# How To Scan Negatives: Nikon Coolscan 8000



## myopia (May 13, 2008)

I am staying at my friend's house for a few days. Her mother has a Nikon Coolscan 8000 and I brought a lot of black and white negs to scan. Her mother only scans color slides and does not know how to do negs in b&w. Any tips? (I am only here for a few more days, so if you got anything- hit me)


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## Helen B (May 13, 2008)

Is she using Nikonscan? If so, here's how to do it.

B&W silver-image negs cannot be scanned using ICE, so disable ICE. If you have chromogenic B&W film you can use ICE (ICE uses the infrared channel of the scanner, and silver is opaque to IR but the dyes used in C-41 film are not). You can use GEM with both types of B&W film, if you scan in RGB - personally I don't like GEM with silver image film. ROC doesn't apply, of course.

You can scan as a negative in greyscale, if the negs were not developed in a staining developer. If they were developed in a staining developer it is worth scanning in RGB and looking at which channel looks the best. If you do scan in RGB, examine the files carefully for banding. If you see it, switch on 'super fine scan'. This is a known problem with the 8000.

You can scan as a negative. Check that the histogram does not show any clipping. If it does then scan as a positive, and use the curves tool to invert (the 'curve' should go from top left to bottom right instead of from bottom left to top right).

You can scan in 8-bit or 16-bit. I almost always scan in 16-bit.

Most other things are exactly the same as when scanning slides. Your friend's mother should be able to help, if she reads the above notes.

Best,
Helen


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## Uglulyx Takes Photos Too (May 13, 2008)

Glad I read this topic, from what I just read I assume that scanning negs on a regular scanner would ruin them.:hail:


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## yellowjeep (May 13, 2008)

It won't ruin them. If by regular scanner you mean a flatbed you can scan them if it is a transparency enabled scanner. If you did it on just a standard scanner like what is on an all in one printer you will just have a scan of a strip of negatives.


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## Uglulyx Takes Photos Too (May 13, 2008)

Well I could in theory do that with mine, it scans in 1280P. All i;d have to do is invert the colour. Yes I know I compared a scanner to an HD tv but thats what the box and printer properties menu said.


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## bhop (May 13, 2008)

Uglulyx Takes Photos Too said:


> Well I could in theory do that with mine, it scans in 1280P. All i;d have to do is invert the colour. Yes I know I compared a scanner to an HD tv but thats what the box and printer properties menu said.



Uh... yeah, it doesn't really work that way.  A photo scanner has a backlight that shines through the film.  A regular flatbed doesn't have that so just inverting the color won't really do much.


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## myopia (May 25, 2008)

thanks helen-b, this really helped.


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