lower, and I allow for that in my calculations.


110 prints made from new.

All prints made have been 13″x19″ in size. In practice I made 31 monochrome prints, not 3 as shown, as I now output them from Lightroom as ‘color’ originals which have been converted to B&W. Epson counts those as ‘Color’ as it cannot tell the difference.

Here are the ink levels after those 110 prints from new:


110 prints made from new.

Each ink bottle is 70ml in size, meaning we have to add back 25% of that amount, or 17.5ml, to take out the effect of the ink stored in the lines and heads. Obviously these do not need refilling – it’s a one-off permanent ‘ink sink’ for a new printer.

This computes to use in mL and % of full as follows after adjusting for the ink sink:

BK – pigment black – 0ml, 0%
PB – dye Photo Black – 17ml, 25% – this confirms that the 8550 is only using dye black ink for prints, not pigment black ink. In fact, the 0% use of the pigment black ink suggests that pigment black ink is being reserved solely for printing office documents and dye black is used, by default, for making photographic prints.
C – dye cyan – 25ml, 35%
Y – dye yellow – 17ml, 25%
M – dye magenta – 26ml, 38%
GY – dye grey – 81mL, 116% – I have refilled the GY tank once with 70mL of ink added

The high GY use reflects the many B&W prints made, but averaging the five dye tanks out use (pigment black is not used for prints so that sixth color is disregarded in the calculations that follow) is 166mL or 2.4 tanks for 110 13″x19″ prints. Stated differently, five dye tanks will allow printing of 230 13″ x 19″ prints or, if you prefer 608 (!) 8.5″ x 11″ prints. The cost of five 70mL dye ink bottles of genuine Epson ink (only a fool would use aftermarket substitutes at this price) is around $85 or 48 cents a 13″x19″ print.

That agrees with my definition of frugal, and while you can print office documents using that pigment black ink, I do not recommend that for two reasons: first, it’s bog slow. Second, a cheap desktop laser printer is faster and cheaper.

One note. Dye ink is absorbed by the swellable HP printing paper I am using and probably handled in much the same way by Epson papers and those from other makers. The dyes soak into the emulsion of the paper and need time to dry. In fact, you can feel the tackiness of the surface of a fresh print. So leave new prints out in the air for 24 hours before putting them in sleeves or heating them for mounting, etc.


My high end print drying area.

Itoya large print portfolio

Printing, Technique

An inexpensive display approach for large prints.

It costs some $40 to mount, mat and frame a print for hanging. Not cheap, especially is you have many. A related issue is that wall space is limited unless you are an oligarch or billionaire.

One inexpensive alternative is the ‘family’ album, but that usually comes in small sizes for display of wallet sized prints.

However, there is a fine product to be had, made by Itoya, which comes with 24 13″x19″ plastic sleeves, each with a black interleaver to prevent ‘bleed through’ with back to back images. B&H has the best price; buy two or more and shipping is free.


The album holds 48 13″x19″ prints, back to back.
Click the image to go to B&H.

Longevity? I have one where the prints have been in contact with the acid-free plastic sheets for over a decade and the colors are as good as new, with no yellowing. One cautionary word. If your prints are freshly made let them air dry for 24 hours before inserting in the sleeves. This will avoid having heavy ink areas stick to the plastic. That is certainly my experience with the Epson ET 8550.

It takes longer to sort the prints than it does to insert them in the sleeves:


This batch used less than one tank of ink in total in the Epson 8550.

Nikon D800 film scanning – Part IV

Film

Can you say ‘fast’?

For an index of all my Film related articles, click here.

There is absolutely no upside to time spent scanning old films, other than the end result. The process is of surpassing tedium and the goal of the previous three articles, starting here, has been to make this process fast and seamless, without sacrificing a commitment to the highest quality results.

With LR tethering working well and a carefully tailored import preset dialed in in the tethering panel (exposure, contrast, vibrance and so on) I set about the project seriously and here is this morning’s result:


28 scans, 47 minutes.

Yup, 28 high quality scans in just 47 minutes and that includes negative strip selection and insertion in the film strip carrier, dusting, image recording using the D800 rig, conversion in Lightroom from negative to positive (in the import settings, so it’s automated), dust retouching – the most time consuming step though LR’s clone/heal tool is excellent and fast – and final contrast/exposure/vibrance tweaks. And I was not rushing things. The final step is to rename the files to conform with the original negative numbers should the originals ever need to be retrieved. The computer is a 2010 MacPro with two 3.47gHz 6 core CPUs, 96gB of 1333MHz RAM and an Nvidia 980GTX GPU.

The results are ready for printing …. large:


Magnificent English sheepdog.

These were taken at Crufts Dog Show in February, 1972. Leica M3, 50mm and 90mm Elmar lenses, TriX processed in Microphen pushed to 800ASA/ISO.