I have also used this technique with success. It is the workflow
that evolved for me while doing production drum scans to be handed off
either for retouching and photocomposition or for archiving. The idea in
that environment was to get the maximum amount of information in the scan
while degrading the image as little as possible. Usually the retouched scan
or composition was put back on film using an 8x10" high resolution film
recorder or printed directly to photo paper using a Lambda printer. Often
these images were enlarged enormously, so maintaining image quality was very
important.
I have since ventured into the realm of CCD scanning and been very
interested to read all the reviews and comments on this list about various
scanning software packages on the market. I've tried three of them, so far,
and none of them have made me very happy.
I have been unable to get results as good by using any "presets" or
automatic functions in any of the scanning software I have tried, so for now
I am sticking with what I know.
One point worth making: I first set the "Auto Range Options" in
Photoshop for both "Black Clip" and "White Clip" to 0.00%. The Default
setting in Photoshop (and in VueScan, I believe) is 0.5% which "chops off"
the top and bottom of the histogram, "clipping" all those pixels to absolute
black and white. In order to get the absolute maximum tonal range, I don't
want to "clip" any pixels to absolute black or white. I make that decision
later, if necessary to improve the tonal range elsewhere in the image.
To set the "Auto Range Options" on a Mac, open the "Levels" dialog.
Hold down the OPTION key (ALT on a PC) and the "Auto" button on the "Levels"
dialog will change to "Options...". Click the "Options..." button to set the
ranges.
To summarize my current workflow for negatives:
1) I use SilverFast Ai Version 5 and a Polaroid SprintScan 4000
scanner on a Mac.
2) Do a prescan of the desired negative frame.
3) Crop to include the entire image and some of the border all the
way around.
4) Choose "48 Bit HDR Color" (comparable to a 48 bit "raw" scan in
VueScan, I guess) and 4000 dpi (really ppi, but I won't argue about that for
the moment) and hit the "Scan" button.
5) After the scan has opened in Photoshop, press Command-I (for Mac)
or CTRL-I (for Windows) to invert the image.
6) Use the Rectangle Selection Marquee to select an area completely
inside the image area.
7) Press Command-L (Mac) or CTRL-L (PC) to open the "Levels" dialog.
8) Press the "Auto" button to set White and Black points
automatically.
If the film has bad scratches or dust, the scratches or dust may
cause "Auto Levels" to calculate the White and Black points based on
non-image information; so if there *are* bad scratches or dust, I may do
some manual spotting to clean up the image before hitting the "Auto" Levels
button.
9) With "RGB" showing in the "Channel" drop-down list, move the
center "Input Levels" slider to adjust brightness of the RGB image, if
necessary. After clicking the slider with the mouse you can make superfine
adjustments by hitting the UP and DOWN ARROW keys.
10) Click the "Save" button on the Levels dialog to save the Levels
settings in a "Levels" file with the same name as the image.
11) Click "Cancel" in the "Levels" dialog box.
12) Click on the image to get rid of my Selection Marquee.
13) Crop the scan to just outside the image area.
14) Reopen the "Levels" dialog.
15) Click the "Load" button to load the previously saved "Levels"
file.
16) If the color needs some adjustment, I then choose the "RED",
"BLUE" or "GREEN" channel(s) individually from the "Channel" drop-down list
and move the center "Input Levels" slider for each one as necessary.
17) At this point I am done with "Levels" so I click "OK".
18) Use the "Rubber Stamp" tool to manually clean up dust spots,
scratches, etc.
19) From the "Image" menu, choose "Mode">"8 Bits/Channel".
20) Save the file as a TIFF with LZW compression.
21) At this point I have a 24 bit TIFF with the maximum amount of
information I can put into it.
22) If the exposure or lighting was less than optimal, or for some
other reason I need to make adjustments to the contrast to expand or
compress the dynamic range in one part of the tonal range or another, I use
the "Curves" tool.
So far, I have found the UI of both VueScan and Silverfast to be
mystifying for anything other than a raw scan (yes, I have a demo of the
latest version of VueScan). Nothing I do seems to give me results as good
with as little effort as the steps I've outlined above. I may keep trying,
but I'm happy with the results I'm getting and scanning software has a very
steep learning curve in my experience. It's hard to justify spending the
time to learn it when the payoff seems so unlikely to be worth the price of
learning.
I know that the idea of manually spotting dust on 50-60 MB files
probably drives lots of people up the wall. The only reason it doesn't
bother me too much is that I had a couple of years of practice doing it, so
it goes pretty quickly for me. None of the dust removal algorithms I've
tried seem to work as well.
If anyone can outline a workflow that is as simple and effective and
repeatable and that doesn't degrade the image, I'd love to hear about it.
Eli
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Moore [mailto:miguelmas@qwest.net]
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2001 9:33 PM
To: filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
Subject: Re: filmscanners: Scanning negatives for archiving
Lynn: I used the term Raw Scan to mean that I set my Minolta scan software
to 16
bit linear for the color depth setting... this gives me a negative scan into
PShop... is I set my scanner to a regular 8 or 16bit scan, then it imports a
positive image into PShop... I find that working with the linear scan in
PShop
gives me the longest tonal range, etc. as opposed to letting the scanner
software do the inversion.... I have not taken the time to work with
Vuescan, so
I can't comment on that product... My current climb up the learning curve is
to
experiment with the controls in the scanner software to see if they give me
any
control over the resulting curve of the neg... after that I will start doing
scans of differently exposed negs of the same subject, with the end result
to
bring them into register to obtain an extremely long tonal range... but it
all
starts with that original scan of the neg...
Mike M.
Lynn Allen wrote:
> Mike wrote:
>
> >...I TWAIN import this into PShop as a 16 bit raw scan... so it
> shows up in PShop as a neg (I am talking color neg ) where I then Invert
> (Image>Adjust>Invert), after which I adjust Levels...
>
> Hold it right there, Miguel. :-) I don't use either a Minolta or a Nikon,
> but you sure turned on a light bulb, here!
>
> I've really never really known what to do with a Raw Scan (they always
> looked too dark to work with, so after the first time, I didn't), but you
> seem to handle them in ways I didn't know was possible. It sounds like
> you're doing most of the work that a tweakable scan-driver does, in
> Photoshop, and getting great and publishable results! I've considered that
> (in desperate moments), but haven't worked up the courage (or time) to
try.
>
> I, for one, would really like to hear more about this technique and how
it's
> done.
> And anybody who complains it's "off-topic" ... is playing with fire,
> bigtime. ;-)
>
> Best regards, and thanks for the idea--LRA
>
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