• Open Menu Close Menu
  • Apple
  • Shopping Bag
  • Apple
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Watch
  • TV
  • Music
  • Support
  • Search apple.com
  • Shopping Bag

Lists

Open Menu Close Menu
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Lists hosted on this site
  • Email the Postmaster
  • Tips for posting to public mailing lists
Re: Black and white negative scanning
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Black and white negative scanning


  • Subject: Re: Black and white negative scanning
  • From: Chris Protopapas <email@hidden>
  • Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:38:12 -0500

Generally speaking it is impossible to profile negative scans. The reasons are fairly simple: color management, the creation of profiles, needs a fixed target to work on. Transparencies and reflective art fits that definition, but negatives generally do not. The negative, whether B&W or color, is not the final image, but merely a means to an end. Negatives will often vary enormously in exposure and contrast. This is much worse with color negatives, but B&W are subject to the same variation. In the same fashion that a printer cannot be successfully profiled if it is constantly drifting, negatives cannot be profiled, except in an extremely loose way. For example, I use my drum scanner's transparency setting to scan B&W negatives, and then assign the transparency profile (in RGB) to yield a negative image which can then be inverted to produce a positive image, but the role of the scanner profile is not essential; it's just part of my workflow. That has more to do with my 1997 drum scanner's software being unable to easily produce a positive scan than anything else. The software for an Epson scanner should be able to produce decent B&W scans. First set your black point in the DMax of the negative; that will give you a black that cannot be lighter than anything in the live image. This is very important, but you will soon notice that different negatives will yield different results. This is because there is no neccesary relationship between the unexposed film and the shadow areas of your image, unlike a properly exposed positive, where the DMax is very close to a true black in the live image. A negative can be overexposed, still be printable, but the shadow areas will have much more exposure than the DMax. This is one reason why negatives cannot be profiled; the black point is not consistent, and constistent conditions are the pre-condition for color management. Diffrences in processing, and different film stocks, will affect the contrast of the image differently, again making profiling impossible. That said, scanning B&W negatives is easier than scanning color negatives, where there are even more variables. In reference to your other questions, 16-bit is a good thing if your original scan is very flat, and you need to do major work in Photoshop. As far as grayscale profiles, I use 20% dot gain, but other profiles will work as well. It dosn't hurt to provide a tagged file to a printer.

Chris Protopapas
************
email@hidden
Fuel Digital Inc.
902 Broadway, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10010
P 212-564-4646  F 212-564-2131
www.fueldigitalinc.com





Message: 14
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:51:56 +0100
From: Ludovico Fischer <email@hidden>
Subject: Black and white negative scanning
To: ColorSync List <email@hidden>
Message-ID: <1194958316.5630.20.camel@gogo>
Content-Type: text/plain

Hello. I want to scan some black and white film negatives with a epson
v700 flatbed, for archival purpose.I imagine it would be practical to
scan them as 16 bit grayscale TIFF, as the files will be smaller and
there is no need for tinting or such effects. I am asking myself:
-is there a way to profile the scanner for such media? Given the nature
of negatives, are there benefits in doing so? Is there a benefit, for
example, in using a profile made with a IT8 target printed on reversal
film ?
- What do I use as a working space profile? I've heard about 'grayscale
icc profiles', but I can't find much information (except stuff refering
to Photoshop 5). What are these? Or do I use a profile such as AdobeRGB?
-same thing for final output. Is there a benefit in attaching an icc
profile to a grayscale image for viewing in color managed applications?
Would that be a regular color profile or one of these 'grayscale
profiles'? And if I print such an image? Do the printers expect to have
an icc profile with a grayscale image?

I'm sorry if the questions are really off the mark. Thank you,

Ludovico Fischer




This email was scanned for viruses and spam by the Barracuda Spam Firewall. _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Colorsync-users mailing list (email@hidden) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: This email sent to email@hidden
  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: Black and white negative scanning
      • From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>
  • Prev by Date: Re: printing color targets in InDesign CS3
  • Next by Date: Re: Black and white negative scanning
  • Previous by thread: RE: Black and white negative scanning
  • Next by thread: Re: Black and white negative scanning
  • Index(es):
    • Date
    • Thread