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[OM] I feel like a moron

Subject: [OM] I feel like a moron
From: AG Schnozz <agschnozz@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:19:11 -0800 (PST)
Last night I FINALLY got the Coolscan V-ED figured out for scanning
negative film.  Yes, I had it working before, and quite well, but
something was never quite right and I had to PP the images to get
them correct.  I also had to manually adjust the exposure on the
scanner to get the histogram to land correctly too.

I loaded up the latest/greatest version of VueScan and pulled out a
favorite roll of Portra 160VC from a senior portrait session and
tried it out.  Hmm... What's that?  I see some details I haven't seen
before.  But, man-o-man, those color tones still aren't right. 
Vuescan is great for slides, but for strips of negs it's really a
pain to use as it doesn't autoalign.  I've got nine rolls of film to
scan this week and I'd like to streamline things a little.

Ok, back to the Nikon Scan software.  Load the strip, preview the
first frame.  Yuck, the tones and colors are gutwrench AGAIN.  Just
like usual.  I reload my settings and it corrects it back to my
normal blahness.  It's not BAD mind you, just not good.  I step
through the various settings boxes and see that I have the scanner
doing an exposure compensation during the scan.  Uh oh.  Zero that
puppy and try again.

Better, but still not quite good enough.  Eh?  What's this setting? 
Hmm.  I make a few more adjustments, save the settings and eject the
film.  Uh oh, it reverts back to my bad settings again.  20 minutes
later I finally have my new settings locked in.  Reload the strip of
negatives and for some reason the thumbnails look PERFECT.  Excuse
me?  We're not talking OK, but OUTSTANDING.  Hmmm.  Let's try a
preview.  Wow!  The final lab prints never looked that good.  Let's
scan the strip.  I click-select all the thumbnails and press scan.

A few minutes later the strip is all scanned in and I open the images
up in Photoshop.  Yuck, grain.  That's easy to whack in Noiseware or
even the noise-reduction algorithm in Photoshop.

So far, with absolutely no human intervention the pictures have
already superceded the best hand-manipulated lab prints done on these
images. (I've got them in my portfolio).  This has me thinking about
how much I've learned about image manipulation these past couple of
years so I start experimenting.

I'm sorry I don't have them ready at the moment for you to see, but
the resulting images are unlike ANYTHING I've seen from a digital
camera.  There is a depth, warmth and multidimensionalness there
which I've never seen to this extent.  We talk about 3D
qualities--well, this had it.  And the skintones were beyond lovely.

So, back to my subject line... I feel like a moron for two reasons. 
First of all, it took me an entire year to figure out what I was
doing wrong with the scanner, but in my defence, it wasn't anything
obvious--in fact the instructions were wrong and the software does
fight you.  Secondly, I've fallen in love with film all over again. 
Digital is better for so many reasons, but film still is usable and
even desirable.

I'm finding some settings now with the scanner that allows me to
batch scan quickly and easily while nailing the exposures every time.
I loaded up other types of film, including the elcheepo Fuji 100 film
and it adapted instantly and perfectly each and every time.  Even for
the rolls which were heat fogged.

Portra 160NC and the E-1 images are essentially interchangeable.  The
Olympus skintones are slightly more pink, but the dynamic range and
color response is pretty much a match.  Portra 160VC with my new
scanner settings takes it to another level, though.  I have no clue,
whatsoever, how to get digital to match it.  A few thoughts are
crossing my mind, but we're talking "jump off the paper" color depth.

So, I need to make a few more adjustments to the Nikon Scan software
to best match the scan to my workflow.  I think I can get things sped
up a little more and also reduce the grain some.  Even if I can't,
the speed of input is still adequate enough for wedding and portrait
work.  With the thumbnails and previews you can easily and quickly
determine which frames to scan and which ones to skip.

The old Olympus gear gets to live to see another season!  I'm so
excited about the colors and image quality (it is really good), that
I'll be using it quite extensively this year.  This also means I get
to use my beloved 100/2.8 for how it's really intended--FULLFRAME! 
Ooo ooo ooo, my 24/2.8 becomes a 24/2.8 again!

AG


 
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