Epson V500 - Scanning 120 Films

Hello All

Today I purchased a new scanner the Epson V500. I have been trying to scan my 120 (B&W) films using this scanner but I seem to be having some problems and I can get the hang of it. Right now im in the Professional Mode and this is my setting

Document Type; Film
Film Type: Black & white Negative
Image Type: 24 Bit-Color
Resolution: 2400 Dpi
Document Size: W 2.08, H 1.39
Target Size: Original

When I check the thumbnail box I can see my negatives but they are cropped and half the picture is missing. I tried displacing the film but still its all cropped. Any ideas what I should do? Am I doing anything wrong here?

Also do I check the Unsharp Mask, Grain Reduction, Color Restoration, and Backlight Correction?

Do i use the same setting for color negatives?

Thank You

You might want to check to make sure your target size and output size settings are really what you desire.

As far as the other issue, it sounds like the common problem where autocropping guesses wrong, so you need to manually crop. You can set up a batch of manual crops to be more efficient. I put up some notes here:

http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/batchscanning.html

Doug

2400 DPI with 24 Bit-Color. I may be way off base but that sounds like a huge file. Try 300 dpi and see if it makes a full negative scan. Could it be your PC is not able to save a file that large?

if you scan the entire negative holder area @ 2400 that is a hugh file. Try unchecking thumbnail and then do preview and then using the marquee to select what you really want to scan at 2400. After that then recheck thumbnail and the preview . Things should be okay. Also make sure the negative carrier has its calibration markings where they should be on the scanner bed....

I have seen the problem Robland is referring to where Windows can't display an image file properly when it gets to about 0.5Gb but as your Target file set to Original (and that's only 2.08 x 1.39 - inches I assume) this should be quite a small file. I agree with Doug that this sound's like an Auto Cropping problem in the software.

Actually, what size film are you scanning as that size is about 5.3cm x 3.4cm?

As for the other options you mention:

Unsharp Mask - Sharpen in Photoshop at the end of your workflow rather than in the scanner software. Photoshop gives more control and in any event the scanner software sharpening will either be lost in processing or more likely turn into artifacts.

Grain Reduction - Why get rid of it, that's one of the best things about B&W

Color Restoration - Your scanning B&W aren't you?

Backlight Correction - I would have thought there was sufficient latitude in most good B&W films not to bother with this. In any event you can use the Shadow & Highlights option in Photoshop CS2 or above to do the same thing with more control.

Scan in 3200 dpi with low sharpening, 16-bit greyscale (or 48-bit colour for colour) and for colour tick the Digital ICE on quality.

Then pull down to 1800-2200 dpi in Photoshop with bicubic sharper, this is what I do with my V500, works well, the sharpening (although roughens up the image a bit when looking @ 3200) seems to work better than trying to do it in photoshop, you can then apply your own little amount of sharpening if required, 20-40% 0.8-1.6px radius depending upon how large of an area high contrast object edges fade off into.

Uncheck preview and make your own crop, check out the autolevels and make sure its not clipping any shadows and highlights you can always do your own levels in photoshop.

Hi

Athiril said:

Scan in 3200 dpi with low sharpening, 16-bit greyscale (or 48-bit colour for colour) and for colour tick the Digital ICE on quality.

Then pull down to 1800-2200 dpi in Photoshop with bicubic sharper, ....

Click to expand...

this is pretty much what I do too ... scanning black and white in colour is not going to yeild your sharpest results. I suggest that you try scanning a 1cm x 1cm area (around) and then in Photoshop split the channels ... I think you'll find that the green channel is better. I've found that when scanning as "grey scale" the result is essentially that of using the green channel.

Some of my findings are here.

Also people seem to get confused as heck about scanning dpi and photoshops document DPI ... setting 3200dpi on the scanner is different to saying "A4 at 300dpi" I doubt that many PC's have any trouble opening a 3200dpi 16 bit greyscale image if less than 5 years old.

Is the film 6x6?

When I scan 6x7 negatives it works fine every time but when I scan my 6x6 negatives it works right, but some times and gets half one frame and half of the the next frame? Is that what is happening to you?
I like you have tried moving the film back and forth in the holder but it doesn't seem to matter. It happened to me last night. Scanning a roll of 120 shot in a 6x6 format camera. The first 4 or 5 scanned fine, two images per scan, then it started to get part of one image and part of another.

I've owned an Epson 3170 for over 5 years, and recently bought a used 4990. The Epson Scan software both use has basically the same interface as the software that comes with the V500.

When I first tried scanning 6x6 negs and slides with my 3170, I tried using thumbnails, and would occasionally have problems with the software detecting the image size, and getting it all messed up. Ever since then I've left the thumbnail box unchecked. I'd just as soon crop myself.

I scan my B&W negs in 24-bit color. Why? Because sometimes I feel like playing around with things a bit in post processing, and it's possible to bring out color in subtle ways, without having to resort to the various canned tints that some image processing software has. I haven't noticed any significant difference in sharpness between scanning in color or 16-bit grayscale. Usually if I haven't added color or tint to the B&W image, I'll convert it to 16-bit in pp.

As to what options to check and uncheck, I've tried them all, scanning with and without. I prefer to have the USM checked, and this comes from processing raw DSLR files -- the more than can be done to the raw image before it's translated to a portable file format, the better. My experience has been that, while Epson Scan's USM doesn't seem to be very strong, it doesn't seem to add to grain/noise the way it does in post processing. I also check Grain Reduction usually. Again, personal preference. More often than not, I prefer fine grain over coarse. I don't use Color Restoration with B&W, even though I scan it in color. I do use CR on a case-by-case basis when scanning color slides or negs. Back Light Correction -- same thing, case-by-case basis. Often it gives a nice "pop" to an otherwise dull looking B&W image. Gotta watch out, and not blow out the highlights though. I never use Dust Removal, ever since I discovered that this "feature" actually adds crystal-looking artifacts to the scans, rendering them unusable. To be fair, I've only run into this with my 3170 and only with color slides. But they looked so awful, I've just never wanted to try it again. Maybe with a better scanner, like the 4990 or V500, or maybe with B&W this won't be as big of an issue. I don't use Digital Ice because it reduces image sharpness, and the improvements it provides are very minimal.

I scan my medium format slides and negs at 2400 dpi indicated. I find that's plenty fine enough.

Anyway, that's just what I've found works for me. YMMV and all that.

Michael

Rob

Robland said:

2400 DPI with 24 Bit-Color. I may be way off base but that sounds like a huge file. Try 300 dpi and see if it makes a full negative scan. Could it be your PC is not able to save a file that large?

Click to expand...

you are way off base

I guess you're thinking of all the confusing photoshop presentation stuff that incorporates picture size in it ...

300dpi is barely enough for a tiny print. If you scan at 300dpi and print at 180dpi you've had a x2 enlargement .. not big with 120 film

Smallest scan I bother with is 600dpi and use 1200dpi for making prints.

Assuming 6x6 cm negative 1200dpi at the scan will give you enough to make a 24 x 24 cm print.

Hi

how you goin with this?

AmirVscas said:

Also do I check the Unsharp Mask, Grain Reduction, Color Restoration, and Backlight Correction?

Do i use the same setting for color negatives?

Click to expand...

as it happens I uncheck all of them, and with colour negatives I also scan them as positive and invert them in Photoshop. The difference between scanning as negative (letting the machine do it all) and scanning as positive and treating the levels carefully is this: