[filmscanners] Re: [filmscanners_Digest] filmscanners Digestfor Sun 22 Feb, 2004
Howard Grill wrote: Petru...Thanks for your response. I looked at your Black and White sample from your website..though I have to admit I looked at it in the web browser as opposed to in Photoshop. This comment was about the color photos, so don't worry about it. While it looks to me that Neat Image did a nice job removing grain it also looked to me like there was also a loss in image sharpness in the eyes and hair. That's why I said that this image is not the best of the best. If I recall, this was the first time I used NeatImage. It is possible to fine tune the filter settings for high frequency (high detail) areas and if you're careful you can get very good results. For pathological cases I suppose you could do a selection in Photoshop and apply the NeatImage filter with different settings on this selection and on the rest of the image. I am not sure if those images were already sharpened or not. No, they weren't. What do you think, having printed them? I've only printed it in 8x10. Grain-wise the image looks very smooth. I believe that you can get a demo version of NeatImage and experiment with it. Have fun! P. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: Grain In scanned 35mm film
Howard Grill wrote: How effective are products like Grain Surgery, Neat Image and Noise Ninja at removing what appears to be film grain after sharpening images scanned at 4000 ppi. So far my experience with Neat Image has been very good. For an example see the paragraph that talks about bw scans on my web page: http://www.geocities.com/petru2/scanner/ Note that this sample is not the best of the best but it should give you an idea. BTW, I think that the NeatImage filter should be applied before sharpening the image. I'm not 100% sure about this but I think I read this in the user manual. My 35mm film is scanned on a Polaroid SS4000 Plus and taken on Velvia and Provia...so the film is fine grained. But I still find the grain I see after scanning and processing as objectionable when I am making large inkjet prints to 13x19 inches. Wow, I find my SS4000 Provia 400 scans to be very smooth compared to my negative scans. I wonder how you will like the grain from samples above :) Regards, Petru. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: SS 4000 Questions
Brad Davis wrote: type of carrier is also determined by an optical system - well, my unit often seems to lose track of the type of carrier, especially if it is the negative carrier. It then reverts to the setup for the transparency carrier. I have the same problem and I use Vuescan. In my case it was enough to eject and reinsert the carrier. I am still waiting for an affordable unit that improves on the Polaroid . That unit is called Canon 10D. Just kidding, of course ... Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: SS 4000 Questions
Les Berkley wrote: Hi! First, does the lamp have an auto shut off feature, Not sure. Both Vuescan and Polaroid's scanning software have a setting called auto lamp shut off but it seems to have no effect with my unit. Second, are these things somewhat noisy? Specifically, during scans it sounds as though the Twin Dwarves of Enfan Island were calling up Mothra. Ooh-ee, ah-woo... Do they all do this? Yep, so does mine. Thirdly, it seems to require a bit of force to get the carrier to slide in and engage. Same thing here. Lastly, is there a way to shut the front door to keep out dust? Don't think so. I use a shoe box as a cover for the whole unit. Enjoy your new scanner! P. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: TMAX 3200 scanning
David J. Littleboy wrote: 4000 dpi scans of BW silver film can be pretty ugly (accentuated grain and dust), I've had very poor results scanning TMax 400 and Ilford Delta 400 with my SS4000. Terrible grain so NeatImage was a must. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: Vuescan vs Insight: what is better about Vuescan? (was 24 bit vs more)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: For the SS4000: I have tried many times to use the Vuescan software rather than Insight but I keep returning to Insight. First, I find Insight significantly faster than Vuescan. Second, I find the controls in Insight to be just easier to use. I still have Vuescan on my computer and am interested in continuing to learn it. I am interested, though, to understand exactly what Vuescan does better in the hands of others. I can't see that it focuses any better. I don't get more accurate color rendition. I can't see that it handles shadow areas any better. Or I could ask the question this way: are there any specific image types or image characteristics that Vuescan handles better? Are you scanning negatives or slides? Last I checked the slide results were fairly comparable but the negatives were a lot easier to scan with VueScan. Also, I found Insight to be fairly simplistic so I'm using VueScan. Regarding the speed: I think it depends a lot on the focusing option (off/preview/scan) you're using. To be fair, I still am using version 7.5.41. Does the latest 7.6.XX offer significantly more features or functionality? I got the last free upgrade before Ed started charging again. If 7.5.x didn't convince you, I doubt 7.6 will :) Why can't you get the 7.6.x version? Regards, Petru. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: active archives?
