[filmscanners] RE: Scanner Profiling

["michael shaffer" <michael@shaffer.net>]

Matthew writes ...

> What is the difference between a scanner profile (or target)
> and a film profile (or target)?

  Think in terms of absolute color.  Film, pos or neg, is already absolute
color, and to a scanner, it makes no difference if its pos or neg film.
What the scanner provides (as RGB) is not absolute color.  However, if the
scanner is accurately profiled (any method you choose, the keyword being
"accurate"), then its data becomes "absolute color" ... and what remains is
done in (color savvy) software.

  That's not to say, there's no such thing as "film characteristics".  If
you choose to profile with a film-specific IT8, I suppose you can say you're
profiling both, the film and scanner.  But that's not what the IT8's
reference file is for.  It describes the absolute color of each patch,
independent of film characteristics.  For profiling a scanner, all you
really want from an IT8 is (1) a full gamut of color (I read Fuji offers a
slightly larger gamut, but that's a different thread), and (2) an accurate
reference file.  Now you have accurate and absolute RGB data ... just what
you need for subtracting a mask and color reversal.

  It's no mystery why no one has not yet offered a negative-specific IT8.
It's not needed!

cheerios ... shAf  :o)
Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland
www.micro-investigations.com (in progress)


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