Scanning Velvia RVP

[dslater]

Hello all,
I have been trying to scan some 35mm Velvia 50 transparencies without much luck. I have a Nikon Coolscan V ED and my monitor is calibrated using a Datacolor Spyder PRO 3. I realize that my monitor won't give me the same saturation as the transparency on a light table does. However, I did expect it to be closer that what I am seeing. My monitor is new capable of far more saturated colors that I am seeing in these scans.

The problem is the scans come out looking washed out with very little color - certainly nothing close to how the transparencies appear on light table. Further, I don't seem to be able to get the color I'd like using post-processing in Photoshop. I've tried this using both VueScan and the NikonScan software that comes with the scanner.
When I scan, I turn off everything except DigitalICE - no ROC, GEM, or enhancer settings as I prefer to do these in Photoshop.


Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve this?

Thanks

 

[gmikol]

First question (to clarify): Are the colors just looking washed out, are there blown highlights, are there hue shifts/crossovers that are uncorrectable in PS?

Second question: Are you using a scanner ICC profile (preferably generated from a Velvia target)?

Third question: Are you applying a the scanner profile correctly? It's possible that the gamma encoding is happening twice. Have you tried taking one of your washed-out slide scans into PS, and using the levels adjustment, moving the middle slider down to around 0.5 to see if that gets you closer?

Posting an example would help others see what you're talking about.

--Greg

 

[dslater]

Hi Greg,
The colors just look washed out. The image I was working with is a sunset, so of course the sun itself is blown, but that's to be expected.
As for the ICC profile, I do not have a custom profile for velvia, However the Nikon ships a standard profile for the scanner that is attached to the resulting TIFF file.
I'll try playing with the slider in photoshop as you suggested.

I didn't post an example because the scanned image by itself doesn't look that bad - just doesn't capture the colors I see looking at the slide on the light table.

I'm quite sure the problem here is user error/inexperience. If you could make some suggestions for settings in my scanner software I'd appreciate it. When I go home tonight, I'll try it again and maybe take a screen shot of my settings.

 

[gmikol]

What luminance do you have your monitor set to?

--Greg

 

[dslater]

My monitor doesn't have a luminance adjustment. However, I don't really think my monitor is the problem because all my digital images from my D300 look fine. Actually, I just tried a different image on some Fuji RDP III and it looks much better. It's entirely possible the original image I was working with isn't really suitable for scanning.

As far as settings go, In the Nikon Scan preferences is a Color Management option to use Nikon Color Management System. Would you recommend turning this on or off?

 

[gmikol]

I'm afraid I can't help with Nikon Scan, as I use Vuescan. I'm sure someone else around here can help with that...

--Greg

 

[dslater]

WEll - actually I think it may have been the image I was using. Just tried again with a different image with much better results.