[filmscanners] 2 vuescan questions

["James Gaa" <jamesgaa@telusplanet.net>]

I have two questions about using vuescan.

1. Some people in the recent discussion on 8 vs. 16 bits have mentioned the
histograms in vuescan. In my experience, the preview histogram is not very
useful for what I would have thought was a primary use: setting the
whitepoint and blackpoint. For example, if I adjust these points so that the
histogram stretches almost all the way across the graph, I find that the
scan image has black in it, as indicated by turning on the switches to show
black and white areas. In short, the preview histogram looks right, but the
scan doesn't; and I haven't found empirically a way of reliably fudging the
blackpoint adjustment. The default blackpoint is zero, I believe (I'm not at
the machine that has Vuescan); but using it seems to leave a lot of "space"
on the left, at least according to the histogram. This occurs on slides that
are properly exposed, both visually and according to the histogram (i.e., no
unintended areas of black or blown-out highlights. Am I doing something
wrong? Should I just go with the defaults?

2. I occasionally scan slides (using a Nikon IV-D) that have a good deal of
orange and colors close to it, expecially orangey rust. I haven't found a
way of setting the options in Vuescan to produce a scan that matches the
slide closely. The problem seems to exist only when there are large areas of
such color. Any suggestions?

Jim Gaa

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