scanning advice

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Paul, after Bibble, ran it through PS, check levels, autocolor, if needed, also
shadows/highlights adjustment. I applied a small amount of NR to the sky.
It looks like whoever you're taking your film to have processed, isn't doing
your good work any favors. I'm seeing colors bleed from the buildings/flag
into the sky, artifacts from what might be dirty rollers and tired chems. Was
this done in Doha? Was there only briefly but a good sized town, beautiful,
like all the rest I've seen on the Gulf, and should be several places to get
this done. (?!)

This is from an expired roll of Portra 800 that Jussi sent me using the lowly
Yashica-A with the Yashicor triplet lens that Peter (peterqd) kicked sand on:

Unlike your pics, not particularly interesting, but liked how that green moss was lit up, and of course the camera is not in the same club as
your Pentacon, but an adequate job on the film processing. Scanned at 1200dpi, everything off.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Paul, I have the V700 and I've torn my hair out trying to optimise the settings in the scanner software. I now do a basic scan leaving all settings alone and do all the adjustments in PS. I curse about the blue lamp in the scanner lid. I believe the lamp in your scanner is an LED, so it might have a different temperature, but is it blue too? I used to think it was the film type having a bluish cast but slides project perfectly, so I'm now blaming the lamp. The way I deal with the blue cast is to use the middle colour dropper in Curves to select a neutral grey patch. The paving stones in your pics are ideal.

About the blue blotches in the dark areas, you mentioned you suspected the contrast settings. I agree with Marty, I'm sure you've pinpointed it there. Forget about adjusting the contrast (or anything else) in the scan preview. In Levels, I adjust the end sliders and then use the centre slider to adjust the gamma. The contrast adjustment is a little violent for me but a gentle tweak in Curves is usually all that's needed if contrast is still a little flat.

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

Thanks, guys. Thanks especially for that info Katastrofo. I've never had any involvement with professionally processed film so I don't know what to look for. It's a real bummer to hear that the lab is screwing up the basic work, though the fact that I have a complete set of fingerprints from the entire staff there was a bit of a hint in that direction. Unfortunately, there aren't any pro studios here that I know of shooting film, so the only processing facilities are high-street minilabs. I did ask Qatar Photographic Society, but apparently when they moved their premises a couple of years back they didn't bother installing a darkroom because serious photographers all use digital now (less than five years ago their annual competition banned digital captures - unfortunately, the traditionalist who led the society, Sheikh Mohammed, stole $200,000,000 from the Emir which caused him to fall out of favour and lose all his posts).

So, it's Peak Imaging or DIY, I guess.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

Ah ha! Good to hear those spots are on the neg, that the V500 scanned what was there, rather than scanner noise. A look at the neg through a low power microscope would've revealed that. Edmund Optics has an excellent low-cost shirt-pocket microscope, available in 25x or 50x versions for $18 or $19 (US) respectively. Stock numbers R31-853 and R34-609.

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

Actually, I think it is rather the reverse. That the excessive tonal range has caused scanner artifacts to appear. The development problem is apparent in the sky and elsewhere, though better development might have given a more usable neg (PS: I have checked the neg under magnification and I can't see any blotches in the shadow areas).

lulalake · Expire: 2011-11-18

I copied and blew it up a bit and it looks like chroma noise to me.

Possible canning artifact.

You might consider having the neg scanned with different scanners, different software etc.

Jules

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

link to MF Imacon Flextight scan with similar 'noise'

John Poirier · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 5:53 pm Post subject: Re: scanning advice

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

John Poirier · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:50 pm Post subject: Re: scanning advice

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04