RAW and camera scanning

[madNbad]

After a few years of using a camera to digitize my negatives, it’s occurred to me there is a lot of unused information hiding in those RAW captures. Mostly, my scanning technique has been to adjust the EV over the indicated exposure giving me an image which needs little adjustment in post processing. I treat it like wet printing, where exposures and contrast are the two main tools. Part of moving to using a camera to scan was to speed up the process along with improving image quality over the Plustek 7600i. Now, I can scan a roll and convert the import in about an hour. So far, at least to me, the images look good enough for Flickr and I’m not printing anything. The conversation software is RAW Power by Gentleman Coders and offers a lot for a bargain price. I’m not looking for a wholesale change, just curious if there is any value to poking around in the RAW information. I’m appreciative of the members knowledge in this area.

 

[madNbad]

There's a chance I may have answered my own question. Picked a few images to edit, went into the RAW menu, dragged a few sliders around to see what the effect was and decided it may be worth the effort in some cases but not on a regular basis.

 

[McDiesel]

@madNbad most RAW converters apply a camera profile (DCP in Adobe-speak) instantly when you open a RAW file. A camera profile twists colors to be more "pleasing" and bends the curve towards the S-shape. If you want to poke around, see if your RAW converter allows for linear processing, i.e. generating a linear, "flat" 16-bit TIFF. That's a much better starting point for poking, exploring and learning.

 

[madNbad]

@madNbad most RAW converters apply a camera profile (DCP in Adobe-speak) instantly when you open a RAW file. A camera profile twists colors to be more "pleasing" and bends the curve towards the S-shape. If you want to poke around, see if your RAW converter allows for linear processing, i.e. generating a linear, "flat" 16-bit TIFF. That's a much better starting point for poking, exploring and learning.

Thank you for the input. Currently, I’m only scanning B&W negatives so the adjusting the RAW information has subtle effects. I have a box of Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides to tackle some day, then the adjustment should show some benefit.

 

[Alan9940]

I use NegativeLabPro in LR to convert all my camera scans. It's fast and easy to return to the plugin should I decide to tweak initial adjustments. I create a TIFF from the conversion which is then adjusted in LR/PS, if necessary.