Re: filmscanners: Vuescan and Overexposed Negs

[Stephen Jennings <sgjennin@ix.netcom.com>]

Sounds good Tony; I hadn't played around with the Color/Contrast control,
just the White point and Gamma.  I'll give this a try.  BTW, I use Vuescan
with my Sprintscan4000 and always scan at 16 bit.

STEPHEN    JENNINGS
    P h o t o g r a p h e r
       Cambridge, MA
sgjennin@ix.netcom.com

>> I have a neg of a bride in window light and her gown is burned out.  Any
>> suggestions for bringing in detail in the scan process?
> 
> Assuming there is detail on the film ;) one way is to scan in 16bits,
> adjusting Vuescan's 'colour/contrast' control so you get a scan which is
> somewhat washed out and low-contrast = file A
> 
> Then do a set of level adjustments which get the midtones and shadows right
> in PS, reduce to 8 bits *and save as a different file* = file B. If you do
> colour and saturation adjustments, make a note so you can repeat them at
> the next stage (or save as an action, excluding the levels).
> 
> Reopen the 16bit original, and do adjustments for the highlights alone.
> Reduce to 8 bits. Do a selective colour mask (or lassoo) on the highlights,
> just enough to capture the detail missing from file B, feather the mask (I
> usually use 50 pixels to keep it nice and soft-edged) and copy and paste
> into file B. Alignment is specially easy if the mask goes to an edge,
> but do it at high magnification so you get it pixel perfect. Merge down and
> save as file C, the final scan. Delete A and B if happy.
> 
> I've not come across any original which defies this technique, but it will
> also depend on the capability of your scanner
> 
> Regards 
> 
> Tony Sleep