Best scanning for Cinestill 400D

pamphoto · Nov 14, 2023

Hello,
I recently scanned some 120mm Cinestill 400D negatives I shot recently. I used the Epson Perfection V850 Pro to scan them, and they have a purple hue to them, mostly in the shadows. I am thinking that is from the color of the film.
I have scanned 35mm negatives, and they did not seem to have that hue. I have an updated Mac attached to the scanner now for the 120mm as apposed to the 35mm. I do not think that would make a difference but maybe it could.

Is there a better option for getting results without the purple shadows?

Attached image is how the scanner scanned the negative. You can really see it in her hair. I tried editing in Lightroom, but it still has that purple hue to it.

Thanks!

koraks · Nov 15, 2023

pamphoto said:
Is there a better option for getting results without the purple shadows?

There's a range of apps and tools that will (attempt to) fix the color balance of color negative scans. NegaFix comes to mind, but there are a couple more, each with its own advocates. You might want to try one or two of these and see if you like the result.

Ultimately, the problem is partly due to a crossover that happens either in the film (this is ECN2 film after all, not C41 that your scanner was designed for), development (eg when putting an ECN2 film through C41 processing) and the scanning process itself. Such are the word of scanning color negative film, in particular the kind that's not really intended for still photography.

Finally...shadows really are pretty blue in reality! Impressionists were on to something when they painted those seemingly put of the box colors. If you watch closely, they're actually there.

All considered, your scan doesn't look half bad at all. I'd personally load it in Photoshop and bump the blue curve in the shadow region a tad, and call it good.

dokko · Nov 15, 2023

the standard Epson software is not particularly good with color negative film to start with, and as koraks says, Vision3 movie film is rather difficult to scan.

given those issues, I find your scan pretty decent since it's mainly an overall color cast that can easily removed. here your image with some quick adjustments in RGB curves:

it usually is harder if you have a more colorful scenery.

one option would be to get Silverfast for your scanner. the interface is clumsy and needs time to get used to, and it's rather expensive (there are sometimes reduced prices though). If you are serious about scanning then the full archival suite is the best choice.

The alternatives like NegaFix or NegativeLabPro are nicer to use, but often result in a bit distorted colors which some people like and others don't. some of them have a demo, so you can test before you buy.

koraks · Nov 15, 2023

dokko said:
here your image with some quick adjustments in RGB curves:

Yes, or perhaps even warmer by filtering out some more blue.

Looking at the original, the entire image has a very significant blue cast. Pulling the blue back substantially and boosting red only slightly produces the following result:

Ultimately, it's of course also a matter of taste, preference and/or artistic vision, if you will. I know that I personally bias towards more yellow and more red, even on a calibrated monitor and while scoring quite well (mostly 0) on the online Farnsworth-Munsell, suggesting it's really a psychological bias rather than a technical or biological one.

dokko · Nov 15, 2023

looks good, definitely makes if feel like a warm sunny day

pamphoto · Nov 18, 2023

koraks said:
There's a range of apps and tools that will (attempt to) fix the color balance of color negative scans. NegaFix comes to mind, but there are a couple more, each with its own advocates. You might want to try one or two of these and see if you like the result.

Ultimately, the problem is partly due to a crossover that happens either in the film (this is ECN2 film after all, not C41 that your scanner was designed for), development (eg when putting an ECN2 film through C41 processing) and the scanning process itself. Such are the word of scanning color negative film, in particular the kind that's not really intended for still photography.

Finally...shadows really are pretty blue in reality! Impressionists were on to something when they painted those seemingly put of the box colors. If you watch closely, they're actually there.

All considered, your scan doesn't look half bad at all. I'd personally load it in Photoshop and bump the blue curve in the shadow region a tad, and call it good.

Thank you Koraks. I was just hopping to avoid messing with it too much.
I'll look into Negafix.

pamphoto · Nov 18, 2023

dokko said:
the standard Epson software is not particularly good with color negative film to start with, and as koraks says, Vision3 movie film is rather difficult to scan.

given those issues, I find your scan pretty decent since it's mainly an overall color cast that can easily removed. here your image with some quick adjustments in RGB curves:

it usually is harder if you have a more colorful scenery.

one option would be to get Silverfast for your scanner. the interface is clumsy and needs time to get used to, and it's rather expensive (there are sometimes reduced prices though). If you are serious about scanning then the full archival suite is the best choice.

The alternatives like NegaFix or NegativeLabPro are nicer to use, but often result in a bit distorted colors which some people like and others don't. some of them have a demo, so you can test before you buy.

Thank you dokko.
I'll look into Silverfast. How would it perform with old (1950s) Black and white negatives? I have a bunch of those.
Thank you again!

pamphoto · Nov 18, 2023

koraks said:
Yes, or perhaps even warmer by filtering out some more blue.

Looking at the original, the entire image has a very significant blue cast. Pulling the blue back substantially and boosting red only slightly produces the following result:

Ultimately, it's of course also a matter of taste, preference and/or artistic vision, if you will. I know that I personally bias towards more yellow and more red, even on a calibrated monitor and while scoring quite well (mostly 0) on the online Farnsworth-Munsell, suggesting it's really a psychological bias rather than a technical or biological one.

Thank you again koraks!

dokko · Nov 18, 2023

pamphoto said:
Thank you dokko.
I'll look into Silverfast. How would it perform with old (1950s) Black and white negatives? I have a bunch of those.
Thank you again!

black and white is rather easy and pretty any software will work, so it's more about your preferred workflow.
so the epson scanner with its included software will work fine, either scanning as b/w negative or scanning it as a "positive" and invert it and add adjust in your program of choice.
in other words, in my experience silverfast would only be worth it for color negatives.

pamphoto · Nov 18, 2023

dokko said:
black and white is rather easy and pretty any software will work, so it's more about your preferred workflow.
so the epson scanner with its included software will work fine, either scanning as b/w negative or scanning it as a "positive" and invert it and add adjust in your program of choice.
in other words, in my experience silverfast would only be worth it for color negatives.

Thank you for the clarification. I will still keep this software in mind.

Best scanning for Cinestill 400D

pamphoto

Attachments

koraks

Moderator

dokko

koraks

Moderator

dokko

pamphoto

pamphoto

pamphoto

dokko

pamphoto

Best scanning for Cinestill 400D

Attachments

Moderator

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency