The digital darkroom works well in my limited experience under the following
limitations:
Your scanner is capable of at least 2400 dpi (which the Nikon CS is)
You have a dye sub or layering ink jet type printer. Tiny distinct dots
just don't cut the mustard.
Use the highest quality photo printing paper available.
Print nearly full frame films no larger than 8 x 10
Next, take the LE version of PS4, call Adobe and tell them you want to
upgrade to PS5. They will balk a little at first, but be firm and polite.
They will relent. Send them the $$$ and get the full package. Then get a
good book on PS5 and be prepared to spend a fair number of hours learning
it. Its a huge package that has a pretty stout learning curve.
I believe your assertion that "as I see it using photoshop for colour
correction will mean I can leave the filters at home" in not valid. You
always want to record as much information on film as possible. No amount of
manipulation or digital wizardry can add information that is not there in
the first place. Carry your filters and use them. You are correct that you
can do good B&W work from color originals, but again, what isn't there you
can't create from nothing. If fine B&W is your goal, regroup and find
another way to construct a darkroom. To just dabble, B&W prints in PS from
color originals is a lot of fun.
Restoration of old photos is a bit of an art in its own right. Getting a
good copy neg is still critical. However, touchup work, which is so often
extensive in restoration work, is >much< easier in PS, but its tedious. I
can't speak to the matter of brownie points, but it is gratifying to salvage
a decent copy of a tattered old photo of great-great-great grandma from the
family bible.
My lessons learned are from the passed year and change using an HP
Photosmart scanner and printer, both now discontinued. Short life cycles,
huh? My scanner does negative film better than slides. The printer is
nothing short of amazing, but ink cartridges are getting hard to come by
except direct from HP, and danged expensive. It is a layering ink jet
technology and is indisinguishable from a "normal" print, even viewed up
close. 8 x 10 inches is the largest size I can produce, and I must use a
full frame scan to do so, or the image degradation is obvious. With your
Nikon scanner you get a little more scanning resolution than I do, so your
cropping latitude is a smidge wider, but not a whole lot.
The combination of OM/Zuiko with fine grain, high resolution films and good
technique, along with the current crop of low end film scanners is a great
hybird approach to digital imaging. Be sure to get LOTS of disk space,
consider a CD writer, MO drive or other high volume writable storage medium,
and be prepared to upgrade processor and memory in large chunks. Big (mine
run 5 - 25 MB per scan depending on data format and compression) scanned
images take lots of horsepower to manipulate. But most of all, enjoy :)
John P
______________________________________
there is no "never" - just long periods of "not yet".
there is no "always" - just long periods of "so far".
-----Original Message-----
From: Gilbs <gilbs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>I'm in the process of setting up a <Digital Darkroom> .........
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