Scanning portra - dealing with highlights

[chassis]

Hello,

Scanning Portra and have a bouquet of white roses in the image, in addition to red, yellow, salmon and fascia roses.

Having trouble getting contrast in the white roses, at least on my monitor. I am using a MacBook Air 11 inch. I understand, not a professional tool, but that's what I am using. When I look at the screen at a very oblique angle, I can see the highlights in the white roses, so I believe the information is there in the film and in the scan.

Lighting is fluorescent. Shutter speed was such that flicker was not a problem (can't remember the shutter speed).

Is this a common problem? Do I just post process and upload to Flickr, knowing that the detail is there and will be visible on some monitors?

[Peter De Smidt]

Use the eyedropper set to 1 pixel. Go over the rose and read the numbers. Monitors can lie but the numbers won't. If it's 255 in any channel, then it's likely clipped.

[chassis]

Thanks Peter. There were some 255 readings in my adjusted image. I went back to the raw scan am starting over. The values are in the 190s in the highlight areas in the raw scan.

[Bruce Watson]

Is this a common problem?

Not with drum scanning, no. A good operator can certainly pull detail on a white rose on Portra if it is properly exposed and processed. The "joy" of a drum scanner is that an experienced operator can match the dynamic range of the scanner to the dynamic range of the film (log amps are nice that way).

[chassis]

Thanks Bruce. I've done some more work and it looks like the Epson color management selections are creating difficulties, for me. I turned off color management and it seems to give the results I am looking for. More work needed.