[filmscanners] additional remarks about 8bit / hi bit

["HPA" <tom@historicphotoarchive.com>]

LAURIE SOLOMON asked if my digital prints apparently look better "because of
their scanning in 8-bit versus 16-bit and not because of some other
factor...?" In addition to the hi bit factor, I make serious efforts in
color balance, defect removal, perspective correction, and anything else i
can figure out how to do.

HI bit technique has some good tutorials.  Check the writings of Jeff
Schewe, here is his basic tutorial:
schewephoto.com/workshop/pdfs/Pro_Workflow.pdf

I found a lot of great tips on the digital black & white list on Yahoo, in
particular Roy Harrington's posts.  These are the guys who are winning
fine-art photography print contests with digital prints.

"but what are you printing or outputing to?"
I am making a master scan on CD.  It needs to be able to print on an epson
or get sent to a publisher as a tif cd.  I know that the next generation of
Epsons will be 16 bit, the next version of photoshop will be 16 bit, so I
don't want to have to re-do everything every few years.   Publishers will do
final adjustments to my files, depending on whether they are printing color,
halftone, duotone, etc., I have no control.  Art directors appreciate a file
they can work with.  I am doing both black & white and color.

Arthur Entlich asked what kind of scanner i use.  I have Polaroid SS4000 for
slides.  I have my own half-glass carriers to keep the film entirely in
focus. I always remove the film from the slide mount for scanning.
Kodachromes made before 1955 had a varnish on the film that needs to be
removed before scanning.  My large format negative scanner is a Artixscan
1800.  I bought it because it was reputed to have the greatest scan depth of
any 8x10 flatbed. Some of the stuff i have to scan is unbelievable poor
quality compared to modern professional film.  I scan glass plates that are
so dense you can't see through them.  I scan Autochrome color plates from
the early 1900s to 1950s Ektachromes with only the red layer surviving.  I
do have some programs that fix up old faded color photos.  i use them to
preview my possibilities for color restorations.  After I see these results
i have a good idea of what i want to do.  Then I do all the restorations
manually using curves. Dan Margulis book Professional Photoshop has some of
the best color correction info available that i know of.  If you get PPI
magazine, check the dec 2002 issue for a preview of the book.


Tom Robinson

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