Scanning negatives

bastic

bastic

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Lukas
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Can you advise me on what software you guys are using when it comes to scanning negatives ?
I seem to have a slight problem with getting colours right(from colour negative)
When using Epson software, colours too saturated and vibrant.
Yes I could tweak all of that in PS or LR but wanted to see if I could get it right from the software.
I was told to use vuescan to scan, and use option for exposure lock but in my version of software it's not there...

I was in a rush and developed my last roll in snappy snaps (1hour service) and have to say that I'm quite happy with all prints I got from them.

Thanks :)
 
There are a few options in Vuescan that aren't displayed if your scanner doesn't support them and lock exposure is one of them, unfortunately.

That said, the Canon software for my scanner allows me to adjust the level of exposure whereas Vuescan doesn't so it'd be good to know if there's another setting which would enable it.
 
What's the difference between mucking around with scanner software and mucking around in LR. Get a flat scan that contains all the data then make it right later, LR is a much better photo editor than any scanning software.
 
steveo_mcg said:
What's the difference between mucking around with scanner software and mucking around in LR. Get a flat scan that contains all the data then make it right later, LR is a much better photo editor than any scanning software.
Click to expand...
I just want the whole process not to take ages...
Are there any plugins for LR or PS to help with negatives?
If not, what's the process ? Would you just use invert in PS?
 
steveo_mcg said:
Get a flat scan that contains all the data ...
Click to expand...

That's the bit I'm having trouble with; VueScan tends to clip highlights on 35mm slides and I'm left trying to recover a blown image in LR. If I could adjust the exposure and build it up through multiple scans, I think it'd give me a better result, as would being able to lock the exposure after calibrating the scan.
 
bastic said:
I just want the whole process not to take ages...
Are there any plugins for LR or PS to help with negatives?
If not, what's the process ? Would you just use invert in PS?
Click to expand...

Strappy said:
That's the bit I'm having trouble with; VueScan tends to clip highlights on 35mm slides and I'm left trying to recover a blown image in LR. If I could adjust the exposure and build it up through multiple scans, I think it'd give me a better result, as would being able to lock the exposure after calibrating the scan.
Click to expand...

I use the Epson Scanning software for everything but slides and use this technique for both Colour and B&W, it gives a horrid flat image. In LR I hit auto to balance the image then a bit of a bump in contrast for B&W and saturation for colour and I get good results in a few minutes then I'll focus on the "keepers" to do any additional enhancements. I tried for a few evenings to get on with VueScan for negatives whilst trying to get an un-pp image for the POTY but I've just not put the time in to learn it.

http://photo-utopia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/scanning-with-epson-v500.html?m=1
 
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When I get home I'll try to remember to dig out a tutorial I followed that's improved my results immensely.
 
I have yet to try Vuescan. I currently take your approach of scanning the negatives using Epson Scan and then chucking them into LR to adjust as necessary.

I was given this link when I asked a similar question on here. May be the one which @VirtualAdept was talking about: http://photo-utopia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/scanning-with-epson-v500.html?m=1

Worth a look. Did help for me a bit. I do find Epsons software a little clunky in places so think I will be giving Vuescan a go in the not too distant future.
 
The thing I found most useful was changing the input settings from 20/200 or whatever it is to 0 & 255, gave me much better scope
 
steveo_mcg said:
What's the difference between mucking around with scanner software and mucking around in LR. Get a flat scan that contains all the data then make it right later, LR is a much better photo editor than any scanning software.
Click to expand...

This is the way to go. Almost no scanning software is as robust or user friendly as any photo editing software. I wouldn't recommend playing around with scanning software, just get those files into LR or Aperture as fast as you can.

I no longer bother with scanning my own colour negatives, but if I had to, I would personally scan as a straight negative in Vuescan, invert it using the PS plugin Colorperfect, and then adjust as necessary in LR. For slide film and B&W, I'd go for a flat scan with no clipping in the highlights or shadows and then immediately ship the photos into LR.
 
Have downloaded colorperfect, copied to plugins and can't see it
Edit: solved
 
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Does ColorPerfect work with Elements (I think I've got a paid-ip version of Elements 9), or does it require the grown-up version?
 
ChrisR said:
Does ColorPerfect work with Elements (I think I've got a paid-ip version of Elements 9), or does it require the grown-up version?
Click to expand...

It works, I've used the trial version of ColourPerfect with Elements.
 
ChrisR said:
Does ColorPerfect work with Elements (I think I've got a paid-ip version of Elements 9), or does it require the grown-up version?
Click to expand...

I use it with a program called Photoline, so it will work with other programs as long as those programs play nicely with PS plugins.
 
Damn, this plugin is expensive....
 
With EpsonScan you might want to try both with and without "Colour Correction" turned on. With colour correction turned off, there can be too much green; colour correction will shift the green channel to more magenta, but can go too far.

I have used EpsonScan, Silverfast, and Vuescan. I can't say that there is any massive difference in the colour from any of then; so I tend to make the choice based on the user interface rather than output.
For scanning 35mm, the thumbnail method works well to accurately measure the individual frames, which speeds up scanning the whole film. For 6*7 medium format I don't do this because the film holder won't display three frames at once, so I select the image areas manually.

Vuescan is a bit more fiddly, but has the advantage of working under Linux, and will work on Windows even when a Windows upgrade has stopped EpsonScan from working.
 
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One 'feature' I've found when selecting the scanning area manually (I only shoot 120) is to make sure you don't select any of the white outside if the negative because this can vary the colour balance considerably.
 
I have found vuescan to be really easy to use and have been using it for 35mm colour & bw scans for about 2 years now, tried the free epson scan software that was bundled with my scanner (4490) but never really got on with it. I mainly use the default settings in vuescan and have never had to process in a separate app to get decent scans.
 
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