Stand Up Or Go To Bed? page 2

the soft swaths of sky and cloud. I have never seen grain in a cloud before and this was something that for me made the Imacon fall to its knees! Maybe with careful alteration and adjustment at the scanning stage this issue could be remedied to some degree or maybe adding blur to the final image would work but from what I have experienced in both the PII and X5 it would certainly be a step backward. This considered, the sharpness of the foreground produced by the Imacon machines would be an added bonus and remove the need for excessive amounts of sharpening in Photoshop and certainly needed with a negative deriving from low acutance, finegrain developers.

It is worth considering that the very reason that many of my landscape photographer friends with Imacon scanners do not experience theses problems with their scans is probably attributed to the films they are using. Many landscape workers use extremely fine, slow transparency emulsions and often the superb, and very slow, Fuji Velvia 50 (soon to be reintroduced). The physical properties of this film are very much different from my 100 ISO Ilford Delta and, when scanned, do not pose the same problems at all. Another fact worth mentioning here is the speed at which the scanner can produce the scans. In this test all the file sizes were the same with the Imacon x5 churning them out in 30 seconds, compared with the Epson, which took three and a half minutes. Being a traditionalist to a certain degree, this is of little importance to me - I can clearly recall spending an hour in the darkroom producing a good starting print with full tonal range, prior to adding the punch. I also feel we all need time to put the kettle on in this speedy world of today!

In conclusion then, all the machines performed very well and produced tonal renditions that I would not be disappointed with at all. The sharpness of the Imacon P II and X5 are the result of a more refined optical train than the Epson but for me I will be staying in the Epson camp for now with my fluffy skies as smooth as silk!

My Scanning Regime

All my 5x4 negatives are scanned after a clean with an air duster. I scan in 16-bit greyscale at a resolution of 2,000 ppi with the target size set to ‘Original’ and do not apply any sharpening at the scanning stage as I have found this to be slightly rudimentary. I preview the image at the largest size available and always make adjustments using curves to obtain full detail in the shadows and highlights. On average this gives me a final image size of about 128 megabytes, which can sometimes appear flat and uninteresting but with detail in both the shadows and highlight rendered in this original scan I have a full tonal range from which to work.

Berneray Image Adjustments

After in the initial scan, which delivered an even gradation of tones, the work on Photoshop was relatively simple. The top right sky area was selected using the lasso tool with a 250 pixel feather and then darkened, using curves. The curve was pushed slightly to darken the mid to dark greys and then the whites of the curve pulled back onto the original position (128 in 128 out) to return the whites of the clouds set against the dark sky. Contrast was increased in the foreground using curves (S-shaped) and the Lasso tool, with close consideration given to retaining the high values of the white sand without a ‘bleached white’ effect. Finally the shadows were darkened in the marram grass to the right in the foreground, which served to strengthen the lead-in line of the image, drawing the eye along the beach.

While there is little to choose between the V750 and the Imacons for 5x4 monochrome work, the Imacon really shines for high-end colour transparency scanning, which is why it is so favoured by the top colour landscape photographers. This scan from a 6x6cm negative shows tremendous depth and sharpness in the original file.

Thanks are due to contributor, Paul McMullin and Leon Brittain at Calumet. Since they refurbished their store in Downing Street, Manchester, Calumet have been operating their new digital suite, which is available for hire. It offers a less expensive alternative to sending films away for scanning, with the speed of the Imacon X5 you can get through quite a number in an hour! Certainly if you are in the market for an Imacon it would pay to try-before-you-buy. Organise yourself correctly, and you should be able to earn enough for the down-payment from hiring the studio for an hour or two!

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Photo Quote: Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust to your own reactions and convictions. Ask yourself: "Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream? Can I visualize a print - my own personal statement of what I feel and want to convey - from the subject before me? -Ansel Adams