scanning test

[northeast16th]

Here is a non-scientific scan test. Feedback very welcome. Have you had similar results?

Profiled iMac monitor. Epson 2450. Silverfast SE. Ilford HP5 6x6. Negative is very well exposed with a good tonal range.

1.....Scanned as transparency in grayscale and inverted. Best overall image quality. Much easier to work with than the others. Least amount of tinkering to get a great image in P-shop.

2.....Scanned as transparency in 48 bit color and inverted. 2nd best, but no improvement in image quality or tonal range with color setting, and extra steps needed to balance it out after scanning.

3.....Scanned as negative in grayscale. Way too contrasty. Very hard to work with. Would take much pre-scanning tweaking to get it acceptable. Is it worth it to spend time on pre-scan tweaking of settings to scan it in this mode?

4.....Scanned as negative in 48 bit color. Probably almost tied for 2nd to tell the truth, but histogram on transparency in grayscale was almost perfect as is, whereas this way the tonal range was a bit more narrow and had to be stretched out a bit.

These are all just straight scans with the above mentioned differences in settings. I am very new to scanning, but it's going to fit well into my workflow. I prefer shooting film, and then after I get it into digital format I send it to a professional printer.

Thanks for any feedback or comparisons or advice. Hope this helps if you haven't run this test and were curious.

scott

 

[tlitody]

one technique you haven't tried is to scan in colour and then discard blue and red channels as green is usually the sharpest for some unknown(to me) reason. But you have more post processing to do after that.
The physical ccd device always scans in colour as it is hardware. i.e. there is a red, grenn and blue sensor. There isn't a greyscale sensor. The scanner internals convert to greyscale so you can take control of that process by doing it any number of ways in photoshop rather than taking the epson default method of doing it which isn't always best. Depends on the image and how you set the scan controls as to how it does it.
Usually best to tweak scan controls to get as good as you can direct from scanner by setting black and white points a little wider than the histogram so you get full range of neg in the scan without it looking very flat.

 

[jcrutcher]

one technique you haven't tried is to scan in colour and then discard blue and red channels as green is usually the sharpest for some unknown(to me) reason. But you have more post processing to do after that.
The physical ccd device always scans in colour as it is hardware. i.e. there is a red, grenn and blue sensor. There isn't a greyscale sensor. The scanner internals convert to greyscale so you can take control of that process by doing it any number of ways in photoshop rather than taking the epson default method of doing it which isn't always best. Depends on the image and how you set the scan controls as to how it does it.
Usually best to tweak scan controls to get as good as you can direct from scanner by setting black and white points a little wider than the histogram so you get full range of neg in the scan without it looking very flat.

Did you include sample photos with you post. I don't see them. I'm having the same thoughs as you with B&W, not sure which way to go.

 

[tlitody]

Did you include sample photos with you post. I don't see them. I'm having the same thoughs as you with B&W, not sure which way to go.

no samples available at this time.

 

[JPSuisse]

Hi All

Excuse me, if I get off the subject a little here... I think it partially a philosophical question. How much control to you need to feel good?

I've seen some good results with normal scanner programs. For me, I prefer a raw scan from VueScan (DNG) without ANY adjustments from the scanning software. This essentially achieves the goal that jcrutcher proposes above centering your histogram to avoid blowouts.

Whether you have better resolution with the green, red or blue channel depends on the optics of your scanner. Each system will be optimized better for a different wavelength.

Good luck! Scanning is an experimental undertaking until you get good at it and understand it!!! 🙂

JP