[twitch]

$22 is a lot, but the time it takes me to preview, scan and retouch a roll of film is probably 90 minutes though, so 15/hr isn't a bad rate to outsource this

[LesDMess]

The main thing I'd like to improve in my workflow is to minimise the amount of dust and scratch removal I'm having to do without compromising on the result.

An example of how good Nikon Coolscan+Nikonscan ICE is on a particularly scratched up frame of C41.



Link to full size -> http://www.fototime.com/36BED059AD8E686/orig.jpg

Coolscan 5000 full res scan with ICE on is about 50 seconds and about 30 without ICE. You simply feed strips of 6 frames, apply the settings and scan with auto expose/focus, ICE (on/off) and orientation.

With the 9000 you have to use filmholders and scans per frame are 10-15 seconds longer then the 5000.

With properly exposed frame of film, you will not need pre or post scan adjustments as Coolscan+Nikonscan gives the best automatic results in terms of color and contrast across any film type I have used. Todate, I have almost scanned 20,000 frames of film.

[twitch]

Maybe we should have a separate thread on ICE because your examples are impressive (the top one a bit less so, but the bottom is very impressive, that as good or better than I can do by hand).

There are lots of options and settings in ICE for my Plustek, but I can't get decent results. My problems are 1) when it detects problems it attempts to repair it but the repair is very visible and sometimes worse than the original scratch 2), it "repairs" parts of the image that aren't actaully damaged, and 3) other seemingly obvious scratches are missed entirely. Looks like either you've mastered ICE, and/or the Coolscan ICE is better than Plustek.

[LesDMess]

It is Coolscan + Nikonscan ICE4 that does it not only automatically but with very little overhead. I understand that is licensed from Digital Science which was later purchased by Kodak. This system of course is far more expensive then the Plustek.

The 9000 is far more effective but the 5000 is so much faster as I can typically scan 36 frame roll in under an hour as there is no filmholder to deal with and individual frame scans are faster. With the optional whole roll feeder - and Nikonscan's exemplary batch scanning, you can walk away while it scans the whole roll.

[LesDMess]

This is how ICE - Normal and Fine, affects a scan.



Link full res -> http://www.fototime.com/02BB797801DCA89/orig.jpg

I will have to try it again with the 9000.

[Jüri]

I've been working on my workflow for over a year now and I think it has evolved enough to post it here.

1. Always keep my eyes open for cheap film in bulk. I usually don't pay more than €2 per roll .
2. Let the film defrost and then expose it.
3. Process the film
C-41. Take to lab for processing. Maybe I will do that myself one day.
B&W. Put the film in developing tank, then develop, fix and wash it. Hang the film for drying for a couple of hours.
4. Cut the film in 6 frame strips and put them in sleeves along with roll number and detailed information on exposure (date, camera, lens) and developing (dilutions, times, temperatures etc).
5. Scan the negatives using Epson V300 scanner and VueScan software.
C-41. Use different profiles for every type of film so that I could achieve natural colours without post-processing.
B&W. Scan all films without any adjustments to get everything that's on the film. Then use Photoshop to remove dust and adjust levels. For the latter I have specific actions for each film with 3 contrast levels (so it would be kind of like doing wet prints with multigrade paper)
6. Archive films digitally in numbered folders, which are in folders by seasons.
7. Upload 2 photos every day to Flickr and several times a year make wet prints from the nice ones.

This workflow will give me decent results with minimum amount of adjustments and fair amount of information on the photos.

[Pioneer]

Hmmm

1. Buy film
2. Shoot film
3. Develop film (at home or send to a lab depending on how lazy I am that week.)
4. Look at negatives on the light table
5. Enlarge and Print what I like from the light table when I feel like Ansel Adams
6. Scan and Print what I like from the light table when I don't feel like Ansel Adams
7. Mount the pictures my wife said she thought were good and show them off to anyone dumb enough to stay around and look.
8. Store the ones in a box that made my wife groan and roll her eyes when she looked at them.
9. Have even tried printing a photo book or two.
10. Carefully store all my negatives in archival pages when the pile has gotten so deep on my desk that I can't find the shutter release cable anymore. All in the mistaken belief that someone may actually have the time, or care, to wade through thousands and thousands of negatives of my cats sometime in the future.

I'm still working on the digital stuff. Most of the time I download them to my computer and look at them on the screen. Once a month I back them up because an article in Popular Photography said I should do that.

Is that what you mean by workflow? My wife calls it goofing off.

[jimmm18]

Workfow??

LOL!!! Love it. especially #7 I

[Execudork]

My workflow isn't too different from what the rest of you are doing.
1. Buy film. Weirder and cheaper is better. I just placed a bid on some 14-years-past-expiry Fuji Sensia on eBay. My 'fridge contains a mix of old and new films
2. Choose which camera to take out today - I've got 4 different film cameras, each with its own "feel". The single best feature a camera can have is an emotional connection.
3. Take pictures
4a. B&W - toss it in the 'fridge until I feel like developing it at home (Ilfosol 3)
4b. C41 - toss it in the 'fridge until I feel like taking it to my local pro shop for "develop only" $4/roll
4c. E-6 - toss it in the 'fridge until I feel like taking it to my local pro shop for "develop only" $10/roll
5. Scan on my Epson Perfection 3170 (garage sale, $20), sometimes I have to pile books on top of the cut-and-sleeved film to de-curl it.
6. Import to Lightroom 3.3, fiddle with the good ones
7. Export and upload to Flickr
8. Laugh and clap my hands like a small child when my views-per-image go from zero to greater than zero. Somebody looked at my pictures!

