Vuescan and Linux

jon_flanders

jon_flanders

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After a somewhat inadvertant upgrade to the 2.6 kernel via Mandrake 10.1, my Polaroid Sprintscan 35+ now works in Linux with Vuescan. But so far my experience with Vuescan has been frustrating, so in Windows I have used Polaroid's Insight instead.

Any tips on using Vuescan? It's nice not to have to boot back into Linux to use The Gimp for editing. I would like to master Vuescan, but its layout is a little intimidating.

I use consumer grade film, like Fuji HQ, Kodak Gold, Konica etc.

Thanks,

Jon Flanders
 
Jon,

I am using Mandrake Linux 10, along with my Konica Minolta DiMage Scan Dual IV and Epson Perfection PHOTO 2400 and Vuescan 8.1.7 and The Gimp 2.0. I also use consumer-grade film most of the time.

It all seems to work pretty well for me - can you describe the problems you're having? I can try to help, or at least to describe what I do and how that works.

I personally like Vuescan + The Gimp, but I do miss not having ACDSee, which is a very fine program for easy viewing. Linux (as far as I know) has nothing like that.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Jon, Bill, I really admire you for using Linux as your desktop computer! I've been a Linux user for years, but only use it on servers. I've tried it as a desktop and it's very serviceable, but there are too many Windows apps I use every day to make the transition feasible for me.

I've been a Vuescan user for about three years. I use it on two different scanners. If I can help in any way, let me know. What I think it's really good at is getting all the information off the negative, including highlights and shadows. I always use mine with White and Black set to 0. The scans look a little muddy, but that's okay because what I want from Vuescan is a kind of raw image that captures the full dynamic range.

I then use Photoshop to finish the image to my liking, and to get the col balance where I think it should be. I'm sure Gimp would work just as well. The few times I tried Gimp I was impressed. It's not Photoshop, but it IS feature rich.

Gene
 
Gene said:
[B)I always use mine with White and Black set to 0. The scans look a little muddy, but that's okay because what I want from Vuescan is a kind of raw image that captures the full dynamic range.

Gene [/B]
Click to expand...

That's the kind of info I need, what are the basic settings you would start with for a generic film like Fuji?

Jon Flanders
 
Interesting info, Gene. I have experimented a great deal with Vuescan settings, including going through the lengthy process of setting optimal film settings by scanning an unexposed-but-developed neg from the same roll of film, etc. I've always been more-or-less unsatisfied - until I just knocked it off and started using the baseline 'generic' scan. Seems to work best for me on just about every occasion. I have to say though - I'm color-blind (bad) and so the problem could be entirely mine.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
jon_flanders said:
That's the kind of info I need, what are the basic settings you would start with for a generic film like Fuji?

Jon Flanders
Click to expand...
I use the GENERIC profile for Color Negative. Black point 0, White point 0, everything else set at 1.

The main thing I adjust is Brightness. Some images need to be lightened and some darkened.

The result doesn't look very convincing but it provides a good starting point for a photo editor. In Photoshop 7 or CS, you can simply click on Auto Color and it does an amazing job of adjusting color balance to what you would expect. Without this feature, you need to adjust col balance manually. Once you get a col balance that works for the film you're using, you can just jot it down and repeat it over and over.

I like to scan to 16-bit TIFF and work in that mode, but I don't think the Gimp does 16-bit editing yet, so with the Gimp I'd go to 8-bit TIFF. My final image gets saved as a JPEG.

Gene
 
I have just spent an hour with Vuescan, and I seem to be ending up with a blue problem. That is, everything tends to have a bluish cast. Even after trying to tweak things with The Gimp.

Whereas I can get browns and yellows easily with the Polaroid Insight software. Perhaps its just a proprietary thing.



Jon Flanders
 
jon_flanders said:
I have just spent an hour with Vuescan, and I seem to be ending up with a blue problem. That is, everything tends to have a bluish cast. Even after trying to tweak things with The Gimp.

Whereas I can get browns and yellows easily with the Polaroid Insight software. Perhaps its just a proprietary thing.



Jon Flanders
Click to expand...
Jon, you could try mixing in more yellow (decreasing the blue) during the scan to see if this gives you a better balance.

Gene
 
Evidently the problem is with how Vuescan interacts with Linux, or at least my system. I tried it in Windows and had a decent result, if harder to obtain than with Insight.

And I'm not the only one to experience problems with Vuescan, I googled up some pretty frustrated people out there.

I gave it one more try tonight, that's enough, it's just not working with my Linux system.

Jon Flanders
 
I should report that Vuescan did fine with the Microtek flatbed scanner I tried tonight. The colors looked pretty accurate on the first pass.

Jon Flanders
 
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