V700 scanner first color negative scans

[Yebisu]

I tried scanning color negatives for the first time. Here are my scans compared to the local camera shop (Kitamura Camera for those on here who live in Japan.)

First are my scans with the V700 (with some work in photoshop)







Now the camera shop scans






What do you think? Any advice would be much appreciated, particuarly about how and when to sharpen.

Thanks for looking

[Esox lucius]

Can you provide links to original size images? It's hard to tell from these as sharpening should be checked at 100%

This is 135 film I guess? Has the photostore scanner software scanning process (or yours) been calibrated with target slides for this specific film type? Do you have a 5000K light table where you can check the tones what they originally were with the film? Or do you look for a color-corrected look?

So many ways how to go wrong - scanning is a complex workflow process in which one link in the chain can ruin results.

[berraneck]

in this size and on my LCD - your scans look much better. sharpness is slightly better, but colours look much more natural - besides that "carrot" tone of red in the lab scans

[Yebisu]

Thanks guys.

Esox, it is 135 film (Kodak Gold 100). I don't know about the photostore but I haven't calibrated the scanner for the particular brand of film. I'm fairly pleased with the colours of the v700 scan.

This is the original v700 scan (focus is on the family group). I used medium level sharpening in Epson scan. No work in photoshop. BTW, is it better to make adjustments to curves and levels in Epson Scan or in Photoshop afterward?



Thanks again

[Attila]

I use default settings in Epson software and scan pictures into .tiff , if need any adjustment easier to make in photo editing software than in Epson Software to me.

[koji]

I do the same way Attila does, even I will develope these TIFF files
into Jpeg file just like Digital RAW files into Jpeg files. You can correct
some white balance and more.

Btw, your colour of Torii looks real to me. Your scanned photos are
much better than shop's CD scan.

[cooltouch]

Yebisu, the scans from the Epson are clearly better than those from the camera shop. In the second photo, look at the faces of the group of people whose picture is being taken. In the camera shop's photo, their faces are a bit washed out -- as if a flash was being used and set too strong. Then look at the faces from the V700 and you can see that there is more detail and the overall shading and warmth is much better.

As for tweaking an image, I also usually do as Attila suggests, although sometimes I will play around with the histogram in Epson Scan. Also, the USM in Epson Scan works pretty well and does not significantly add to the noise/grain. And I've found that EpsonScan's color correction feature works very well. If you have to scan any old slides or negatives and the color doesn't look right, use this feature, and you may be surprised how well it works.

[berraneck]

when I was using Epson V700, my setup for scanning was raw scanning in Vuescan and then corrections in Photoshop

[Yebisu]

Thanks everyone.

It's really useful to know how your scanning workflows.