Vuescan and Epson 4490...huh?

[zsas]

)I am not the best as Vuescan but I think (I could be wrong) but when you preview your 35mm negs, and then resize, that Vuescan automagically adjusts for what it reads. For eg, if you selected the middle 20% of the neg and it was rather dark, it would bump up the brightness, automatically, but, if I extend my selection of the neg to the rest (the remaining 80%) and that area is rather bright, Vuescan will then (I think) average it all together and 'decide' what it thinks the neg should be scanned it. That works most of the time, but sometimes I want to scan the neg at, say a grade 5, and not the default grade 2 or 3 that it reads on the neg.....

So with all that said (and I could be wrong) how do I hit preview, then select how I want the neg frame scanned, and adjust the grade, as I want, and over-ride its algorithm? I think it auto adjusts based on what it reads (which for a program is prob just fine), but I want to quickly hit a 'grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4 and grade 5' preset???? See what I mean? Forgive my ignorance but I am a mostly analog and DONT want to be messing in Elements or some other outside-of-Vuescan program.....

Thoughts on how to quickly over-ride the defaults with out spending tons of time messing around with 'black points' and 'white points' and such....things that make no sense to me.....I think in grade if you will.....

Thanks all for your thoughts/help! Andy

 

[pschwart]

The short answer is you need to set the black and white points, and/or the contrast curve. It only take a few seconds, and the preview will reflect the changes.

Image->Graph b/w (or Color->Black point (%)/White point (%) )
Drag the triangles to set the black and white points using the preview as a guide.


or


Image->Graph curve (or Color->Curve low/Curve high)
Drag the triangles to alter the curve for highlights and shadows. Double click anywhere in the graph to return to the default 1/4 & 3/4 setting.

Some programs like Epson Scan have contrast presets, but I don't find these very helpful as they are not tailored for a specific image.

)I am not the best as Vuescan but I think (I could be wrong) but when you preview your 35mm negs, and then resize, that Vuescan automagically adjusts for what it reads. For eg, if you selected the middle 20% of the neg and it was rather dark, it would bump up the brightness, automatically, but, if I extend my selection of the neg to the rest (the remaining 80%) and that area is rather bright, Vuescan will then (I think) average it all together and 'decide' what it thinks the neg should be scanned it. That works most of the time, but sometimes I want to scan the neg at, say a grade 5, and not the default grade 2 or 3 that it reads on the neg.....

So with all that said (and I could be wrong) how do I hit preview, then select how I want the neg frame scanned, and adjust the grade, as I want, and over-ride its algorithm? I think it auto adjusts based on what it reads (which for a program is prob just fine), but I want to quickly hit a 'grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4 and grade 5' preset???? See what I mean? Forgive my ignorance but I am a mostly analog and DONT want to be messing in Elements or some other outside-of-Vuescan program.....

Thoughts on how to quickly over-ride the defaults with out spending tons of time messing around with 'black points' and 'white points' and such....things that make no sense to me.....I think in grade if you will.....

Thanks all for your thoughts/help! Andy

 

[zsas]

Philip - Oh my, this is intersting! Thanks so much!! Quesiton, is there any real basic 101 on how to understand the relationship between the curve and black/white point? I have read "Scanning how-to's" before and they are quite dense. I find myself tonight playing with the sliders in the "Graph B/W" and "Graph Curve" and not really knowing what I am trying to do. I see the inverse/correlated relationships, but I am missing how they all inter-relate??? Any basic advice? Or are there Vuescan standard settings for say grade 5 (eg Black Point 0, White Point 4.0, Curve low 0.2, Curve high 0.7), grade 4 (black point X, White point Y, etc., etc, etc, ).....

I guess it is dependant on the film, dev, contrast, density, etc, etc,.....just wondering if there are some 'back of the envelope' settings you all use, or do you all go thru each frame and set its points (white/black/curve low/curve high) as a frame-by-frame basis?

 

[pschwart]

go thru each frame and set its points (white/black/curve low/curve high) as a frame-by-frame basis?

Exactly -- presets are pretty useless although it can be helpful to save settings to use for a batch of negatives that were shot and processed the same. I usually set the black and white points when scanning and save curve corrections for Photoshop which has more powerful tools. A web search will turn up plenty of dissertations about tone correction when scanning. Forget paper grades. You now have much more control over image tones -- think multicontrast within a single image.

Philip - Oh my, this is intersting! Thanks so much!! Quesiton, is there any real basic 101 on how to understand the relationship between the curve and black/white point? I have read "Scanning how-to's" before and they are quite dense. I find myself tonight playing with the sliders in the "Graph B/W" and "Graph Curve" and not really knowing what I am trying to do. I see the inverse/correlated relationships, but I am missing how they all inter-relate??? Any basic advice? Or are there Vuescan standard settings for say grade 5 (eg Black Point 0, White Point 4.0, Curve low 0.2, Curve high 0.7), grade 4 (black point X, White point Y, etc., etc, etc, ).....

I guess it is dependant on the film, dev, contrast, density, etc, etc,.....just wondering if there are some 'back of the envelope' settings you all use, or do you all go thru each frame and set its points (white/black/curve low/curve high) as a frame-by-frame basis?

 

[Doug Fisher]

This recent thread will interest you:

I made the change to VueScan...

Doug