Outdoor Photographer has been sending me free issues. The current issue has a story re. Robert Glenn Ketchum and his use of high res. Tango drum scans (pp. 64ff). His service bureau, West Coast Imaging, scans his 35mm chromes into high res 300 MB 8-bit files. From these they are able to make very fine 49 inches by x enlargements. They use the digital laser light (ZBE's Chromira) technology to print on Fuji Crystal Archive Glossy paper.
When scanning for this purpose the most important aspect is so much the size of the original film, though quite important, but the size and quality of the original scan. It must be of sufficient size to achieve the output desired and contain ample information in every aspect. Tango drum scans provide this.
Back lit images are a different matter but also doable. These will be viewed from more distance and their output resolution is usually lower. Their grain tends to be the size of peas as I believe they are made with a line screen(?).
Check out your service bureaus and see what you can find. Midwest Photo in Omaha, NE does a lot of back lit images and offer prices that are competitive. They also do scanning, but I'm not use if they offer Tango drum scans. They provide the other digital laser technology using the Lightjet 5000 laser printer, also on Fuji Crystal Archive Glossy paper.
Peace! Sidney
