Sharpening a scanned image

Sharpening is one of the key elements of a good scan.

The way you introduce sharpening can make or break your image. I consider this to be the most important technical step in scanning negative.

Remember that this is NOT a digital image captured by a camera sensor. This is a different process and at first it will look unfamiliar on a monitor. A film image should be judged in print, not on a monitor.

Film is designed to be printed and viewed at a distance. The 35 mm negative format was actually designed around these criteria.

In a digital original from film, Grain and Sharpness are linked. The more you sharpen, the more pronounced your grain. The trick is to find the exact right compromise, right for your taste, that is.

Below two examples from this picture that I selected because the girl's hanger and hair are a good reference.

Silver print

The first one is a reflective scan from a genuine Silver print, made with a top-of-the-line Leitz Focomat-II enlarger and the Epson 750.

Don't look at the shadow details or the toning, just the Grain and the Sharpness. The Silver print is a little to dark and the gradation is not perfect.

This is the best you will get out of a full Silver process. The only digital aspect is the reflective scan from the print, to make it visible on this digital medium (your monitor). You can judge by the little white hairs and dust that the scan is sharp.

At this magnification, this is actually not all that impressive. 

Digital scan

Next, a Digital Original, processed and sharpened using the process I describe here

After the digital preparation the image was adjusted for tone and gradation.

Conclusion

You will never be able to replicate the exact Grain and Sharpness as you see in the Silver print. It is a different process. All you can do is create your own version.

Which is better?

Impossible to answer. Do you like Coke or Pepsi, Bourgogne or Bordeaux?

I do know that I can control my image process a lot better when I scan a film negative and process my Digital Original using digital tools and techniques. 

In my view, a photograph does not exist if it is not printed. We can get beautiful papers now, much better then any silver paper we can get and even better then the famous but now extinct silver chloride Agfa Record Rapid paper. With the right printing tool you can create superb Black-and-White prints that are way better then any Silver print.