Down-sizing without the grain?

[EdwardKaraa]

Hi,

Just wondering how do you guys down-size your film scans for the web or small prints? It is curious that with analog printing, the smaller the better, while with scanning, the best quality seems to be at the scanning resolution. Or am I doing something wrong?

I usually scan at 3600 dpi, down-size in photoshop, then apply a little USM, around 0.5/100. Even my 400x600 websized images look unnaturally grainy.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Edward

 

[DrTebi]

I think it would really help if you would give us some more details. For example, what scanner are you using? Which scanning software? Do you scan negs or slides? 35mm or Medium Format? What film do you use?

The one advice I can give you is, that you might want to try a different sharpening method. Personally, I don't like the USM sharpening very much, as it sharpens the entire image as opposed to selective areas.

One method worth trying out is "high-pass sharpening." Here is one tutorial that explains it in every detail:
http://nyfalls.com/article-photoshop-high-pass-sharpening.html
With Photoshop you can create an "Action" that would do these steps automatically for you.

If you dare, you may also want to try the GIMP image editor and it's sharpening plugins. I find the "Smart Redux" sharpening with the "Refocus" option to return excellent results, especially for scanned film.

Let us know some more about your workflow, and maybe we can find the bug!

 

[will-i_am]

what method are you using to change the size, for web use i just change the longest side to 1000 pixels and keep the image at my scanning dpi (3200) it looks identical to my original just smaller.

 

[ssmc]

When you downsize in PS, make sure "Resample Image" is checked. You might want to try using USM before downsizing, and then selecting a resampling algorithm that doesn't apply any extra sharpening. Or, forgo the USM and just resample with "Bicubic Sharper" and see how that looks.

I guess it also depends on what looks "too grainy", which is very much a matter of taste and subject matter (up to a point)

 

[BobYIL]

Or for a simple process try IrfanView. I have the PS5 and scan on the Minolta Scan Elite 5400 II with over 5000dpi resolution and archive the outputs as TIFF (over 90MB). For quick downsizing, sharpening and playing with colors sometimes I use IrfanView and the results are satisfactory, no grain problems especially. It's free to download.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[sojournerphoto]

To downsize any image, but particularly film scans, I suggest (in photoshop or equivalent):

1. Apply gaussian blur - 0.25 pixels for each factor of 2 you are downsizing (so if from 8000 to 1000 that would need blur of around 0.75 pixels or possibly slightly more)

2. Downsize using the resize dialogue - resample using either bicubic or bicubic sharper. Set size in pixels directly and 96dpi for computer/web display (check the size again before downsizing)

3. Apply smart sharpen - try around 0.3 radius and 80 amount, then adjust to taste

4. MAke sure colour space is converted to sRGB before publishing on the web

Do not apply any extra sharpening before downsizing - just get the image print ready (excluding output sharpening) and you're good to go.

Hope this helps

Mike