Re: Making scans of color negatives [was: Is there a profile with
Re: Making scans of color negatives [was: Is there a profile with
- Subject: Re: Making scans of color negatives [was: Is there a profile with
- From: MARK SEGAL <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:59:06 -0700 (PDT)
Basically yes - I would select the colour working space which gives me the widest gamut I need relative to the output purpose of the image. Because I am purposing my files to an Epson 3800 with Ilford Gold Fibre Silk paper, some of the gamut overspills RGB(98) so I use ProPhoto.
To address an earlier part of this discussion, there is a workflow in Photoshop which does a reasonable job of creaing a usable positive, and one can automate it to a certain extent, but it will still not meet the hopes and expectations of the OP in respect of automation from "A to Z". It is this:
1. Scan a portion of the filmstrip which holds half of two adjoining negatives and the space between them in 16-bit per channel as a positive, and set the scanner to open the image in Photoshop once scanned.
2. Create a duplicate image layer (CTRL/CMD J) and name it "Demask"
3. Invert it. (CTRL/CMD I)
4. Add a Curves Adjustment Layer clipped to the DeMask layer.
5. Select the Black eyedropper and click it on the unexposed strip between the two images. This removes the orange mask.
6. Save the resulting Curves structure as a DeMask Preset useful on all other negatives of the same film stock.
7. Load your images the normal way into the scan frame and scan them. Then run Steps 2, 3 and 4 but this time using the DeMask Curve Preset. and skip to step 8 below The image will not be 100% the way you like it yet.
8. Add another Curves Adjustment Layer for making final colour and luminosity adjustments. These will be image specific. For example, there may be a residual colour cast you need to remove by moderately shifting one of the RGB Curves, and you will almost always want to be adding contrast using the composite curve, and perhaps a bit of Vibrance or Saturation using those adjustment layers.
9. If you find that there is a persistent and systematic colour cast emerging from step 5, you can build the appropriate RGB Curve shift into Step 5 and resave the Preset.
10. You can build an Action for doing everything from steps 2 until the second Curves Adjustment Layer is opened for your use in step 8. But from then on, it's manual.
Having been through all of this and seen it work acceptably well, I buy Chris Protopapas' suggestion that letting Silverfast do all this in one set-up is more efficient and will produce more consistently better results.
Mark
________________________________
From: Chris Protopapas <email@hidden>
To: email@hidden
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 10:15:06 AM
Subject: Re: Making scans of color negatives [was: Is there a profile with
Marco Ugolini wrote:
>I agree that starting off by scanning a color negative as positive (and
always in 16 bits!) is a good way to do it. I have done it that way
myself, with more-than-decent results.
>But one thing is left untouched in Lyons' otherwise good tutorial: which
RGB color space (ICC profile) should one assign to the scan?
>That is not a trivial question, since it affects both the tonal
distribution and the color gamut of the resulting image.
>It's a step for which I myself have not yet found a completely
satisfactory formula. I would be curious to see how others tackle this
specific challenge (the one of determining which RGB profile to assign to
the positive scan of a color negative).<
The answer is simple. Assign your positive (transparency) profile and
convert to Adobe1998 (or whatever your taste is).
After all, you're just as concerned about reproducing accurate color in this
workflow as in the positive workflow, it's just that you will take it one
step further and invert it.
In my professional opinion, Silverfast is the way to go, provided your
scanner is supported. My Nikon LS9000 is, so I use that for scanning color
negatives. Lucky owners of a Tango or Hell s3400 can use it as well, but my
Hell s3900 is not supported, so I use the positive method when I need very
high resolutions.
Chris Protopapas
FUEL DIGITAL
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