In an offering to the obsessive compulsive gods, I’ve now completed a project I started the minute I got my new scanner I have rescanned every photo I have ever taken.
My Nikon Scan Workflow
For the first few weeks of using this scanner, I tried out a few different scanning applications (Vuescan, Silverfast, but kept coming back to the bundled Nikon Scan. The biggest reason was taking comfort in knowing that the software was designed by the same people who designed the hardware, similar to Apple building the computer AND the operating system to run on it, it just seems like they would know best. The secondary reasons were workflow related; Nikon Scan lets you save setting preferences to use again on another batch, so I was able to set up a group of settings for 35mm B&W negatives (with or without Digital ICE turned on, depending on the film type), 35mm C-41 negatives (w/ ICE on), 35mm E6 (w/ICE), 6×6 B&W (with/without ICE), 6×6 C-41 (w/ICE), and 6×6 E6 (w/ICE). Then I could just load some film, pick the media format, and know that I most likely didn’t have to touch any of the settings (sometimes the frame position or cropping would need adjustment). This made scanning a few hundreds rolls of film go MUCH faster than when I did it the first time with my Epson 4870 (not to mention that the Nikon is an order of magnitude faster at the actual scanning as well).
Nikon Scan Settings
Once I knew I was going to be rescanning everything, I knew I needed to pick some settings and just go with it, for consistency. I knew I wanted the option to print from these scans, rather than just scan them for cataloging and for use on screen, so I went with 2000dpi scans for everything. This gave me ~50mb files for the medium format scans, and ~16mb for 35mm. For of the 35mm shots that I knew I wouldn’t use for anything but cataloging (like a lot of Lomo crap), I dropped the resolution down to 1000dpi, for a ~4mb file.
I turned on Digital ICE to it’s “Fine” setting (the highest), and the Multi Sample Scanning to “Fine (4x),” with a few of the finer grain shots at “Super Fine (16x).” Other than that, everything was turned off; no curves adjustment, no levels correction, no unsharp mask. I wanted to get as untouched a file as possible.
Filing Convention
My naming/filing convention is mostly based on film format (Negative, Slide, and Medium Format), then roll number, then frame number. This is mostly for the real world reference. I could’ve/should’ve separated out the 35mm Negatives into B&W or Color, but that’s not how I STORE the actual film. I have 5 of the large Workboxes, one or two for each format. 35mm film strips are stored in the same type of sleeve, mounted slides get their own, and 120 film, reversal or transparency, get the same sleeves as well (because the 120 aren’t mounted, I don’t make the distinction).
So I end up with a file system like so:
- N.AC.14: 35mm Negative, in the 3rd roll of the 1st 35mm binder (A binder, C roll), 14th frame.
- S.BZ.35: 35mm slide, in the 26th roll of the 2nd slide binder (B binder, Z roll), 35th frame.
- MF.AB.09: 120 Film, in the 2nd roll of the 1st medium format binder, 9th frame
I’m currently up to N.DY.36, S.BB.26, MF.CK.12.
I couldn’t just leave well enough alone
Now that I had seen the staggering improvement in the scans I was getting, looking through Treemeat’s photo archive was a painful exercise. I just wasn’t going to feel good knowing that there were inferior scans on display (whether or not they’re inferior photos). So, much like the Bush Administration, I’ve become a revisionist, and I’ve replaced all the previously Epson scanned photos with new files. The whole time I was researching scanners, I wanted to see comparisons of one scanner to another, so I took the chance to make a good portion of Treemeat’s archives into just that; a comparison of the same photo scanned on an Epson Photo 4870 and a Nikon Super Coolscan 9000ED. I added a link to the photos with the comparison available, just click the “Epson Scan Version” link to see the original (obviously only on the photos posted before I picked up the Nikon).
Here’s a few of my favorite that make me feel really good about dropping the cash for the Nikon:
- On a Bench: Nikon Version / Epson Version
- Riviera #2: Nikon Version / Epson Version
- Out by the Pond: Nikon Version / Epson Version
- Future’s So Bright: Nikon Version / Epson Version
- Splash (35mm): Nikon Version / Epson Version
