Nikon Scan daylight to tungsten settings suggestions

bottlegardener · Oct 11, 2020

Hi all,

I'm trying to scan a roll of Portra 400 that was shot under slightly dimmed hot lights (so quite warm). With a flat or automatic scan using Nikon Scan on a Coolscan V ED I'm harsh yellow blown out highlights.

I'm a bit clueless on the technical side of colour temperature, I was just wondering if anyone could suggest some starter settings? I'm guessing I'd need to use of the analog gain sliders.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

reddesert · Oct 11, 2020

I haven't used Nikon Scan in years due to OS issues, but generally one would address this first by using the adjustments in the color balance section of the "tool chest" before touching the analog gain. See the manual for the location of the color balance section (should be near crop, curves, etc).

bottlegardener · Oct 11, 2020

Thanks! I'll try that out.

Les Sarile · Oct 12, 2020

I continue to use Nikonscan still.
So with only auto focus and exposure enabled - all other settings off or neutral, you are blowing out highlights? In that case, adjust Analog Gain Master slider towards the minus side till you minimize the blownout highlights. If these settings will apply to the rest of the roll, you can save that setting for convenient recall to apply to other strips/frames of film that may need it.

If you need more help, maybe seeing your results can lead to more appropriate recommendations.

bottlegardener · Oct 13, 2020

Les Sarile said:
I continue to use Nikonscan still.
So with only auto focus and exposure enabled - all other settings off or neutral, you are blowing out highlights? In that case, adjust Analog Gain Master slider towards the minus side till you minimize the blownout highlights. If these settings will apply to the rest of the roll, you can save that setting for convenient recall to apply to other strips/frames of film that may need it.

If you need more help, maybe seeing your results can lead to more appropriate recommendations.

Thank you very much. The first 100% crop shows what Nikon scan gave me with autoexposure, autofocus, and ICE (which is unfortunately necessary as the whole roll was scratched). The second is from my Primefilm XA (which I hope to sell if I get this Nikon figured out) using Silverfast (with Infrared cleaning).

Les Sarile · Oct 14, 2020

What about the Coolscan + Nikonscan that you need to figure out?

bottlegardener · Oct 15, 2020

Les Sarile said:
What about the Coolscan + Nikonscan that you need to figure out?

I'm just trying to get more normal skin tones. I'm not sure if I'm interpreting the scans correctly but the Coolscan/Nikon Scan one has harsh blotchy yellow areas on skin tones that I'm taking to be red channel clipping. When I put the Red, Green, and Blue midtone level sliders all the way to the left in Photoshop all that remains are the yellow patches. The negatives are a bit tricky because no blue filter was used correct the color temperature.

Nikon Scan daylight to tungsten settings suggestions

bottlegardener

reddesert

bottlegardener

Les Sarile

bottlegardener

Les Sarile

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