Epson V500 Scanner settings?

[Yoricko]

Scanning B&W Films, did a search and most of them recommended to turn off every settings (Dust removal, Color Correction, Blabla).

Some people recommended using the Unsharp Mask option ticked, some don't.

What about you?

 

[dfoo]

I'd never sharpen during the scan. You don't get much control that way.

 

[Yoricko]

How about 48bit color->grayscale or 16bit grayscale?

 

[dfoo]

I use 16 bit grayscale. You can easily find out whether it makes a difference for you though. Scan the same image and then compare.

 

[Yoricko]

Sample scans, no PP.

A little washed out? Am I doing it wrong?

 

[wayneb]

I never sharpen or do any of the digital ice in the scanning software. Or exposure control - I try to keep it as neutral as possible and make alterations in photoshop. In p/s I unsharp mask just a little. I also use 16bit greyscale.

Your sample does look a bit washed out but a minor adjustment of levels in photoshop would fix that.

Here's an example shot with levels adjustment:

What I'm looking for is some black blacks - in the background doorway area and the area of the one girl's robe with the writing. The man's jacket provides a fairly neutral area, and of course I don't want the white outfits to be blown out. It looks good to me (Macintosh) on my monitor, but on a PC it might be a stop or more darker. All my recent b/w images in flickr were made with the v500.

 

[payasam]

The V100 I use is perhaps not so different from the V500. I find it best to turn off unsharp masking and dust removal, though "backlight correction" is often necessary even with well exposed originals.

 

[Yoricko]

Thanks for all the replies so far,

I've tried 4 different settings,

1 - 16bit Grayscale / B&W Negative Scan / 1200 DPI / No corrections done by scanner / Levels / Slight Unsharp Mask

2 - 48bit Colour / B&W Negative Scan / 1200 DPI / No corrections done by scanner / Grayscale / Levels / Slight Unsharp Mask

3 - 16bit Grayscale / Positive Scan / 1200 DPI / No corrections done by scanner / Invert / Levels / Slight Unsharp Mask

4 - 48bit Colour / Positive Scan Scan / 1200 DPI / No corrections done by scanner / Grayscale / Invert / Levels / Slight Unsharp Mask

Can't tell which looks good ...

 

[philipp.leser]

Scan using the negative setting and 16bit greyscale, turn off all the image enhancing stuff like dust removal or unsharp mask. Luckily, scanning b&w negatives is rather easy as there is no color balance to worry about.

The only relevant setting is setting the black and white points, which can be done using the scanner's software (Epson's auto exposure actually works very well) or later using Photoshop or something similar. It's important not to clip and highlights or shadow parts of the image, that way you retain as much information as possible. Note that this will sometimes result in a flat looking scan, but don't worry, that's what Photoshop is for.

 

[bolohead]

I scan at 48-bit color, open in Photoshop, use healing brush for dust and other blemishes, and then run it through Silver Efex Pro. If I didn't have Silver Efex Pro, I would probably still scan at 48-bit, open in Photoshop, use healing brush for dust and other blemishes, convert to greyscale and then run a series of adjustments such as curves, levels, and unsharp mask.

I try not to use any of the additional adjustments during the scan and do all of the adjustments in Photoshop. It takes more time, but gives me more control.

 

[mh2000]

the point to getting a good scan is to get everything the scanner is capable of getting, then adjust afterward. B&W film scans usually look best just a little clipped, but you want to do that after obtaining a full tonal scan. your scanner basically gets what it gets and then adjusts it... it is much better for you to do the adjustment in Photoshop or Gimp. The problem with all scanner software (except Vuescan) is that they all make some adjustment automatically, so it can be frustrating trying to figure out how to get the best out of them. Look at your 48-bit sample, do you think the scanner should be blocking shadows in this mode? The raw scan will maybe look more washed out like your street scene (which is probably ok as a starting point)... Apply careful levels adjustment and a simple curve (brightness & contrast) and you can get that to pop just fine. You want higher bit depth for smoother tonal results with final adjustment, go to 8-bit only when you are finished (maybe).

 

[Florian1234]

I scan with 2400dpi in 16-bit greyscale and let do the scanning software (Epson's) a bit sharpening. Before the scan I adjust the levels.

 

[Lukas]

I use Vuescan instead of the Epson software.
I found that some images where to dark (badly exposed) for Epson. In such a case I got only half a frame, or I had to fool the scanner by telling it it was a 6x6 negative.
I also found at least four different ways to scan a negative, each with a different outcome, colorwise.

With Vuescan I have more control, previews are much larger and it's therefore more easy to see the result before actually making a scan.
The method I use is called 'lock exposure'.
In short: I let the scanner make a 'first impression' of the film, by scanning a blank piece of film in between two frames. After that I can adjust white balance the way I like. You can do that ones a roll.

This works for black and white and also for color negatives and slides.

Here a link to a tutorial: http://benneh.net/blog/index.php/2008/04/21/better-colour-neg-scanning-with-vuescan/

And the same for black and white: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ishootfilm/discuss/72157608204093047/

I don't want to urge you to use other software, but having been there and done that (V500 wise) I highly recommend you to give it a try.

 

[wayneb]

Lukas - thanks for these links. Kind of related, have you ever gotten this exposure lock method to work with transparencies/E6? I've tried and it never seems to work, though for b/w and c41 negatives it works good.

 

[Yoricko]

Thanks for the links Lucas, will sped some time reading tomorrow or something.
Thanks for the replies guys!

 

[zenlibra]

I've been struggling to figure out the best way to scan with the V500. The last two rolls, one B+W the other Provia 100F, I set the configuration to "No color correction". If I understand correctly it is just a basic scan with out any adjustments whatsoever. In Lightroom I have to set the Exposure and the Black point quite high to start to get a workable image, but I have more room to work with it.

 

[WDPictures]

Hoping you will keep in mind that each photographer's workflow is different. My process involves gathering as much information from the negative as possible through the scan process without any adjustments, similar to a RAW file from a digital camera. THEN using my image editing software, not the scanner software, I will make adjustments. Again similar to digital/RAW, this typically means that my files don't look perfect directly from the scanner.
Often a slow process but I open the Histogram dialog and move the "output" sliders to 0 and 255 to get all of a negative's tones and make sure the "input" sliders are not clipping any information but set right at the highlight/shadow fall-off (let the mid-tone move freely). Same process for each negative and for B+W or color. I just prefer to use more powerful software designed for photography to edit rather than scanner software designed for... Anyway, the V500 is nice to use regardless...