wes wrote: the archives at http://phi.res.cse.dmu.ac.uk/Filmscan/ are out of date. i'm curious if anyone else is maintaining archives. i'd like to read up on reviews of filmscanners that have been discussed on the list. thanks! http://www.mail-archive.com/filmscanners%40halftone.co.uk/ Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: Silverfast NegaFix combed histograms?
Tony Sleep wrote: One has to wonder if Silverfast could be cheating here, processing internally in 8 bits, but reading and outputting a 16 bit file. Polaroid Insight used to do this. This is so bizarre! If I scan in AI in 48bit HDR color (raw) mode at 4000dpi and then scan the resulting file in HDR in 48bit color mode at 4000dpi = comb histo. If I scan from the same file in HDR at 1600, 3200, 3999 or 4001dpi (!) = ok. If I scan in AI in 48bit color mode at 4000dpi I once again get a bad histo, but if I scan at 3200dpi = ok. BTW, the histograms produced by Vuescan are much smoother and uncompressed. E.g.: a washed out pale blue sky (according to Vuescan) is rendered as white by Silverfast. Petru. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: VueScan vs. SilverFast with negs
Tomek Zakrzewski wrote: I know VueScan quite well, I use it with my Agfa Arcus 1200 flatbed scanner, I I appreciate many of it's qualities, I can even live with its user interface :-) But putting UI aside, I'm most interested in the capabilities of those programmes in delivering good scans from negatives. As I haven't tried VS in this respect I can't judge how it works. Does anybody have experience with both VS and SF+NegaFix in scanning color negs? Are the profiles in NegaFix superior to VS's profiles? I'm using SF frequently with my Polaroid SS4000 and I have also used the trial version of VueScan for comparison. - SF is pretty good but I'm not impressed by Negafix. For example it screwed up big time on a Fuji NPS 160 scan - I had to use the generic profile (and that was acceptable). Also, on several occasions it produced a combed histogram which looked really weird. - SF's interface is a nightmare. I'm a software engineer myself so I think I know what I'm talking about ... - Recently I have learned quite a bit about Photoshop and now I'm only using SF to get a roughly corrected scan which I'm later adjusting in PS. - VueScan - as I said I have only used it for a few times, mainly to try to compare the results with the SF scans. In general I got very flat images, even after adjusting the levels in PS the scans were still a little too flat for my taste. Many people on this list however like the results from Vuescan. Petru. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: Dimage Scan Elite II v/s Nikon Coolscan IVED
Nagaraj, Ramesh wrote: Thanks for response. Where is it available? If that's the only reason for the updgrade I would download the free Polaroid Dust and Scratch software! http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: Levels Adjustment-Scanner or Photoshop
Is there any benefit of adjusting levels, curves, color etc in the scanner software prior to the final scan as opposed to later on in Photoshop? Does adjusting it before the final scan avoid the comblike effect on the image/histogram that you would get from making the adjustment in Photoshop after the final scan. or does it make no difference when these adjustments are made? IMHO you have a higher chance to get the comb histogram if you scan in 8bit mode and make substantial adjustments both in the scanning software and in Photoshop. Also, don't forget that the scanning software doesn't have adjustment layers so all your changes will be permanent and will alter the information. Personally I make some slight adjustments in SilverFast (usually to fix the color cast) and do the rest of the work in PS on my 16bit scans. Petru. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
[filmscanners] Re: Scanning negs vs. slides
Alex, I found the best comment on the topic of slides vs negs in a photo magazine a few days ago: The negs can record many levels of light (wide input range) but the slides can capture many more tones in a narrower input range. That's why usually a well exposed slide looks very rich, very dense. When I did some informal tests with my Polaroid SS4000 I was impressed with the Provia 400F scans - very good color reproduction and low grain. My 400 speed negs weren't that spectacular. Granted, I was using consumer grade film: Kodak Max 400 and Fuji Superia 400. Petru. Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
