When you scan at 12 bits you are basically doing a "raw" scan without making any corrections to the image. The expectation is that all corrections will be made in Photoshop. It would be normal for the image to look dark until you process it in Photoshop, where you'll eventually convert it to an 8-bit image. If it were me (I actually use Silverfast instead of Insight), I'd use Insight to processes the image. If you do that, Insight will save the image at 8-bits for Photoshop.
I'm not the best person to give you advice on color management and profiling, but for the most accuracy (without spending a lot of money for special purpose profiling equipment) you should use Photoshop to create a profile of your monitor. Name it something like "My Display (26 OCT 01)" and then select that as your display profile. If you ever recalibrate you display with Photoshop again, and you should from time to time, use a different date in the profile name any you'll always be able to tell which is the most recent.
In a message dated 10/26/2001 5:07:07 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Sisk98@aol.com writes:
Hi everyone.... Is it best to scan at 12 bits or 8 bits using the Polaroid sprintscan 4000 Polacolor Insight software? When I do scan at 12bits and is sent to Photoshop the image is dark. Is this normal? Setting the white and black points is very difficult. Does it make any sense to do any corrections with Insight if I'm scanning at 12bits? Also, on the "profiles-display" box in Insight, I have it set at "monitor, PC." Should I be using a different profile? I, m using the monitor that came with my Gateway computer. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank-you. Stephen S.
