IT8 targets

[Peter De Smidt]

Yes, you can use S1 with LF. When I bought my targets, I discussed this with Mr. Faust, and the results were that I bought the S1 set. I do use them with 35mm, 120, and LF. I'm happy with them. I haven't noticed any "spillover" problems.

[Professional]

Regardless of the price, which one i should go with? I have V750, but i keep always eyeing to get a drum scanner in the future, but let's say if i didn't, then only Epson, which Target of that Faust collection i should get for my 120 and LF?

[rdenney]

Regardless of the price, which one i should go with? I have V750, but i keep always eyeing to get a drum scanner in the future, but let's say if i didn't, then only Epson, which Target of that Faust collection i should get for my 120 and LF?

The V750 comes with one 4x5 target already, as part of the XRite software that is bundled with it.

I also bought some 35mm slides from Faust for my Nikon scanner, which won't take the 4x5 target, and I use those profiles for 120 film also. I don't need precision--it just needs to look the way I want it to look--so I haven't been too precise in getting targets for every single type of film. Those doing prepress and stuff like that need as exact a match as possible with the least effort, and for them very precise color calibration and profiling is worth the effort. The Faust V3 and N3 targets are enough for me--I use Velvia 50, Velvia 100F, and the newer Astia, at least when I use transparency film.

There are no targets I know of for color negatives, which is much of what I use. I just have to fix that by hand.

Rick "who likes the range of negative film, but not its fiddly scanning" Denney

[Sevo]

There are no targets I know of for color negatives, which is much of what I use. I just have to fix that by hand.

Negative scanning never got separately standardized, and the IT8 system lacks a definition of a negative stage (or indeed any uncorrectable intermediate stages).

You can ignore the negative and directly calibrate the positive scans themselves, if you feel like subtracting the target bias values of each of some hundred tiles by hand (if you don't you'd arrive at a profile that combines the target and film, which would obviously only be useful when reproducing the former).

Or you can use a digital camera calibration system like the Camera Calibration software now free with ColorChecker cards - it can be (ab)used for film too, and will simplify the process to little more than photographing the test card, feeding the scan to the software and writing a film identification into the camera column of each scan file header.

[SergeyT]

I think type of film used for IT8 target is not critical at all.
The precision of target readings, workflow and the quality of the software used for scanning and profile generation are.

Regarding the size of the target - get the largest that you can afford and your scanner can handle.

I do not quite get the concern about Negative "profiling". What is the goal? If to reproduce the film characteristics then the "regular" scanner profiling should do (with any good IT8 or HCT target). We profile the scanners to properly reproduce the colors represented on the scanned film.
We do not shoot Velvia to get the Astia look or do we ?

If to reproduce true colors of the photographed subject then it is a totally different story and not necessarily related to scanning.

SergeyT

[neil poulsen]

The number of patches can make a big different. Also, the larger the color gamut of the target, the larger the color gamut of the final image. Otherwise, the image's gamut can be clipped to that of the target.

The best of which I'm aware are the Hutchcolor targets at the following address. They have about 540 patches of color.

www.hutchcolor.com

They come with their own custom reference file for that particular target. (They do not come with the spectral decompositions.)

[Professional]

Yes, but i heard that it is not the best target to use, i want to use for positive or negative films whatever it help, i managed to have beautiful color with both, but few times i feel the color is off, mostly with positive[slide] films.

[Rider]

I do not quite get the concern about Negative "profiling". What is the goal?

I've read that some people photograph the IT-8 target with the negative film of their choosing, and that exposure effectively becomes a kind of profile of the negative.

[mitomac]

Hi,

I would definitely recommend the it8 targets from wolf faust (or any similar targets). I was skeptical at first and held off buying one for my scanner. However, scans never looked like the slides. Everything was muddy on my v700 and just blah. You could correct in photoshop but it was always an artistic endeavor and still remained far from the original. Enter the it8 targets from Wolf. I skipped the built in vuescan profiling and instead used the command line oriented Argyll tools to profile the scanner. I was able to quickly make some working profiles and presto - greens are vibrant, skies are blue and life is good. The resulting profiles also make use of the gray scale gradient and true black and white points to adjust the shadows and highlights etc. For example, the scanner may not have a linear response between 'dark' and 'darker', yet after profiling everything is nicely defined and the slides just pop - retaining shadow detail and highlights. Simply put, I'm sold! I bought the 4x5 astia targets and will also purchase the 4x5 velvia target when available.

cheers,

mitomac

[Laron]

Hi,

I was also thinking of calibrating my V700 to get maybe better results. I have read the comments but Im a bit confused what to do or even if its woth it...

so does it makes any sense to calibrate the scanner for negatives (too)?
if so, is it matters which type of slide I buy? kodak or fuji? (for example here they have just these options: https://www.silverfast.com/order/en....it8order_no_sf )

Im guessing if there is any minor/major color shifts or curves differences "built in" the scanner originally, that would affect any type of transparencies. that would be great to get rid of that difference...

then I guess I would get the different characteristics/mood of the different films, so thats just perfect?

or is this not that easy?

thanks!