I enjoy developing my own film, and has been said by others there's a certain enjoyment from the careful composition and taking-it-slow about film compared to digital. The high cost of E-6 developing is pushing me towards buying the chemicals to do it myself; I've found only one supplier willing to ship to Canada, Macodirect.de in Germany. Freestyle sold me the Unicolor C-41 kit, which I used and enjoyed, but their shipping costs to Canada are ridiculous and they won't send liquids across the border; the total cost came to only slightly less than the develop-only option at my local shop. I haven't yet placed an order with Ze Germans, I expect I'll buy a bunch of film and other stuff from them to justify the shipping costs.

[Argenticien]

Here's my work flow:
1. Buy camera, claiming to wife that it is birthday present to self.
2. Buy another camera, claiming to wife that it is Christmas present to self.
3. Buy yet another camera if I get a bonus this year. (MY bonus! Mine! No justification to wife needed!)
4. Buy another camera, claiming to wife that I put in a crazy lowball bid but unexpectedly won.
5. Stop tempting fate with the wife.
6. Buy film (Ilford B&W and Kodak color from last remaining local camera shop; Efke from Freestyle)
7. Choose one of aforesaid cameras.
8. Load slowest film that the expected conditions will allow, ideally Efke 25 speed.
9. Shoot. w00t!
[Hereafter assuming the case of B&W film shot]
10. Turn on Led Zeppelin or similar
11. Process film in bathroom (Ilfosol 3 developer and Ilford rapid fixer, as they're about all the aforesaid local shop stocks, and I'm trying to support them).
12. Tediously store spent chemistry, as I am on a septic tank system; haul jugs of it to local waste processing center every few months.
13. Dry negs by hanging them in the shower.
14. Scan to TIFFs on second-hand Epson 4490 (OEM holders; want to get BetterScanning.com ones eventually)
15. I'm in transition re: post-processing software, from GIMP to Lightroom. Resize, fix flagrantly bad contrast, etc. -- but I try to keep it to minimal PP, both to be true to what the film saw and because I have little patience for it. Process to JPGs for low-res uses (posting online, etc.).
16. Show the wife that one fabulous shot of her cute little niece or nephew (out of 111 shots on 3 rolls) that delights her; claim that this justifies the camera purchases in steps 1 - 4 above.

Seriously, I shoot film because I love the aesthetic of wonderfully made metal manual cameras ($20 - $300 each, in the kinds I buy, and timeless) and get frustrated quickly with the fiddly little buttons on a digital SLR ($1200 etc., fast obsolescence). I second what others have posted, too, about the moment of child-like wonder that results when opening the processing tank after the fixer and seeing actual images on the negs. It never gets old.

--Dave

[John Poirier]

I second what others have posted, too, about the moment of child-like wonder that results when opening the processing tank after the fixer and seeing actual images on the negs. It never gets old.

--Dave

Of course, I've also experienced the sense of child-like wonder that results when opening the processing tank before the fixer. I'm getting old.

John

[Pioneer]

Of course, I've also experienced the sense of child-like wonder that results when opening the processing tank before the fixer. I'm getting old.

John

Yeahh. It is a lot like going out to take pictures without a memory card in the camera! Ooops, I didn't say that did I?

[Julie]

1. Buy cheap cameras/lenses from Ebay/Craigslist/Pawn/Thrift (Only reason I get away with this is I say I'll use them and then resell them for the same price or more- which I rarely do, they just accumulate in my closet)
2. Obtain some film (lucly that my school provides it, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to afford it)
3. Shoot the film
4. Develop film
5. Dry negatives
6. Enlarge negatives
7. Develop prints
8. Scan the prints to computer

I'd like to shoot some color film for a change, but C41 prices are insane around here- many places don't do it anymore and the cheapest place I've seen is Walgreens and it's $12.99 there (and they aren't that great quality, either...)

[wombat2go]

My flow is modified now.
Firstly the Epson V600 did not give me sharp bw scans of 35mm,
and secondly I had a dust problem.
So I took a Saturday to make a "dust hutch" cabinet which is fed with a downward stream of filtered air
from a surplus range hood with fan reversed so it sucks downwards thru an a/c filter
The upper of the hutch has space for film and print drying and the bottom contains the enlarger and scanner.
The negs go in there wet and stay there till I get a good 9 by 6 inch wet print.
That is the most time consuming and fun part of the whole flow process.
Then I dry the paper print in there and scan it before it leaves the dust hutch.
I like the scans because they replicate the work I did on the look of the paper prints.
The V600 make excellent quality prints of 9 by 6 because after all,
that is what it is designed and sized for.
The dust hutch is also a good place for rocket blower of sensors and lenses, and changing lenses too.

[Argenticien]

So I took a Saturday to make a "dust hutch" cabinet which is fed with a downward stream of filtered air
from a surplus range hood with fan reversed so it sucks downwards thru an a/c filter
The upper of the hutch has space for film and print drying and the bottom contains the enlarger and scanner.
...

Whaaat? Can we see a picture of this contraption?! Sounds absolutely brilliant.
--Dave