Why is my scanner doing this

[rphenning]

Epson 4490 @ 800dpi, laying the neg directly on the glass. Gamma @ 2.1, scanning to Adobe RGB without color correction in the scanner.



I realize this is an underexposed portion of my image but the entire thing is basically like this. Minimal levels adjustments in PS.

Any help?

[Gem Singer]

Looks like the light in your scanner has burned out.

[rphenning]

Oh good! It's just about 1 year old this month.

[Keith S. Walklet]

Looks to me that you are in "Reflective" mode rather than "Transparency".

[Jim C.]

Oh good! It's just about 1 year old this month.

I doubt the light has burned out unless you do an extraordinary amount of scanning
or bought the 4490 used, easy enough to see if it has burned out.
I'm more in agreement with Keith.

[Gem Singer]

You're correct. A one year old scanner should not have a burned out bulb. However, it's easy to determine if that's the problem.

As Keith suggested, check the settings on your scanner program.

My Epson 4990 is running on VueScan.

It's easy to screw up the settings on that program. I do it quite frequently.

[rphenning]

Naw it's running on Color Neg, not reflective. Good call though thanks for the alternative. I don't know if it's the bulb or what. I think it maybe an excuse to start saving for a v700 though.

I have scanned about 1200 images with it since I got it, since it has already wrapped around from the 900s and is on the 200s again I think when I get file names from it.

[Francisco Disilvestro]

Try to use a different software or reinstall the software. Sometimes it can get corrupted and do weird things. For example, silverfast's preferences file gets easily corrupted.

[Jim Becia]

Is there any chance you recently scanned something in reflective mode and forgot to remove the white "reflective cover" before going back to scanning either negatives or positives? I've done exactly that and get results that are dark like this. Jim

[Francisco Disilvestro]

Check also that the cover cable is properly connected