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Thread: Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

  1. #1

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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    If you are not scanning hundreds of images at a time is it really neccessary to create a profile for your scanner. I can completely understand having a profile for your monitor but why your scanner. Can't everything be corrected in photoshop?

  2. #2

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    Nov 2004
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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    you can only profile your scanner if you shoot tranny. It is IMPOSSIBLE to profile for colour neg or BW...

  3. #3

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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    I presume that it is worth profiling your scanner if what the scanner software shows you is signficantly different from what you see when you look at the scanned image in your photoeditor. If that is the case, it would be hard to make adjustments, the effect of which would be predictable, when scanning. I use Vuescan to scan color negative film and some transparencies, and what I see in Vuescan looks to me to be virtually identical to what I see in my photoeditor, so I've not found it necessary to profile the scanner.

  4. #4

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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    I found it far easier to get accurate colors on my Epson 4870 after calibrating it. My scans improved immediately.

  5. #5

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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    I agree with Harley. As a matter-of-fact, the time to calibrate your equipment will be "earned back" after only a few scans. Matching prints to transparencies will be much easier with your scanner, monitor and printer profiled.

    Bill
    Bill McMannis

  6. #6
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    Yes it is necessary or at least very productive to profile your scanner for color transparencies.

    There may also be some value for color negs as well as as b&w negs if you follow a particular and common workflow. That workflow is to scan everything as if it were a transparency and invert it in PS. For color negs that involves purchasing a plugin called POS/NEG which allows you to create a "conversion profile" for particular films. For b&w negs some believe there are advantages in sharpness and noise reduction by then throwing away all but the best channel.

    This workflow however is NOT my preference as with my scanners (EP 4990/MTK 1800f/Nikon 8000) I get better results using Silverfast's very good color neg profiles over POS/NEG. And with b&w I get better results scanning as neg but in 48 bit color and throwing away all but the green channel.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  7. #7
    tim atherton's Avatar
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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    "Yes it is necessary or at least very productive to profile your scanner for color transparencies. "

    Kirks right - it may not be essential for many uses, but it doesn't hurt. I happen to already have a Q60 target a while back from another use, and have generally profiled the scanners I use (I just set up a new Epson 4990 for the University museum and art collection here in the last few days. Couldn't find my Q60 in all the piles of papers in my office until today, so the first few test scans were done without calibration. The ones I did today after calibration show, to my eye, a difference. It's not dramatic, but just enough to make colours etc closer to what they should be. Saves extra work down the road)

    BTW - int he PosNeg and Silverfast thing we are talking subtle difference I think not big differences in quality (I think you asked me a question about this a week or two ago Kirk... been crazy here - the missus having to slog away on a course in snowy Banff in the Rockies while I wrangle a 4 and 2 year old!). Kirks silverfast workflow works for him (and I quite like SIlverfast), my vuescan RAW + NegPos for colour neg film and B&W works for me. It may just come down to shooting style - from what I've seen of Kirks work (admittedly not a lot), he has some bold rich colours and dramatic ranges in b&w. Much of my work relis more on subtle tones in colour and lots of mid tone and shadow detail in b&w ( I much prefer grey and overcast days for photography). SO I wouldn't be surprised if each of us has found a very good ,slightly different, workflow that happens to work for the type of images we produce
    You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn

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  8. #8

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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    Profiling your scanner has the unintended effect of clipping the gamut of the scanner to the gamut of the target.

    But the other day, I scanned a transparency and was having trouble getting the right colors for certain portions of the transparency. Yellows kept showing up as oranges. I used the IT8 4x5 transparency target and Monaco profiling software that comes with the pro version of the 4870, and this solved the problem.

  9. #9

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    Feb 2000
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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    Damn. I thought I was finally up on most of this. How do you profile a scanner? I have an Epson 4870. BTW, my scanned transparencies look fine and I do very little adjustment in PS (elements).

  10. #10

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    Is it really neccessary to profile your scanner?

    Don, If you purchased the Pro Version of the 4870 it came with Monaco EZ Color. This includes IT-8 targets for reflective and transparencies. I use it to build not only scanner profiles, but pretty good profiles for my Epson 2200 using different papers.
    Bill McMannis

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