A Photoshop Elements 4 question?

[John]

I have scanned some colour negative film with my bundled Silverfast SE. I used the 48 bit raw mode called HDR. This results in an orange negative, (like the film). Can I convert these to a positive in Photoshop Elements 4 and if so how? The reason I am trying these raw files is I am a little less than satisfied with the 48 to 24 bit downconverted colour files. I have noticed some graininess and noise in the 24 bit files. The graininess and noise are also present in the Vuescan demo files I have tried. My scanner is the Plustek 7200 at 3600 dpi. scanning Fuji Superia 400 negatives. 😕

 

[Kris]

John, does PSE 4 have Level adjustment - Image > Adjustment > Level ? If it does, can you choose to adjust for each individual chanel? There should be a pull-down menu RGB/Red/Green/Blue.

If so, I'll help you converting that orange scan. It's quite a lengthy process but not difficult. Before I write all the steps with illustration pics I want to make sure PSE4 has the necessary function.

Oh yeah, post an example of the orange scan too so I can use it to show you how to convert it.

 

[Creagerj]

open the image and hit ctrl-I that shoud do it.

 

[John]

Thanks Kris. Don't write it out because the function might be missing as you say. There is some level adjusting under layers with a colour positive but so far the functions remain faded (disabled) when the negative is opened. Also, I will have to downsize it to post. 😀 😀

 

[Kris]

Joe, I'm afraid the process is more than just hitting Ctrl-I. That works only for b&w and even then, that's less than half of the whole process.

John, if you can see the Level option under Layer, then it should be also available under Image tree. Pretty sure it is greyed out because the image is in 48bit. If you convert it to 24bit you should be able to use the options.

 

[John]

Hi Kris. Levels is available through Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels
An adjustable histogram comes up with 4 choices. RGB, Red, Green, Blue. Photoshop has saved the Tiff as RGB/16*. Levels works with these files, (I think).

 

[John]

This is an attempt to post a C41 neg file in jpeg that Kris has kindly offered to illustrate a workflow with. I had to downconvert a couple of times to get it small enough to post. 🙂 🙂

 

[John]

Kris has answered this in this N/NW thread.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24432