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Here a novice question:
When scanning B&W what is the best way: To scan in grey scale or to scan in color mode and desaturate.

Does the difference in information make a difference in tones?
I cant make up my mind on this.

In this question i disregard the issue of having a small colour bias in the colour scan of B&W negatives. I just wonder about the difference in information in colors making a difference in greyscales.
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2036 forum posts and 10 photos.
I always scan B&W neg's in grayscale. The tonal range seems right that way.
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585 forum posts and 30 photos.
Personally, I would scan in color, because there's a lot more information than B&W in the image.
There are many ways to convert it in a perfect B&W... one of best is with the "NiK Silver Pro" PS plug-in.
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Forum moderator 1512 forum posts and 59 photos.
Because sometimes BW films have strange "base" ... for example a tenue pink in kodak tri-x or blue in rollei/foma i allways scan it in grey tones. Don´t need any post process at all.
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2036 forum posts and 10 photos.
Ben Goossens wrote (click for original post):
Personally, I would scan in color, because there's a lot more information than B&W in the image.
There are many ways to convert it in a perfect B&W... one of best is with the "NiK Silver Pro" PS plug-in.

Why would you scan a B&W neg in color mode??? I don't understand?? I'm pretty sure Birger was asking about scanning B&W negatives.
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Yeah well i think you both got it right, i was asking what is the best way of scanning B&W negatives: scan in grey scale mode or scan in color mode and desaturate the file.
I got another interesting reply on the hasselblad forum. There one guy suggested that scanning in color gives you the most control and that grey scale scanning looses a lot of info and takes away the sting from the image. this is because the grey scale converters in the scanning software are actually set in a fixed way which you cant control.
Theres something about the different colors being graded differently, greens most and blue least with reds in between.
I will check my files to try to make up my mind.

Thanks for the tip about the PS plug in will try to get it and test it.
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Ups something went a bit wrong with the url click the lower text or see it here

http://www.foto.no/cgi-bin/articles/articleView.cgi?articleId=42512
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