VueScan tips

[thegman]

Hello all,
I have some Velvia shots I want to scan. Holding them up to the light I can see detail in the shadows, which I cannot seem to capture with VueScan. I have turned 'Multi-exposure' on, and put 'Number of samples' to 2, neither seems to make much difference.

The shadows are dark, but not terrible, I can hold the slide up to the window on a dull day like this and see detail.

Any thoughts on improving my scans? I'd really like to keep using Vuescan rather than Epson scan I think, as I do really like the software otherwise.

Thanks

Garry

 

[goffer]

What format/bit depth are you saving them at?

 

[michaelwj]

Been a few months since I scanned some Velvia, but I seem to remember I got some quite nice shadow detail. Using a Plustek 8100 if it matters.
I may have had to play with the colour tab a bit, black and white point, and the curve low/high. I think I used multi exposure (not 100%), max bit depth always.
I had horrible colours till I got the colour target from coloraid.de - cheap, pretty quick, the single best thing to get the best from Velvia scans.

I hope someone can offer more help.

Michael

 

[Particular]

It also depends on the scanner you are using. Velvia can produce some pretty dense and contrasty positives, but you should be able to capture the full range of density.
The way to get most out of a slide with vuescan is to set the exposure precisely. Preview scan either a blank piece of film off the same roll, or any detail that is burnt out, and crop it tightly, then set Input / Lock exposure, and use that setting for the final scan. If done right, you are increasing the exposure to clip the density of the film base, but not the image. You should now be getting the maximum density that your scanner can get out of the image. Also, don't set the black and white point. It is better to get all the info in the scan in 16bit, and then do any fine tuning in PSD or LR.

EDIT: That locked exposure should be the right exposure to scan the rest of the roll with, and will probably be fine for other rolls of the same film developed together. I would not use any of the 'film settings' under the color tab either, because they are typically trying to revert a particular films colors back to a 'scene neutral'. I suspect if you are using velvia, you want a scan that looks like the slide, which is what you can get closer to by setting Color balance to None.

 

[thegman]

I have tried saving in TIFF and DNG, does not seem to make too much difference. I'm using a V700, and am currently running 4 passes on the slide to see if it can drag more detail out.

I've not tried the 'lock exposure' option yet, will give it a try, thanks.

Will report back on my findings...

 

[Particular]

The Raw TIFF and DNG in fact produce identical output. The DNG format is a TIFF with extra metadata tagged on. The reason for choosing one over the other has more to do with the workflow after scanning. You can always take a vuescan Raw file and reprocess it in vuescan and output it again as a raw file as either a TIFF or DNG. All you are changing in that case is the 'file wrapper', you are not touching the image data.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Under the color tab in Vuescan (when using the Advanced mode), change the color balance setting to NONE. This will give a flatter, lower contrast file that often has more shadow detail. You'll need to do some editing later in Photoshop to make the contrast more normal, but this should get you the detail.

 

[thegman]

Under the color tab in Vuescan (when using the Advanced mode), change the color balance setting to NONE. This will give a flatter, lower contrast file that often has more shadow detail. You'll need to do some editing later in Photoshop to make the contrast more normal, but this should get you the detail.

I'm already on 'None' at the moment, but I'll see if I can do some other things to get something a bit flatter looking.

Thanks

Garry

 

[Godfrey]

I'd capture not to TIFF or JPEG, but to VueScan raw, output as DNG. Be sure VueScan is set to capture 48bit RGB as well, and that output is set to 48bit.

With a VueScan raw file, you can run scans through VueScan's processing at different settings to see what you can get out of the film without having to run the film through the scanner over and over again. You can also bring the raw/DNG files into LR and or PS and do image processing work there.

Velvia is very contrasty and a pain to scan well. Even more so than most slides. Your scanner's limitations will weight in ... the V700 is good, but it's definitely not a dedicated film scanner with respect to dmax capabilities.

G

 

[thegman]

I'd capture not to TIFF or JPEG, but to VueScan raw, output as DNG. Be sure VueScan is set to capture 48bit RGB as well, and that output is set to 48bit.

With a VueScan raw file, you can run scans through VueScan's processing at different settings to see what you can get out of the film without having to run the film through the scanner over and over again. You can also bring the raw/DNG files into LR and or PS and do image processing work there.

Velvia is very contrasty and a pain to scan well. Even more so than most slides. Your scanner's limitations will weight in ... the V700 is good, but it's definitely not a dedicated film scanner with respect to dmax capabilities.

G

Hi Godfrey,
I'm already on 48 bit RGB, but I think the RAW idea is what I'll try next. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from the V700, but if I scan for the highlights they look great, if I scan for the shadows, they look so-so, I just need to somehow merge the two.

Thanks for the help

Garry

 

[Larry H-L]

You could try to make two scans, one lighter, one darker.

Load those two as layers in PS, mask and merge as needed in the problem areas.

 

[thegman]

You could try to make two scans, one lighter, one darker.

Load those two as layers in PS, mask and merge as needed in the problem areas.

I could do, although this slide is hardly worth the effort, I'm just trying to learn how to scan better really.

I am making progress though, using save as TIFF option and Multi exposure I seem to have a file which is reasonably tolerant of adjustment in PS Elements. I'm going to try the technique now on another troublesome slide.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I'm already on 'None' at the moment, but I'll see if I can do some other things to get something a bit flatter looking.

Thanks

Garry

Oh ok. You may be up against the capabilities of your scanner, then. I have a Nikon 8000ED, and even it has trouble with Velvia film. One control that Vuescan has for my scanner is "analogue gain." This is an exposure control and using it to increase scan exposure sometimes helps with opening up deep shadow tones, but if the slide has bright highlights, it may cause them to go too high.

 

[thegman]

Oh ok. You may be up against the capabilities of your scanner, then. I have a Nikon 8000ED, and even it has trouble with Velvia film. One control that Vuescan has for my scanner is "analogue gain." This is an exposure control and using it to increase scan exposure sometimes helps with opening up deep shadow tones, but if the slide has bright highlights, it may cause them to go too high.

I see, fair enough I guess. Maybe I need to change how I shoot slides a little. I tend to expose to save the highlights, but maybe I'm going too far and leaving too little exposure on the shadows.