Improving scanning skills

[stradibarrius]

I have an Epson V500 with CS3 and a windows 7 machine.
I typically scan my B&W negs. With B&W negatives, 16 bit grayscale and 1200 dpi.
No ICE or any of the other "clean up " setting except for unsharp mask.

I have had good results but would like to know if there are some other "tricks" I could try that would improve my scans????

 

[Loris Medici]

See pellicle's articles...

I personally scan B&W negs in color transparency mode and then use the channel mixer in PS (monochrome mode, selecting which channels are going to be included and how much) and then convert them into grayscale. That makes sense especially with pyro developed negatives. I do all necessary tonal adjustments in PS. The scanner program is only used for capturing as much as possible raw data.

 

[stradibarrius]

That is what I am trying to do is import as much "useful data" as possible from my scans. Of course I can increase the resolution and make the file huge but do that help me???
Does scanning in color opposed to grayscale give me a better scan?
What is the optimum scan resolution?

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I've found that scanning in greyscale is essentially scanning in colour and discarding the greyscale data for red and blue channel. Since the Epsons have trouble with registration of R G and B (see here) that one would not wish to keep them when scanning black and white negs as they will detract from the image quality you can get.

be careful when setting your black and white points in your scans and be a little generous, extending a bit past where you valid picture information exists. Then apply curves.

I use this approach when scanning in colour on all my machines, so in black and white one just applies this to a greyscale which means essentially less work.

I have recently thought of some ideas for a more complete black and white negative scan tutorial so I'll put that up some time next week.

 

[pellicle]

Ok ... I've put that "method tutorial" together ...

http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2010/02/black-and-white-neg-scanning.html

As always I would be grateful if folks who have more experience than me would cast they're eye over that and make any criticism of methods or false assumptions I've made

thanks

 

[Bob Carnie]

good article-

for scanning I do not like to sharpen at this stage *specifically in RGB, I am not sure your method on this. I also am very generous with the end points hoping to get as much information as possible, I also am a bit tighter on my marquee to the image , (i try to set the borders to the black rebate with no white showing).*this maybe causing the big white spike at the right)
for Black and White negatives I use 16 bit greyscale(no sharpening),
as recommended for Pyro negatives I have used RGB 16 bit, and played with the XP2 settings for a starting point*higher d min point* this seems to work well with some but not all negs. Then convert with channels in PS.
I have met scanner operators who sharpen at scan stage and may have their own reasons for doing so . I feel that if the colour is not perfect in the scan which is almost always the case then sharpening only enhances an imbalance. This may cause some debate, but I recommend no sharpening at the scanning stage, *unless you are going from scan to application immediately with no stops in an editing software program*

Colour
I will white balance or multiple step nuetralize an image before applying any input sharpening.
I also use a digital colour meter which is in your apps on a Mac during the scanning stage. I set it to LAB numbers and is extremely helpful at the scanning stage.
It reads exactly the same as your info palette in PS and if you like using RGB numbers you can set it to that as well.
We have this meter on all computers and while scanning just after preview I will use this meter to look at my colours , and my grey , white and black points.
I find the tools on most software programs supplied with scanners to be very clumsy and by using this meter I can decide if I should change any settings before I commit to the scan button.

This tool is extremely helpful in any software application , If you understand the numbers and use them then a quick check can be done on any image in Bridge, Lightroom, Apeture before you bring it into PS for editing.
Its like a constant companion validating what each colour , density, ect is and is training you all the time to evaluate density and colour.

Ok ... I've put that "method tutorial" together ...

http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2010/02/black-and-white-neg-scanning.html

As always I would be grateful if folks who have more experience than me would cast they're eye over that and make any criticism of methods or false assumptions I've made

thanks

 

[pellicle]

Bob

thanks for all your additions. I'm also doing some of that (although didn't mention it in my blog posts for the sake of brevity).

for scanning I do not like to sharpen at this stage *specifically in RGB, I am not sure your method on this

same, I do some "wide area" sharpening in (70 pixel radius) but that is for a different purpose.

I didn't make a point of it because I don't do it there.

Except as stated above, I normally sharpen much later in the chain only when I know my resize and output destination. I thought there's plenty written about sharpening (Bruce Williams, bless his soul, left some good advices in that area)

I also am a bit tighter on my marquee to the image , (i try to set the borders to the black rebate with no white showing).*this maybe causing the big white spike at the right)

sure, it was deliberately left there to make the explanation of what I was doing more clear .. perhaps it did not do this?

Normally I make measurements of my black and white points with some film stock when I'm starting to use that. I should have mentioned (but was trying to keep it generic) this was done using ADOX CMS sheet (my current favorite flavour, might dip into TMX again soon)

for Black and White negatives I use 16 bit greyscale(no sharpening),

absolutely I'll add that to the article now, as that's a must as I never scan in in anything else I assumed wrongly.

I feel that if the colour is not perfect in the scan which is almost always the case then sharpening only enhances an imbalance.

yes, I have the pet theory that much of what we call "grain" is actually noise which is variant across the channels. I keep it in check better by generous leeway on the scan and application of curves to suppress rather than stamping out with levels (which introduces its own issues)

This may cause some debate, but

love the stuff .... (debate that is)

I find the tools on most software programs supplied with scanners to be very clumsy and by using this meter I can decide if I should change any settings before I commit to the scan button.

totally ... which is part of the reason why I've been exploring this alternative methodology over the years. I gather you spotted my colour workflow above?

This tool is extremely helpful in any software application , If you understand the numbers and use them then a quick check can be done on any image in Bridge, Lightroom, Apeture before you bring it into PS for editing.
Its like a constant companion validating what each colour , density, ect is and is training you all the time to evaluate density and colour.

nice pointer there ... I have been slack and remained mainly visual there, but I'm sure that if I incorporate that into what I'm doing it will only improve things.

been nice chatting, and thanks for your inputs