Using PhotoShop

[Tim Kimbler]

Folks I need help. I've given in to the fact that digital prints are beautiful, so off I go with my digital darkroom. I bought an Epson 1280 printer and 2450 scanner. I'm using an older version of PhotoShop (5.0) it's all I have for now. I've got everything hooked up and working. I scanned a negative into Photoshop and printed it. The image is the negative and holder. Now I'm stuck. I can't figure out how to crop down to just the negative and make it look like a photo. Is there an A,B,C set of directions I can get my hands on that oulines the basic steps so I can print a picture? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.......

[scott jones]

Well I would suggest using the crop tool on the tool palette. If you don't know how to use it, use the help funtion that is included in Photoshop and check the index for "crop".

Beyond that I would highly suggest you invest in a book on photoshop for photographers or enroll in your local community college's beginner Photoshop for photographers course. By the way, most libraries have many books on photoshop if you want to save on money...

[Dave Ditzel]

Tim, try to find a copy of Adobe Photoshop "Classroom in a Book" for version 5.0. Be sure that the copy you get has the cd tutorial with it. Good luck.

[Ken Lee]

If you do a simple web search for key words like "Photoshop", "Photoshop tutorial", etc. you will find quite a lot of information in the public domain.

As for books, I recommend the Photoshop "Wow !" series. You still may be able to get a copy of the 5.0 version. It shows most of the simple techniques that are relevent for doing "straight" photography (as opposed to what one might call hybrid stuff: highly manipulated images which resemble paintings or collages). It shows them in a very clearn and step-by-step fashion.

If you have the patience, a good $50 book generally contains much more material than a class or seminar, and you can study the material wherever and whenever you want.

[Ben Hopson]

Tim, if I understand your problem correctly, while viewing the scanned image in photoshop you see both the negative and holder. If that is the case then you probably need to select the area to scan in the scanner software. I have the 3200, but if the drivers are similar to the 2450 you should be able to drag the cursor in the image you are going to scan to select the area you want. Again this is done in the scanner software. You should end up with just the image in PS not the image and holder.

Sorry if I have misinterpreted your problem.

Good luck!

[Ed Eubanks]

I have an Epson 2450 also, and the above post is correct about cropping the framing of your scan-- if you are using the Silverfast scanning utility. If you use the Epson scanning utility, it will determine the framing of the holder automatically.One thing you want to do, and this is an essential step, is to select what type of medium you are scanning. For example, in Silverfast, click on the "General" tab; there will be three options: under "Original" choose transparency and under "Pos/Neg" select the appropriate setting. In Epson Twain (using Manual Scan mode), under the menu at the top labeled "Document Source" you'll need to tell it whether you are using color or B&W and negative or positive film-- all of these are preceded by "TPU". Without telling it you are scanning film of some type, it will pre-scan the entire holder.Sorry if this post is too condescending. The first scanner I bought had a transparency adapter that took me weeks to figure out, and a large part of it was simply telling the scanning utility that I was scanning transparencies. I hope that only makes me naive and not stupid...

[mark blackman]

Ed, I think you've hit the nail on the head! I got fed up with the Epson Twain interface, it could get confused between the film holder and the actual film, especially if highlights were present on the edge. I found the solution in VueScan (http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html).

By the way, Tim, I suggest you upgrade from version 5 of photoshop asap, the colour management was completely overhauled in version 6 and above.

[Matt Wensing]

When you say "crop down" I assume you don't mean just choosing the Marquee tool (the dotted-line square in the main tools palette), outlining what you *want* and then going to Image (at the top in the toolbar) and then clicking Crop?