0 mm, part two

This week, we interrupt the series of blogs about the 6x6 galleries for a follow-up to the blog about scanning. sixbysix.deviantart.com/blog/3… The first part focused on the various possibilities of the scanner, this time I give a short look to the negatives.

RESOLUTION
Many people offered valuable input to the poll about scanning resolutions, and I was amazed both by the highs or lows at which some people scanned.  In fact, it’s quite complex to answer the question: at what resolution should I scan. There’s the film grain (your film's ASA or DIN number), the file size that your computer’s memory can handle, your own amount of patience and the top resolution that your scanner can handle. And, as Hypnogen pointed out, the real, optical resolution of your scanner maybe much lower than the interpolated resolution, in which the scanner software adds what it thinks should be there between one actual dot and another. comments.deviantart.com/14/195…
There’s another question though: how much of the film grain do we want to see? None at all? Only some of it? All of it? I found a useful article that give some easy to understand tables where you can take your own decision, based on the ASA number of your film. It’s also a good summary of other things that any negative scanning person should know.  Really, a must-read: www.boeringa.demon.nl/menu_tec…

FRAMING CREATIVELY
If you’re the kind of SixbySix member that welcomes a Holga's first light leak with a tear of pride or that blackmails little old ladies to get at their expired films, you might as well look thoroughly at the beginning and end of your developed film. All kinds of interesting random things might happen there: folds,stickers, holes and traces of cut earlier exposures. Sometimes I get the feeling that the developing laboratory cuts the beginning and end of my films with a blunt axe, but I love them for it, of course. A light leak in that part of the film might be just as interesting as one on an actual exposure.
Another blessing in disguise might be a film transport issue, particularly with  images overlap. If you allow me to give a non-square example from my own gallery: