Re: filmscanners: Hello

["Rob Geraghty" <harper@wordweb.com>]

"Ken Durling" <kdurling@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Can you handle another newbie?  (I heard that groan) ;-)

Everyone was a newbie once!  Welcome!

> I've tried out Photoshop Elements and like it, but at this point am
> wavering as to whether I should get the whole PS6 package or
> if PSE would do it.

I'm not familiar with Photoshop Elements.  I'm currently using a combination
of Picture Window Pro for 16 bit curves manipulation and reduction to 24 bit
then PaintShop Pro for everything else.  I particularly like the printing
layout
facilities in PSP.  If you've already bought PSE it will probably do most of
what you want.

> eventually I'd like to make my own prints, up to 8x10, with a very
> occasional larger one.  Don't have a photo printer right now, just an
> HP Color Inkjet, but will probably eventually get an Epson 1280 or a
> smaller one.

I have an Epson 1160 which prints to A3+.  Someone else suggested the C80
which is an excellent idea if you can live with never printing bigger than
A4.
The advantage of the C80 is separate ink carts so you only replace the empty
ones, and the inks are pigment based not dye based so they should last many
years without fading.  Try subscribing to the Epson inkjet list at
www.leben.com
but I suggest subscribing to the digest because the list has a massive
amount of
traffic.

> substantial difference as to whether I save the original scan as a
> .TIFF or a .BMP?

LZW TIFF will give you lossless compression and therefore a smaller
filesize.
It's also more transportable between different platforms.  TIFF is
understood
in PC, Mac and Unix platforms.  BMP is not.

> Vuescan seems to be able to handle different films much better.

I always use Vuescan because it gives me more data from my LS30
than the Nikon software does.

> Another question when working with large files like this is at what
> point do you do most of your image adjustment?   Do you do all your
> color balancing, sizing, and similar image property work on the .TIFF
> and then compress and run sharpen on the jpeg?

I have had to write a LOT of CDRs becaue I scan in Vuescan and save
full resolution raw and crop TIFF files.  Even compressed the raw files
are about 40MB, so a 36 frame film doesn't fit on one CDR.  I keep
the TIFFs as originals and produce working files from there.  I always
stay in TIFF format as long as possible, and only convert to jpeg at the
final stage after resizing.  Here's what I generally do at the moment;

1. Scan the frame in Vuescan (usually at least a whole strip if not the
whole film)
    I scan in 16 bits per channel and with infrared cleaning on (not an
option with
   your Canon) saving as raw and crop in compressed TIFF format.
2. Open each frame in PWP and adjust the levels in HSL colour space
3. Convert to 24bit in PWP and save as TIFF
4. Open in PSP and save as LZW TIFF (PWP doesn't save as LZW TIFFs)
5. Resize to two different sizes for web use, sharpening before saving as
jpeg
6. Write to CDR with a directory containing the jpegs for reference

If I'm sending files to my brother for printing in a magazine I convert the
files to CMYK with PSP and write them to another CDR.

> So I have a lot to learn about color control, and have basically zero
> experience with color management.  But I'm not doing a lot of printing
> just yet, so that's probably not my first concern.

>From everything I've seen on the Epson list, colour management can be more
pain than it's worth.  Wait until you get your printer, and try some prints
using the default settings and you may be quite happy with the results.
I have found that the later models of Epson printers have excellent
profiles,
and trying to make your own profiles for everything usually ends up costing
more pain than gain.  Getting your monitor adjusted right helps a LOT,
however.  Otherwise you'll wonder why your prints never match the
brightness on the screen.

> To start with I'd appreciate a good explanation of "gamma."

Try www.scantips.com for lots of scanner basics.

Rob