So during my rescan project, I came across a roll containing an image I’ve printed in the darkroom. This particular image contained a sign with some text, obviously. I’ve also recently purchased a new printer and couldn’t recist to try and print this image digitally as well.
Overall, the print looked good, and I’m happy with the result. However, that sign didn’t it look a bit blurry? Much more so than on my darkroom print, which was about the same size.
After inspecting the prints with a loupe, I could conclude that it was so.
That got me wondering, isn’t my printer capable enough? But then I checked the image on the computer, and well, to me it looks like the detail might not be quite there in the scans.
How much detail can I pull from my current scanning setup?
For reference, I do mirrorless scanning with my FujiFilm X-H2 and a Canon FD-mount macro lens. With that lens, I can fill the frame with a 6×6 negative, but for the smaller 135 I need a 10 mm macro-ring to be able to fill the frame.
As a light source, I have the Cinestill CS-lite, and as a film holder, I use the Essential Film holder with the 6×6 mask.
This particular image was photographed on Kentmere 400 and with my Mamiya C33 and the 105 mm lens (a 6×6 negative).
I figured there are a few things I can try to optimise the scan quality.
I could try the pixel shift technology in my Fuji camera, I could try and do a manual stitch of multiple images, or I could slap on a macro-ring and do a manual stitch at even greater magnification.
Said and done, and here are the results
Method and conclusion
The Manual stitch was made with 4 images, I moved as close as I could with just the macrolens, and then did one exposure of each corner of the film.
The Macro-ring was done at roughly the same height as if I were scanning 135. I did 9 exposure for this stitch.
These were then converted with DxO PureRaw into Tiff-files, and then stitched with Hugin, and then converted to positive in DxO PhotoLab.
The Pixelshift was done at normal magnification, and my Fuji X-H2 makes 20 images to create a hi-res image for you. These have to be manually combined on the computer using a software by Fuji called PixelShift Combiner.
Which then gives you one combined raw-file. I then processed this raw-file in DxO PhotoLab as the other.
I didn’t do the best job on matching the contrast between conversions. So try and ignore that.
All these methods improved the quality of the scan. And I can’t say any was better than the other, to me the results are very similar and slightly better than the standard scan.
The pixelshift was the easiest to do, but also gave me the largest file size of 511 MB – But that was with a thin margin, the other sizes were:
Manual Stitch- 233 MB
Macro-Ring – 479 MB
Standard – 33 MB
But did any of them come to the same resolution as my dakroom print? Well not quite. When looking at my darkroom print under a loupe, I do still think it looks sharper than my digital twins. But I don’t have a way of measuring this or showing it to you. There’s a quick photo made with my phone from the loupe at the end of this post. But you’ll have to trust me that I think there’s more detail still in there.
Did I learn anything?
Well, I do think darkroom prints are something extra special. The resolution of 120-film when enlarged is quite spectacular. But I do think the magic is in how it renders when it starts to fall apart. When you’re at magnifications of digital prints that start to fall apart, I think these look ugly and like someone didn’t do a proper job. But darkroom prints don’t fall apart like that; they show the grain instead. Much like paint strokes in a painting. I also think darkroom prints has a certain quality to how it renders grey tones, in a more nuanced way.
I simply find it more pleasant to look like, but that might just be nostalgia speaking, who knows?
Anyhow, I’ll continue making my proper prints out in the darkroom, but now I can also do digital prints of my analog photos as well. As a future low cost offering, to people interested in buying one of my images to hang on the wall, but can’t afford my proper darkroom prints.
I also have some ideas for upcoming zines, proper zines done at home.
We’ll see what the future holds.
