high contrast problem with Epson V700 scanning

[Linhof]

I had shot positive films in the past 20 years. Most of them were Velvia 50 and were in 6x9, 612, 4x5 and 8x10. Now, I tried to captured all of them by V700 but discovered that it was very difficult to deal with the problem of high contrast when scanning with V700. In the scanning software, there is a brightness control in mid tone. Not like in the camera raw software in which I can control either highlight and darktone individually. The scanned file exhibits either wash out highlight or block dark area. Do you have same problem like this and how do you tackle it?

p.s. Please don't discuss how to achieve sharp scanning in this thread.

[Jon Shiu]

If you click on the histogram icon, you can adjust the black point and white point so as not to clip off data.

Jon

[oysteroid]

Velvia 50 with these scanners is a known problem, worse than any other film I know of to scan. You quite simply can't see everything in the shadows, no matter what you do. The dark shadows on a sheet of Velvia 50 are very dense. Even with my V750, which supposedly has a slightly better Dmax than the V700, I can't get the whole range. But it helps to turn off all the automatic crap and make sure the range isn't being clipped. Scour the settings to make sure nothing is being clipped anywhere. You might try turning off all profile stuff as well. I have found that they can sometimes introduce clipping or other problems, like a slight solarization effect near the highlight extremes.

What scanning software are you using?

[Nathan Potter]

Velvia 50 has shadow detail that is exceedingly difficult to extract. No matter how much you tweak I don't think you will be satisfied with what you get. I have the same problem with Velvia 50 chromes that I foolishly exposed under too high brightness conditions.

For a few valuable chromes I would recommend a fine drum scan.

Another approach I am working on is to use my D800E to copy the chrome at different exposures, then use an HDR package to recombine the images in order to recover all the brightness and shadow information that is on the chrome. This seems to have some possibilities but so far I am mostly hampered by the level of noise in the combined digital image when attempting to recover the deep shadow detail. The noise really appears in the HDR process when the software tries to extract information from the D800 deep shadow chrome. I think this can be made to be useful but requires a good deal of hardware implementation and setup. I have only used Photomatix as an HDR package so far but have been advised that a couple of other HDR softwares may prove more useful but I want to thoroughly exercise the Photomatix first. This approach depends on how serious you are.

Of course for large format capture on a 35mm full frame also requires stitching software if you want high resolution. But the 35 mm full frame can be used at 1/2X magnification to reduce the amount of stitching and in the case of a D800 will still yield nominally 2500 X 3500 pixel resolution referenced to the film original.

Just an alternative suggestion depending on how desperate you are.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Laron]

Im not sure if your problem is the same of mine, but I am aslo experiencing this superannoying effect on high contrast areas.
Which means basically: if I have a bright area next to a dark area (=contrast situation) the scanner light bleeds on to the dark area producing me a glow around the originally sharp edge. depending on the size of my bright area this light leak can be very distracting...
I guess there is no workaround for this... (Im hoping with dslr scanning technique will be better)

[StoneNYC]

Im not sure if your problem is the same of mine, but I am aslo experiencing this superannoying effect on high contrast areas.
Which means basically: if I have a bright area next to a dark area (=contrast situation) the scanner light bleeds on to the dark area producing me a glow around the originally sharp edge. depending on the size of my bright area this light leak can be very distracting...
I guess there is no workaround for this... (Im hoping with dslr scanning technique will be better)

The OP said not to discuss best practices for sharpening images, so I'll just say that I've discovered this "halo" effect is often a problem of the film plane height being off and so the scan is slightly blurry and causes a bleed over effect from light to dark. So experiment with the height of your film holders.

[Sal Santamaura]

...a bright area next to a dark area (=contrast situation) the scanner light bleeds on to the dark area producing me a glow around the originally sharp edge...I guess there is no workaround for this...Might more effective scanner lens coatings in a V-750 be the best workaround? :)