Advice for scanning color negatives

[Barry Trabitz]

I need advice/help. When I scan color negatives (Kodak 160nc) I get a scan of the negative and the orange backing. In Photoshop reversing the image to get a positive I get a bluish cast to the image with ghostly skin tones. The proof sheet has contacts that look very good. I am using a UMAX PowerLookIII with the Vue Scan soft wear that came with the scanner.

Any help will be most appreciated.

Barry Trabitz

zonedoc@aol.com

[Asher Kelman]

Barry,

Vuescan has customizable preferences. You might explore the options for scanning. Set it for negative film and choose the film you are using. Have you checked that your film is not there?

Asher

Did you include a gray card in your pictures which will help you with your color balance when you pickup the file in Photoshop? Something to think of and then ultimately, down the road, when you are comfortable, use a standard transparency to make a custom profile for your scanner.

[Barry Trabitz]

Thanks for the email Asher. I goofed though, the soft ware I have is NOT View Scan but MAGIC SCAN. This is the soft ware that came with the UMAX PowerLook III.

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks for the email Asher. I goofed though, the soft ware I have is NOT View Scan but MAGIC SCAN. This is the soft ware that came with the UMAX PowerLook III.

Barry,

Unfortuntely, know nothing about Magic Scan software, but there must be a forum on their website or else photo.net guys might know. I'd download a trial copy of Vuescan here . The software, at $39.50 is dirt cheap but it's really very capable and the DNG RAW files are welcomed in Adobe Lightroom or PS like a friend!

Still, you better check that it does your film first!

Hope this helps,

Asher

[Mark Stahlke]

Recently I read about a technique for correcting color casts in Photoshop that might work well in this situation. Try this:

1. Load the image in Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the background layer.
3. Apply an average filter (Filters->Blur->Average) to the background copy.
4. Add a levels adjustment layer.
5. Click the gray point eyedropper in the levels dialog.
6. Click anywhere on the image the click OK in the levels dialog.
7. Click the eyeball to hide the background copy layer.

See if that gets rid of your color cast.

[archivue]

maybe you should try silverfast !

[Asher Kelman]

Recently I read about a technique for correcting color casts in Photoshop that might work well in this situation. Try this:......

Mark, this issue is part of professional scanning, where good scanning software just works, although your steps seem worth exploring.

And, as Archvue points out, Lasersoft is one of the high end choice if Vuescan, the cheap solution doesn't work! The pice is $100-300 depending on whether or not you want pro features and a standardized reference transparency film for profiling you scanner.

Asher

[Leonard Evens]

I suggest you try Vuescan, which does support scanning color negative film, including Portra NC 160. Vuescan also has one additional feature which can be very helpful. If you right click on a netural color, it sets the overall color balance so that that color comes out close to neutral gray. The easiest way to find a netural area, of course, is to include a gray card in your scene. You can often put it in an unobtrusive place and then clone it out in your photoeditor. But even if you don't use a gray card, you can often find reasonble approximations to a neutral color, and that gives you a starting point to make further adjustments. Vuescan has several additional control under the color tab which allow you to refine the color balance until you get close to what you want. Vuescan gives you readings of the RGB values at the cursor position, which allow you to check if you are making progress.