Film Scanning

[haddock]

Hi,

I have started scanning some negatives on a DiMage Scan Dual IV and I wondered what settings people use to get good results. I notice that a lot of the pictures posted in the PAW from scans look somewhat better than my efforts. I know a lot of this is going to be down to the skill of the photographer (I'm a rank amateur) but I am sure some of it is down to the way people scan their negatives.

My current settings are......

Input resolution 3200dpi
Output resolution 300dpi

I don't do any exposure control in the scanning s/w, I do this in Lightroom. Nor do I do any grain disolving or sharpening.

I guess my first question is what input resolution do people use?

cheers,

Haddock

 

[sideshowbob]

What software do you use to drive your scanner? This makes a difference. Silverfast has a lot of fans, but it's quite complicated. Don't know what software the Minolta scanner uses.

I use an Epson V700 with the bundled Epson software, which is quite good. I turn of all the software image adjustments and do it in PS Elements later. I scan 35mm as 16 bit grayscale, 4800 dpi, and medium format as 16 bit grayscale, 2400 dpi (it's a much bigger neg, and this gives a good balance between resolution and file size), TIFF in both cases. I then adjust levels, clone dust, and apply a bit of USM in PS Elements, and save as 8 bit grayscale JPG (72 dpi) for the web, and 8 bit grayscale TIFF (still at either 4800 dpi or 2400 dpi) for printing.

If you do your own developing, mild underdevelopment so you have a slightly flat neg tends to give a better scan, and more scope for levels adjustment to get exactly the right result in the final image. You need to experiment a bit with this.

I have no experience scanning colour, it's probably more complicated.

-- Ian

 

[Joe P]

Ian,

I have no experience scanning colour, it's probably more complicated.

It mostly involves swearing, pulling out your hair, then buying a digital camera. But if you're persistent, you can get acceptable results.

Joe