Time to summarize:
Time to summarize:
Key things I've concluded about camera-scans of color Negatives
1. Getting enough resolution is easy, color and tonality are more difficult
2. Illuminate the negative with a high CRI source (incandescent, LED, or flash)
3. Shoot RAW with a good macro lens
4. Simple inversion gives the weakest results. Better w/ purpose-built software or a non-linear inversion.
[ Edit Fall, 2018 with a new option ]
- Camera scan capture of the negative, shoot RAW, import into Lightroom
- Run
Negative Lab Pro, a new Lightroom plug-in
See
this thread here on RFF about NLP. I now recommend this option: very good color, almost fully automatic, and it's in Lightroom.
[ Edit March 19, 2018 with a new option ]
A new and very effective process:
- Camera scan capture of the negative, shoot raw, open in Photoshop, holding histogram away from the edges.
- Sample film rebate or a VERY dark shadow area to get film base
- Run Adrian Gabor's CN-Scan-Inversion action,
available here. See result in #127 this thread.
[ Remainder of text below from Nov 2017 ]
Minimalist approach:
- Camera scan capture of the negative, shoot raw, open in Photoshop or Lightroom
- Levels adjustment to give a good histogram (centered, wide, but not to the edges)
- Invert the image
- Bend the inversion curve, or add one more curves adjustment, bringing down all the mid-tones
- Add an "auto" adjustment
Better Color:
- Camera scan capture of the negative, shoot raw, open in Photoshop
- Levels adjustment to give a good histogram (centered, not to the edges)
- Invert the image with Jack Jzagaja's curve, or apply ColorPerfect (ColorNEG option)
- Add an "auto" adjustment
Very Good Color Method #1 (via Photoshop)
- Camera scan capture of the negative, shoot raw
- Use MakeTiff or dcraw to create linear tiff with no adjustments (will look very dark)
- Open in Photoshop and apply ColorPerfect (ColorNeg, film type, clipping, gray point, perhaps +sat)
- Add a Photoshop "auto" adjustment
Very Good Color Method #2 (via VueScan)
- Camera scan capture of the negative, shoot raw
- Use MakeTiff or dcraw to create linear tiff with no adjustments (will look very dark)
- Launch VueScan. Input from file. Select options (film type, check clipping, gray point)
- Select destination & file type, then hit "Scan" to process the image
- Adjust in program of your choice
- (Silverfast reportedly can do the same thing.)
Notes:
- MakeTiff is free, whether or not you buy ColorPerfect
- DCraw is free, but it's a command-line program, no easy user interface
- They do the same thing, results are a little different
- The DCRaw command: dcraw -v -w -H 0 -o 0 -q 3 -4 -T fileName
- ColorNeg settings: FilmType, ShadowClip 1.0, HighlightClip 0.25 250, rest to taste
Comments?