Post-Processing? What do you do?

[TimM]

Hi!
Just stumbled over this question - what do you do with you scanned negatives concerning the post processing?

For me, (mostly shooting b&w) it's only contrast/brightness adjustemts.

Tell me more 😉

 

[JeffGreene]

If you belong to APUG, even that may be exceeding the boundaries. :angel:

But seriously, that's pretty much what I do as well. I do know a local professional who has developed an entire black and white workflow with his scanned negatives that includes sharpening, channel adjustments, dodging and burning and tonal adjustments. He's been teaching some local workshops on his approach.

 

[sojournerphoto]

Potentially:

Levels, curves, local dodge burn, local contrast enhancement, capture and output sharpening, toning, converting colour to B&W

or nothing

Mike

 

[Anupam]

* Adjust scanner exposure thru VueScan to get optimum shadow detail
* Levels (very rare)
* Curves (with contrast masking for high density range negatives for shadows and highlights)
* Dodge/burn (very slight, if required)
* Step resize to 800 px on longer side
* unsharp mask
* second unsharp mask for local contrast
* Convert to 8bpp Adobe sRGB
* Save as JPG

This is for 35mm BW film. I haven't scanned color in a long time.

 

[lorriman]

Curves only, but often with the help of a piece of white paper in the photo to help me use the curves white-point to do a quick colour correct, or else the whites of the eyes though it isn't a reliable method. Being red-green colour-blind I will convert to b&w if there is no suitable white or black to use for colour correction; I often forget to include that blessed piece of paper.

I rarely edit out the piece of paper, even for a print, unless it is excessively distracting.

 

[projectbluebird]

Here's my B+W scanning workflow:
Scan (~3200-4000ppi)
Spot heal/clone any dust or scratches.
Curves (Very rarely)
Resize for printing. Typically 360 or 480 ppi, depending on the output size. (~9x13 or 7x11)

For color, it's similar:
Scan (same resolution)
Spot heal/clone
Levels (each channel individually)
Curves, maybe.
Resize and print.

For all digital though...
Step 1: Download
Step 2: Adobe Bridge
Step 3: PS Camera raw
Step 4: Tweak
Step 5: Tweak
Step 6: Tweak
Step 7: Tweak
Step 8: Open copy
Repeat Steps 3-8
Print.

I'm still adjusting to Camera RAW, and I really need to get lightroom. But for me, Film is still king.