what is your scanning procedure for epson 4990?

[dede95064]

hello,

i'm having trouble figuring out the settings for the epson software that comes with this scanner.

specifically, in the pro mode while using the histograms adjustment. i am confused about the input and output levels. now i presume i'm supposed to have the black/shadows and white/highlights triangles at the end of the curve for the input. the output defaults at 10 and 200. why? does that not mean that it cuts out the shadow values from 0-9 and the highlight values from 201-255? should it not be closer to 10 and say 245 instead? the output preview has a different curve and photoshop has the curve looking different as well.

the help tab is anything but helpful.

any insight appreciated!

thanks!

[Ken Lee]

Writing is slow. If you would like to arrange a time to chat over the phone, PM me and I would be happy to walk you through it. I have a 4990 and use the Epson software. In fact, I like it better than the alternatives. I'm on the other coast.

[Jim Ewins]

I'd suggest you save the histogram adjustment for Photoshop camera raw as well as most cleanup. Go with a high resolution and a size that will be closer to the intended output. contact me off forum if you wish, Jim Ewins, Seattle.

[Mick Noordewier]

Well, dede95064 has some questions that have puzzled me as well.

I like the Epson software because it is easy to crop the initial scan. I turn off automatic image adjustment, set the white and black points outside of the histogram, capture, then do further fussing in photoshop.

However:

1. Why isn't the Epson output 0-255?

2. I figure that setting closer white and black points results in a scan that requires less image interpolation. But am I just making work for myself: What if I capture the entire range in 16-bit and adjust in photoshop?

I may just call Ken to get some answers myself...

-Mick

[Ron Marshall]

I use Silverfast, scan in RBG, and strip out the green chanel in Photoshop (it is slightly sharper than the others). I make all corrections in PS, I only set the endpoint sliders in Silverfast.

[Ken Lee]

I don't know why the Epson software doesn't default to 0-255. You have to stretch those values every time you scan a new image, and that is annoying. They are probably trying to help the average consumer from making a harsh image.

There is no need to make sure that your output fills the entire histogram, especially if your subject doesn't have anything in it which is pure black, or pure white.

When scanning, I try to get the overall image tonality as close as possible to the way I would want to print it - as if there were no Photoshop adjustments to follow. Even in 16-bit, the fewer changes we make, the better.

This approach is something like what we do in the Zone System and BTZS, where we try for a negative which will print nicely on a #2 paper.

Getting images to print nicely on #2 paper may sound like a silly or compulsive goal, but we admire the richly nuanced tonality and the intangible natural feeling that results. We know that if we don't get the magic of the subject onto the ideal range of the film in the first place, it will be harder to get it afterwards, and what we do get, will probably look stilted, or amateur.

It may not help sell a lot of Photoshop instructional videos, but I try to stay as close as I can to what's on the film, and make as few "downstream" adjustments as possible.

When I look back at images I made via scanning when it was new to me, I want to re-scan them and do them again. I now recognize a certain flatness in the image that comes from too many digital adjustments.

[Ken Lee]

Here are some example screen captures to illustrate one approach to handle the Epson 4990 scanning parameters: the Histogram Adjustment tool.



Initial Preview - Here is a 5x7 negative, taken on Ilford FP4+, developed in Pyrocat HD. The subject is some pink roses, in overcast light, and the lens was a vintage design, chosen for its nice blur, especially at close magnification. The actual negative is rather soft in appearance: as the histogram shows, the tonal scale takes up only 40% of the possible range of the scanner. However, the default Preview settings have made the image appear quite harsh. It would be nice to make a "proof" of the image, to see what it really looks like.




After Histogram Adjustments - We have changed the Output settings so that they go from 0 to 255. We have adjusted the Input settings so that the middle setting is 1.0, the left-hand is enough to render the black film edge as black, and the right-hand setting renders the high values naturally, without any clipping or un-natural loss of texture. (These roses were pink. We don't want them to look otherwise). The middle setting of 1.00 is a good rule of thumb: it tends to give us a linear or literal interpretation of the negative. In other words, no contrast adjustment is applied.




Photoshop - In Photoshop, we have rotated the image to make it right-side-up. We have applied a non-destructive color adjustment Fill Layer according to taste.

We have managed to get a natural image that feels like light, right out of the scanner. Since the image was scanned in 16-bit monochrome, we have plenty of tonality available for any further adjustments.

Note that against a grey background, the image feels quite different than it looked against the black background provided by the scanner software. Depending on our choice of matting and frames, we may decide to adjust these roses further.

Note that the image has been cropped. That's a separate conversation, for another time

[dede95064]

wow! thanks a bunch ken!

i'm surprised that the initial default value you were given for the middle value (gamma i believe) was 1.00. i always get 1.50. if i change it to 1.00 it becomes too dark so i tend to leave it on 1.50.

what about the tone curve viewer? i set both to normal but i never see any difference between that and the default settings.

thanks for your hard work ken!

[Ken Lee]

You're most welcome !

I plan to show a better example soon, using a negative whose scale is longer and more centered. Close-ups of flowers, using vintage lenses, are not exactly the standard test subjects we should be evaluating.

Even so, this negative (which was inadvertently over-developed), provides a good tutorial on how to avoid the 4990's default tendency to blow out the high values.

I myself, have abandoned the Tone Curve tool in favor of the Histogram Adjustment tool, since it can give us the digital equivalent of a contact print (or cold light head enlargement) on Number 2 Paper. I like the results better than what I can get with VueScan. One would expect that the native drivers would do best, after all.

I don't know if the 4990 drivers give us a gamma of 1.0 every time, but I set mine to that every time. I will look more closely, when I do the next "tutorial". I'm no expert, and I certainly welcome any insights and assistance.

[mrladewig]

I'm using Silverfast with the 4990. I've been using SE, but recently switched to Ai so that I could gain better control over color negative scans plus 16 bit for color positives. SE was OK for the color positives, but not so great for color negatives. I do like the control interface of Silverfast much better than EpsonScan though, so I've chosen to upgrade.

Like Ken found with Epson's Scan software, I've found that Silverfast tends to do the same thing to negative film in auto mode, blowing out useful information for no apparent reason. I use the expert mode and make my adjustments to the histogram for color and B&W, but I also use curve adjustments to get the scan about where I want it. Then in photoshop I can use luminosity masks to further tune the image.