Scanning

"In the electronic age, I am sure that scanning techniques will be developed to achieve prints of extraordinary subtlety from the original negative scores. If I could return in twenty years or so I would hope to see astounding interpretations of my most expressive images. It is true no one could print my negatives as I did, but they might well get more out of them by electronic means. Image quality is not the product of a machine but of the person who directs the machine, and there are no limits to imagination and expression."

~ Ansel Adams, An Autobiography, 1985.

At the start of the scanning process, the film is cleaned on both sides with a film cleaner and dried in a film dryer. The film is taped to an acrylic drum and a clear sheet of optical grade Mylar is taped over the film. Next, Carl sprays an optically pure alcohol-based film mounting fluid on both sides of the film. Then the excess fluid is squeezed off the drum with a roller to prevent air bubbles. The remaining exposed edges of the mylar is taped to the drum. The mounted film is inspected with a jeweler’s magnifying hood for any defects. The drum is now mounted into the scanner and a prescan is performed. The prescan sets up all the conditions for the final scan and any adjustments required are made to reproduce the original as closely as possible.

There are five parameters required to obtain the highest scan quality:

Resolution
Carl owns the Heidelberg D8400 Primescan drum scanner. This machine has an optical resolution of 11,000 ppi. The scanner allows for independent control of dpi input, % enlargement, and optical aperture. This allows Carl to capture all the resolution on the film.

Tonal Range
The Heidelberg scanner incorporates three ultra-low noise, high sensitivity (PMT) photomultiplier tubes as the light detectors. These PMT's have a very large dynamic range and (SNR) signal to noise ratio far greater than CCD based scanners or CMOS DSLR cameras. This capability allows Carl to capture the entire tonal range of the film from pure black to pure white with virtually no scanner noise.

Color Accuracy
The three PMT’s previously mentioned have either a Red, Green or Blue non fade dichroic filter in front of each tube. This allows for a more accurate color profile to be obtained as each color channel is measured and then profiled independently. These steps are repeated for each film emulsion and results in the most accurate color capture possible.

Color Depth
The scanner incorporates a hardware 16 bit (DAC) digital to analog converter on the main electronic board and the Newcolor scanning software supports true 16 bit scanning. Carl scans all of his images in the LAB color space. This is the largest color space and is larger than the colors that film can contain, so nothing is ever missed. This hardware and software capability enables him to scan at a true 16bpp color depth and then use the Pro Photo RGB working space within CS4.

Scan Accuracy
The final parameter for ultimate scan quality (which can not be under-rated), is to add nothing that is not on the film or to miss anything that is on the film. This parameter can only be achieved with the very best scanner and careful setup of the pre-scan.


Primescan	Newcolor 7000	Newcopix


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