Bob, thank you very much; that's an excellent place to start.
Bob, thank you very much; that's an excellent place to start.
No problem
If you ever get into Toronto , give me a call and I will give you the 10 minute neutralizing demo using LAB Info numbers.
I'll do that; I'm overdue for a visit.Originally Posted by bob carnie
Thanks again.
I have been very disappointed with the options available for scanning negative films. I am saying this having worked in photographic color printing labs and having some experience with "analog" printing directly from negatives to photographic paper.
I have used the Epson and tried all manner of settings and found that it will not scan consistently from the same frame, much less frame to frame. I downloaded LaserSoft's Silverfast and found there was no way to make consistent scans frame to frame, it always want to inflict some correction based on what colors it sees in the image itself. I even went so far as to try to contact LaserSoft and ask if there was a way to create a "profile" for a particular brand of film that was developed by a particular lab on any given day and was told pretty much, NO.
I really think I will try Vuescan next since it seems like what I'm looking for, the ability to set a standard for a particular film, exposed under a particular light source, at the same exposure, processed on a given day in a given lab. I just really want a totally manual setting, one that will neutral out that particular orange mask, then manually adjust for one image that will stay exactly the same over every other scan, then fine tune after scanning. Please tell me that it will do that.
I scan with an Epson v750 with epson software. I just use the histogram and the contrast screen. Then i color correct with lightroom. The secret is to tune your monitor for your printer. Most of my scans look green or magenta.... but after visual correction they print close on my printer sometimes i have to make very minor corrections after printing the fist image... For me its more important to have your monitor tuned to the printer..I use Color Eyes Display Pro with Monaco Optix Xr sensor. This works because my monitor color is the constant, everything else is the variable. I have tried different monitors and i found that an older Apple Cinema Display 20" 23" works best even on a PC. (these monitors can be bought on the cheap)..I would always use a DVI card and monitor as opposed to a standard VGA. VGA is an analog color standard that is very hard to keep in "tune". My DVI monitor is very good at staying at "tune" colors. Start with a good monitor that is "tuned" and your troubles will get smaller.
My website pictures are 80% 35mm film scanned with my Epson v750.
http://www.mikepic.com
It's worth mentioning the Colorperfect Photoshop plug-in. The user interface is horseshit, and some of it is just obtuse, but for a program specifically designed for reversing and balancing color negative films, it's definitely the most powerful and versatile. In some ways, too much. I can get lost trying to decide what's "neutral".
It has gamma curves built-in for almost every make of film (based on the actual density curves published by the manufacturers), beyond which you have a lot of manual control. For instance, you can click on any spot to anchor that as neutral, then move a slider and watch the color curves cross around either end of that spot, while at the same time, adjusting the gray contrast level and/or the color contrast level, not to mention highlight and shadow compression. It goes without saying that the learning curve is steep, and in the end, it really demonstrates how much color negative leaves you up a (subjective) creek.
That is to say, the only real way to get neutral scanning with color negative is to leave it uninverted.
Thanks tbeaman. Searching for more info on this plugin, I found this tutorial that looks very good. I am definetly trying it.
http://benneh.net/blog/2010/09/25/vu...rfect-a-guide/
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