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[OM] Re: Help! what can I do?

Subject: [OM] Re: Help! what can I do?
From: Jan Steinman <Jan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 11:24:54 -0800
>From: Mike <watershed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>Just dug out some old slides to scan and the results really stink.
>Scanner is the HP PhotoSmart and film is an old experiment (and mistake)
>with Seattle Film Works.

First off, the HP PhotoSmart is not a wonderful scanner. As an inexpensive 
compromise that will do both prints and slides, it's okay with optimal 
material, but "salvage jobs" demand more than a ~$400 scanner can deliver.

Second off, did you get negatives, too? If so, scan those. I believe SFW was 
neg film, which was contact printed on itself to make slides. If so, your 
slides are "second generation" and inferior to the negs. I have some such film 
from Dale Labs that the slides were unusable, but the negs resulted in images 
good enough to sell. These are from that sort of film:

  <http://www.bytesmiths.com/Art_Gallery/794835.html>
  <http://www.bytesmiths.com/Art_Gallery/783027.html>
  <http://www.bytesmiths.com/Art_Gallery/795034.html>

These make nice 4"x6" prints, 8"x10" starts to go soft, although the last one 
has been sold as large as 16"x20". Before digital processing, they were pale 
and washed-out. I spent tens of hours salvaging them.

>Remember what
>a great idea it was to have both prints _and_  slides? Gheez! What a
>sucker I was.

Yea, I made the same mistake. You can't turn them into Kodachromes via digital 
magic, but you CAN salvage something useful from them.

First, if it is very important to you, pay to have the scan done on a better 
scanner. (Or go buy a better film-only scanner -- expect to pay at least $1000 
for a decent one.) You need lots of dynamic range and low noise to salvage bad 
film.

Then you need to "normalize" the data. When you look at the histograms, you 
will see big gaps on both ends, and worse yet, these gaps will not line up in 
the three colors.

You can try the various "auto" corrections first: auto contrast will not 
introduce color shifts, auto levels will tend to correct existing color shifts.

Then touch-up using curves, re-size, sharpen, and print. Good luck!

-- 
: Jan Steinman -- nature Transography(TM): <http://www.Bytesmiths.com>
: Bytesmiths -- artists' services: <http://www.Bytesmiths.com/Services>
: Buy My Step Van! <http://www.Bytesmiths.com/van>

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