Trouble scanning chromes

[DrPablo]

I've just picked up a new Mikrotek i800 to scan my 4x5s (mostly chromes, a few negatives), and I can't seem to get the scan to even vaguely resemble what the chromes look like.

I'm very adept at Photoshop, so that's not the problem, and I can easily deal with color casts.

The problem is one of tone and dynamic range. Even scanning in 48-bit HDR with Silverfast or in 48-bit RGB mode in Scanwizard the scans are extremely flat and I can't seem to lift detail out of it. The slightest curve / level adjustments will blow out brighter midtones. Shadows are completely blocked and unsalvageable. For a scanner with a very high dynamic range (D of 4) I expect more than I'm getting.

[Ron Marshall]

I have a 4990. I found that scanning a well exposed b/w is easy, but it takes some experimentation to get a good scan from either a poorly exposed b/w or a trany. That is why I now mostly shoot color negs, Fuji 160S, which scan beautifully with Silverfast and give very saturated scans.

I found the best soln is to scan in RGB 48 bit, and carfully adjust the sliders. I usually do a couple of test scans at 1/4 of my desired resolution (faster), with different brightness and contrast settings. Once I find the correct setting, I go into the LAB colorspace to pump up the contrast and saturation. The resulting scans are quite good.

Bottom line, these consumer scanners don't do full justice to tranys. They do a great job with Fuji 160S though.

[Kirk Gittings]

Try this first. Do a global reset of SF by deleting the preferences file. This will reestablish the defaults.

[DrPablo]

I'm definitely finding that the 48-bit HDR scan function in Silverfast is superior to the 48-bit scan function in Microtek Scanwizard; but Silverfast is a lot less easily manipulated at the same time. It came with my scanner, but I can't find a way to get access to its upgrades (for less than $500) -- and it doesn't support Digital ICE!! And Vuescan doesn't seem to support the Microtek i800 yet.

So now I'm dealing with a chrome with one area of sky that's not blown out, but I can't seem to scan it with any color left over. Any thoughts?

[Kirk Gittings]

That seems very high for i800 upgrades. Email them.

No it does not support DI, never did and never will.

Did you try reseting the defaults as I described above?

[Ted Harris]

Kirk is right, go to http://www.silverfast.com/pricing/en.html and you will see that the price for the i800 is $119 for teh full version of Ai which should solve your problems.

[DrPablo]

Ah, thanks, I'll look at those upgrades. The upgrade button that pops up when I open the bundled version doesn't take me to that page.

I haven't tried to restore the defaults yet.

This image is the quintessential example of what I'm having trouble with. The 'blown out' sky near the horizon and the very dark, nearly clipped shadows like on the bell tower, have lots of color and detail in the original chrome (which is beautiful). Even scanning in 48-bit mode with a linear tone curve hasn't helped.

[Kirk Gittings]

The whole image looks pretty cyan. Are you calibrating your scanner with an ITT target? I would. It just looks off.

Try with this image going into curves, grabbing the middle eyedropper and clicking on some of the grey sunlit pavement in the cross street. Does that help the overall color balance at all?

[Bruce Watson]

The 'blown out' sky near the horizon and the very dark, nearly clipped shadows like on the bell tower, have lots of color and detail in the original chrome (which is beautiful). Even scanning in 48-bit mode with a linear tone curve hasn't helped.

CCD disease. The CCD array can't equal the dynamic range of the film. As you can see, the 4.0 Dmax claim is hype that doesn't live up to the reality of your chrome.

What can you do? A drum scanner could easily handle it. A professional flatbed like one of the Creo scanners might be able to do it. Consumer CCD scanners just don't have the capability yet.

Negative film has a Dmax considerably lower than chrome film. Your consumer CCD scanner should be able to handle this lower Dmax just fine. The software however may have problems with the orange contrast mask or with inverting the colors. Depends on the software. The added benefit of negative film is the increased dynamic range will let you capture subject brightness ranges (SBR) several stops larger than your chrome film can handle.

So, if you want to keep using your existing scanner, I suggest moving to negative film. Else, move to a better scanner. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Kirk Gittings]

Bruce,

This scan is well below the capabilities of this scanner. Indeed it is well below the capabilities of even much cheaper flatbeds.

Scanning color negs is a goog idea, I do that myself, but he needs to solve his immediate problems as he clearly wants to scan some of his existing chromes.

Dr, The technique I suggested above about setting the midtones, I tried it on that image and it did not help much. You need to do an ITT calibration I think.