Cezanne Color Genius question

[mdala]

Hi guys,

Is it possible to set SD (shadow density) and HD (highlight density) in Color Genius when scanning negatives? It seems I can only access SD and HD if I'm scanning positives; when scanning negs, HD and SD are greyed out.

Any hint appreciated.

Thanks

[Bob McCarthy]

I know you can't do what your asking. The reason why, I understand it has to do with the variable density of the mask.

I have presets for the color negative films I use.

99% of the films I scan are "not" color neg. and are scanned rgb including transparency and B@W neg, so I'm likely not the best person to answer this question.

There is no reason to scan in rgb positive and remove the mask and invest colors in an editor, btw.

Bob

[mdala]

Hi Bob,

thanks for your reply.

I'm a little dumbfounded as I can do HD and SD adjustments in SG Scan (Screen software for the SG8060P Mark II). Since I can't adjust SD inside Color Genius, I'm getting scans that have crushed blacks. I know the Cezanne can do better than that but somehow I can't figure out how to set my own SD points, both SD and HD boxes are greyed out.

You say you have custom settings for the films you use; did you not set your shadow density points when creating these presets? How do you avoid getting crushed blacks then? Color Genius seems to have a mind of its own...

Thanks

[mdala]

Just to make things clear:

-I'm scanning negatives and using "Negative film" in the device setup part of the main floating palette

-I'm scanning in RGB

-I'm not scanning negs as slides then doing funky color reversal in software.

[Bob McCarthy]

I bought the scanner from a production shop a few years ago.

The honest answer is, they (the presets) came with my purchase.

I just standardized on the Fuji 160 which I had a preset for in the software.

When shooting Portra I scan rgb positive and convert downstream. Though I have to admit, its a lot of work to get the final result nailed.

Bob

[mdala]

Bob,

thanks for the precision. Now, do you not find that using that particular preset, or scanning without adjusting gives you values that are very clipped? My objective is to obtain a Cezanne scan which contains as much dynamic range as the scanner can capture. I know that, presets can sometimes give you pleasant colors, but , as far as I'm concerned color is easily tweaked to satisfactory results, whereas shadows that are way too dense are harder to recover from.

The Cezanne is fairly new for me but I'm finding it very surprising that there is no way for a user to override what the software does, when it comes to dynamic range before scanning.

Other Cezanne users, please chime in.

Thank you.

[Peter De Smidt]

I wish I could be of some help, but I haven't scanned any color negatives. I just don't use it.

I would try the following. Take a MacBeth color checker chart. Photograph it on the film stock you want to use in light conditions that you often photograph in. Once the film is developed, preview scan it as a 16 bit-per-channel positive in Color Genius. In the Manual Fine Adjustment dialoque box, set the HD RGB channels to 0,0,0; and set the SD values to 4,4,4. Make the MIN values 0,0,0, and the Max values 255, 255, 255. Save out as a 16 bit-per-channel tiff.

Import the image into Photoshop. Invert it. Bring up a curves adjustment layer. Use the white eye dropper to click on the white square of the color checker. Use the gray eye dropper to click on the middle gray square, and now use the black eye dropper to click on the black square. Now change the blending mode of the adjustment layer to "color." Now bring up a second curves layer. Use it to get the contrast correct. Change it's blending mode to "Luminosity". You should now have very accurate color, and you can save the curves to use on other images.

[mdala]

Hi Peter,

that's a good idea. Thank you! I actually shot macbeth charts on several film stocks last year, they will come in handy!

Still pretty incongruous that Screen would allow users to do this in their drum scanner software but not in CG.

Thanks again.

[Peter De Smidt]

Still pretty incongruous that Screen would allow users to do this in their drum scanner software but not in CG.

.

I agree! It's also strange that you can't scan negatives in 16-bits per channel.

[Bob McCarthy]

I will likely learn from your efforts as I've found the color negative scan cumbersome and inadequate for my work So much so that I just avoid color neg. whenever possible. Hopefully I can learn from your query into the subject. I would like to try some of the newer films.

Bob

Bob,

thanks for the precision. Now, do you not find that using that particular preset, or scanning without adjusting gives you values that are very clipped? My objective is to obtain a Cezanne scan which contains as much dynamic range as the scanner can capture. I know that, presets can sometimes give you pleasant colors, but , as far as I'm concerned color is easily tweaked to satisfactory results, whereas shadows that are way too dense are harder to recover from.

The Cezanne is fairly new for me but I'm finding it very surprising that there is no way for a user to override what the software does, when it comes to dynamic range before scanning.

Other Cezanne users, please chime in.

Thank you.