----- Original Message ----- From: Julian Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2002 11:52 PM Subject: [filmscanners] Re: Tips needed on difficult scan
Being endlessly interested in contrast taming, I just tried this but obviously I am missing something because I can't get it to work. I certainly don't understand how it works, mostly because I don't know what "screen" does :( Is the technique assuming the dark or light image on top, or doesn't it matter? It does remind me though of the other semi-automatic way of improving high contrast images which works quite well, although if overused gives some strange effects on the light-dark transitions and at the edge of image. Contrast masking... - Image needs to be in 8-bit which is a shame. - duplicate it into a second layer - desaturate top layer and invert (make it a negative of itself) - select OVERLAY as mode - gaussian blur this top layer to 20-70pixels until you get the best effect - reduce the effect if necessary by reducing transparency of top layer Julian I love this technique for contrasty chromes (never need it for negs with Vuescan), but I question the need for the gaussian blur part. The digital "contrast mask" is an exact pixel for pixel overlay, and old school film contrast masks were made "out of focus" to compensate for dimensional instability between film and mask layers.... not an issue with digital. So another way to do this is no blur and much lower transparency on CRM layer. 20 to 40 percent is all you can do without a blur, but IMO looks better than using blur. The contrast reducing effect moves faster but with more precision in final result. Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body