You really need to try the scanner for yourself. There is so much mis-information out there on the web, which is a real shame, because these Nikon Coolscan scanners are really excellent and miles away from the Epson flatbeds. The Epson’s are ‘OK’ if you just want to scan something to send to someone on email etc, but if you’re looking to do superb prints, then the Coolscans are in a different world.

Many thanks for such a detailed response, much appreciated. And sorry for bogging down your posts with boring gear-related questions..!

In terms of actually converting a raw scanned colour negative to a positive, does something like a Nikon 8000 do a good job automatically? I’ve seen lots of (confusing looking..) software out there claiming to do a better job than scanner software.

Cheers,
mike

I’m not into making money from people from third world areas. I make money from landscape photography and from workshops. People are just subjects I love to interact with – it’s not just the photography that I’m into, I also like the whole exchange and using my camera allows me to get involved with other people that I’d normally pass by on the street and have nothing to do with.

I think it would be very hard and calculating to stick a model release below some Indian person. Having said all this, I got the distinct impression that Steve McCurry does not get model releases. Perhaps I’m wrong. I really don’t know – it’s not an area I want to get into.

On a related subject – how do you go about getting model releases from people you photograph? I can imagine it being difficult, especially when you don’t know the language.

I’ve always wondered about this.

Lovely photos, as always.

Mark

It’s a big topic, and something I’m not an expert on.

I can give you my opinion though.

Firstly, going back to film is a dilemma for most : film means scanning, and scanning means either buying a scanner (which is cheaper in the long run) than getting a lab to do it. But the down side is that it’s a mine field out there as to what scanner to get.

I was lucky. I first used a Nikon Coolscan 8000 (which had problems – banding unless you turn single CCD scan on and accept that that the scan times will multiply by a factor of three). And now I own a 9000 which is a slight improvement but a very fine scanner all the same.

Flatbeds. Forget them. I’m so fed up with the mis-information out there about these items. I’ve had Large Format photographers who have spent over 6K on a system of lenses and body say that the flat beds give as good a scan as a Hasselblad Flextight. It simply isn’t true – because I tried it myself. I a friend of mine had the Epson V750 so I did comparison scans on my 9000 and the v750 and the difference was night and day. Halos around any extreme contrast and wishy-washy colour.

So in terms of getting the colours you see in your films, you need to get a good scanner. A second hand 8000 at the moment is perhaps going for around £600 or slightly more – a complete bargain.

Then we have the difficulty of getting the scan to match what we see on the light table. That is a huge topic and something I don’t have space to go into here. But suffice to say that there are those out there who like to have their systems calibrated using IT8 targets and are angst if the colour is not exact. I’m not that inclined.

I’ve been meaning to ask you something for a while, which relates to portraiture. I’ve recently photographed a whole bunch of stuff on Portra, but I cannot bring myself to get the lab to scan it (£££). I’m going to try scanning it on an Epson flatbed, but in the past my results have been very dissapointing in the colour stakes. So my real question relates to the dark art of converting colour negative film on a computer. Could you offer any starting points or advice for us novices who are lusting after accurate/nice colour negative scans? Sincere apologies if you’ve already talked about this, and if I’m bothering you with too technical a question feel free to ignore it :)

Cheers,
mike