B&W Film Scanning in Vuescan (2023)

Eight years ago, I made a B&W Negative Scanning Tutorial. The software has changed quite a bit in the intervening years, so in August, 2023 I made this new, updated version using the latest versions of Vuescan and Photoshop.
Christopher Crawford demonstrates his film scanning technique from start to finish, using a Nikon LS-50 (Coolscan V) scanner with Vuescan software. He then shows the scan process itself, and demonstrates the post-processing needed to make the scan, which will look flat and gray, come to life as a beautiful black and white image with a full tonal range.
For a more detailed explanation of why he chooses the scan settings he chooses, Chris's written B&W scanning tutorial is available:
crawfordphotoschool.com/digita...
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See more of Chris's tutorials on digital and film photography at crawfordphotoschool.com
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[@burromeister]

Thanks for this absolutel perfect instruction!

[@willskith]

This was really helpful. I'm getting back into film photography after a 12 year break and the learning curve of Vuescan is quite high, this definitely saved me some trial and error.

[@chriscard6544]

thank you sooo much, you saved my bad scans. Now I have excellent ones

[@chrisandsneaky2453]

Awesome; I'm glad I could help.

[@barbaravanzanten6547]

This is great! Thank you... Very clear explanations and very useful...

[@christophercrawford777]

Glad it was helpful for you 😺

[@orange-peeler]

thank you for saying to set the white point to zero, it was blowing out my photos.

[@doogiedawg]

Thanks for going through your settings - I'm back using VueScan again after a long break from scanning and your tutorial proves useful in getting the most from the scanner before taking the image into photoshop, etc. One issue I am trying to sort is that I cannot get VueScan to show in the import section of Photoshop. I just moved to Mac OS from Windows where VueScan was present as a plugin, but it does not seem to have installed on the Mac. When I try adding the scanner using Mac OS it does not see my scanner, however using VueScan as standalone on the Mac shows the scanner and works just fine. Just wondered whether you have any experience with this before I head over to VueScan for a support ticket :)

[@christophercrawford777]

Adobe removed support for that feature in Photoshop, unfortunately. There's nothing that Hamrick (the company that makes Vuescan) can do about it. The link below explains it. Scroll to the bottom of the screen, the info you want is down there.
www.hamrick.com/twain.html

[@gerardbonus5354]

[10:09] I've found rotation to be buggy or sticky. For multiple negative scanning operations, I'd recommend, NO adjustment and flip in PS later etc.

[@johnrogers2418]

The only reason I have found to scan in RGB instead of 16 bit Grey is that some tools in photoshop and other editing software seem to get confused when working in greyscale. Even the SilverEfex Pro sometimes gets a little wonky if the image is not RGB so if I am not as concerned with the increased time and file size it is something that I occasionally do if I plan on using anything that relies on the different channels even though they are all grey.

[@chrisandsneaky2453]

Yeah, there are some filters and plugins for PS that only work on RGB images. What I do is scan as grayscale; it makes scanning faster and the file smaller; then if I need the image to be RGB for a specific purpose, you can convert it to RGB in photoshop before running the plugin.
Edit: Didn't realize I was commenting as my other UA-cam channel! ChrisAndSneaky is my cat's youtube channel.

[@barbaravanzanten6547]

When I scan a black and white 35mm negative strip and select one of the images, the crop lines show but the autofocus point does not appear in the overview window. Is this a feature of your particular scanner do you think? I am using my Epson V600

[@christophercrawford777]

Epson scanners are fixed focus. There is no autofocus mechanism, which is why the focus point does not show in Vuescan for you. This lack of focusing ability is the big reason why flatbed scanners give softer scans than real film scanners. There are companies that make adjustable-height film holders for the Epson scanners. These let you 'focus' by adjusting the distance between the film and the scanner glass; they work but are incredibly time consuming to set up.

[@gerardbonus5354]

I would disagree that scanning B&W in RGB mode only makes a bigger file; it does give a lot more too; maybe your scanner does not need the extra assistance; I'm recently scanning with a flatbed, in RGB mode [by accident] and yes; it is different ~ I'm getting a bronzed effect ~ almost like colour or that Sepia Toning that I never did like, or get right 55 years ago. ~ ;)

[@chrisandsneaky2453]

That's because the scanner is adding color that is not in the negative. You are NOT getting more shades of gray or more image detail. You can tone a picture in photoshop later and have much more precise control of the color.