Color Neg Scanning

[hk1]

Last night I did the best scanning of color negatives I've ever done. I tried a lot so far but always with mixed results. What I did: Nikon 5000ED with Vuescan. I used the "advanced workflow" described on the Vuescan website but the trick was to save the raw file with film base as 64bit tif. This gives a positive tif file, so it is not exactly raw, and it looks horrible. I then open this "raw tif" in Photoshop Elements and apply "Auto Levels". That's it. Before "auto levels" I could apply vignetting correction via lens correction as an optional step.

The result was really stunning. Nothing I could get with Nikon Scan or Vuescan proper. I'll have to further experiment how sensitive this method is to Vuecan settings. Before I tried all sorts of Vuescan settings to get something sensible out of it and while I did it was still miles behind from this simple Photoshop method. And Vuescan in batch mode is much faster than Nikon Scan but Nikon Scan is more accurate in finding the frames.

 

[WilmarcoImaging]

hk1, thanks for the post. This is consistent with the experience of many who ascribe to a workflow where scanning software is taken out of the image editing path, to the greatest extent possible. A line of thinking with this, is to use the scanner as a data capture device only, and to use a proper postprocessing (PS or similar) software to realize the final image.

 

[Les Sarile]

Last night I did the best scanning of color negatives I've ever done.

Congratulations.
That is how I felt when I first acquired the Coolscan 5000 when it first came out in early 2000. Over 45,000 frames scanned with 5000 & 9000 later, I am still happy with the results.

 

[philipus]

Congratulations, it is always satisfying to advance up the scanning learning curve. When I use my Coolscans I also use Vuescan and also ColorPerfect but I'd certainly be interested in seeing an example of your workflow.
br
Philip

Last night I did the best scanning of color negatives I've ever done. I tried a lot so far but always with mixed results. What I did: Nikon 5000ED with Vuescan. I used the "advanced workflow" described on the Vuescan website but the trick was to save the raw file with film base as 64bit tif. This gives a positive tif file, so it is not exactly raw, and it looks horrible. I then open this "raw tif" in Photoshop Elements and apply "Auto Levels". That's it. Before "auto levels" I could apply vignetting correction via lens correction as an optional step.

The result was really stunning. Nothing I could get with Nikon Scan or Vuescan proper. I'll have to further experiment how sensitive this method is to Vuecan settings. Before I tried all sorts of Vuescan settings to get something sensible out of it and while I did it was still miles behind from this simple Photoshop method. And Vuescan in batch mode is much faster than Nikon Scan but Nikon Scan is more accurate in finding the frames.