Interested to discuss workflow with any that is working with BW medium or large format film and scanning to print via ink jet. A hybrid analog/digital approach so to speak. If you are working in this manner I would love to discuss and share ideas/workflow etc.
Thank you.
Chipper, although I only use MF & LF to this day it’s all transparency work. I do scan the images but once digital I use them for web uploads and personal site usages.
I have not done any B&W and in house ink jet prints in years. Again, once uploaded I have other vendors make the prints.
I will say, I visit a long time analog-digital-conversion site daily and there are many folks there that do a lot of MF & LF B&W full on darkroom work. I’m sure if you poked around there you might find others to respond to your work flow ideas. Does not cost to join and there are various forums to review on the subjects you mention too.
Phototrio is the site. It’s out of Australia.
Chipper, once upon a time I did a lot of printing here at home. Most of the work was in color from scanned MF or 4x5. Scans were done at 16 bit ,1800 dpi using VueScan software on a Microtek flatbed scanner.
I would then process the scanned positive image in Photo Shop until I was satisfied with the image and then save the TIFF file as a PSD file.
In order to get the best result without wasting paper and ink is to “Soft Proof” in Photo Shop.
There are many tutorials on how to do this. Here’s a couple I found helpful:
Soft Proofing in PS
Cambridge in Color-Soft Proofing
In my own work, when I wanted to make adjustments to my master file for printing, I would create a “Layer Group” in PS and give the group a name, such as, “Epson Premium Lustre”.
Next, I would create adjustment layers within that layer group to make my soft proof image file look like the master file image. I would then save the file.
Next, I would duplicate the master file and create a sharpened 8x10" image and then print it using the paper used for the soft proof.
If the hard proof print looks good, I will go ahead and create the full-size image from my master file and sharpen as needed and then make a full-size print. If I did everything right, my print should be as I visualized.
A couple of key points:
I hope this helps. My workflow is one of many, but it got the job done.
-P
I will check it out. Thank you @Paul_Breitkreuz
Thank you @Preston_Birdwell for the info. I find the sharing of workflows to be quite fascinating. We all have our approaches that work into our natural flow of process and thought and yet I think we can pick up morsels of ideas that can be implemented or at a minimum tested within our own systems. There is no one way to doing any of this is there? HAHA!!!