For those who are interested in the technical side I will list the equipment and software used at the end of the article.
In 2011 when I started the scanning it was a learning curve for me as I had never done anything other than scan the odd document or photo, even on the internet there was not a lot of technical information except that which focussed on specific software, so I ended up getting a lot of different results.
I originally scanned the negatives using an Epson Perfection V700, it is a flatbed scanner with film holders and produced very good results, all the scans were done in RGB and then changed to B/W in the processing software.
Once they were scanned into my computer, the software I used to process and archive the images was originally Adobe Lightroom but I eventually switched to Capture One Pro. 8 in 2015
I did not retouch the images unnecessarily, but because they varied in condition and colour I converted them to black and white and cropped if needed, however I have kept the original scans before any adjustment was made much like keeping the negatives or RAW images of today, so I have them in case of any problems.
I think this first lot of scans was very good and once they were on the website I had a lot of interest from people who visited the site which was the main intention.
Then in 2019 I decided to start again with new equipment and to look at every negative in the collection.
First thing I did was purchase a light box so I could get a better idea of the quality and condition of each negative, I owned a small light box, big enough to look at 2 or 3 negatives, the new one by Dorr is 60x60cm and has been invaluable, it enabled me to look at large batches of negatives.
I was then able to sort them into various groups initially, i.e. buildings, people, lifts locations , then to break them down into more precise groups, i.e. people into skiers, adults, children, climbers, this took quite a while to do but I could not start scanning until it was finished.
This time I was using a new scanner, an Epson Perfection V800 it is also a flatbed Scanner but now features an LED light source, needs no warm up time and produces very sharp results, I used Epson’s film holders and one from the USA by Betterscanning, it is a sturdier piece of equipment and superb for strips of negatives, I continued to use Lasersoft Silverfast Studio Ai version 8.0 scanning software.
I scanned the 55x55mm or 120 negatives at 1200 ppi and the 35mm at 2400 ppi, it would have been great to scan all of them at 4880 ppi but it would have taken a very long time to do 7000 negatives and I think it is a good compromise especially as they are mainly going to be seen on the internet, even so I think I only managed 50-100 scans in a day depending on how much time I had.
The original scans were put into a catalogue and when I had a batch of 100 or so I would move them into Capture One Pro 21, convert to Black & White, crop them, clean the worst imperfections and then export them to another catalogue in Capture One ready to be sorted into their various categories, once they were in the new catalogue I would go back to the originals and reset all the edits I had made so they were back to their original state.
The second new thing I did was purchase Hama negative clear storage sleeves which hold 12 55x55mm or 40 35mm negatives, the sleeves are now housed in ring binders which have a slipcase which keeps out dust and dirt, it also makes it quite easy to put the sleeves on the light box and search for an image, a vast improvement on the tin boxes.
I believe that there are many alternative ways and methods of scanning and processing but for me the system I have now works very well and I am pleased with the results.
In February 2021 I rebuilt the website using a new theme by Imagely who design WordPress Photography themes, this allowed me to tailor it to my needs, the galleries and albums are using Nextgen Gallery Pro, language control is by WPML Multilingual CMS I have tried to make a fairly simple layout because I believe most people are visiting the website to look at the images and do not need loads of excess rubbish to distract them.
As of 20th May 2021 the website contained a total of 18 albums with 142 galleries holding 3677 black & white images, plus 14 galleries holding 359 colour images, giving us just over 4000 images of Milans work, we still have other material to add and will continue to improve the website, we always appreciate any feedback especially if someone spots an error or something doesn’t work.
- Scanning setup in 2011 – 2016
- Computer
- Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe
- Processor Intel 3rd Generation Core i7-3770K
- Graphics card Asus HD 7770 AMD Radeon DirectCU
- Power Supply Be Quiet Pure Power L8-CM 430W
- Memory Crucial Sport 32GB kit (8GBx4), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3
- Cooler Corsair Hydro Series H100i All in one 120mm fans
- Hard drive Samsung HD103SJ 1TB
- SSD OCZ Vertex4 256 GB
- SSD OCZ Agility4 120GB
- Scanner Epson Perfection V700 with Lasersoft Silverfast Studio Ai version 8.0
- Processing software Adobe Lightroom and changed to Capture One Pro 8 in 2015
- Scanning setup in 2019 -2021
- Computer
- Motherboard Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro
- Processor Intel Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHZ (Overclocked to 4.5 GHZ
- Graphics card AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 8GB Gddr5
- Power Supply Corsair RM650x 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular
- Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 Gb (4x16GB) DDR4 3000 Mhz XMP2
- Cooler Corsair Hydro H100x 240mm Radiator Dual 120mm Fans
- Hard drive Samsung HD103SJ 1TB
- SSD Kingston SA2000M8500G 500GB M.2 2280 NVMe
- SSD Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB
- SSD Crucial CT1000MX500 1TB
- SSD Crucial CT500BX100 500GB
- Monitor Dell Ultrasharp U2412M 24inch
- Monitor Dell Ultrasharp U2518D 24Inch
- Scanner Epson Perfection Photo V800 with Lasersoft Silverfast Studio Ai version 8.0
- Processing software Capture One pro 21
- Light box Dorr LED Light Box 60x60cm Ultra Slim Design Extra Thin 8mm Dimmable
- Storage Hama Clear storage sleeves in Hama ring binders and sleeves.