Digital BW, The Print

Scanning BW vs. Camera Raw

            When scanning BW film, all scanners output desaturated RGB
information. Of the three RGB channels, blue contains the most noise and red
the lowest resolution. Whilst I don't use Vuescan, there is an advantage in
scanning to the "DNG" format. The scanner will/should output the full range
of shades based on the scanner's capabilities and allow ACR or Lightroom to
interpret the results. I can imagine that no curves are applied so the
images will need to have curves applied otherwise the output would be very
flat.

            The product(s) I use are Silverfast AI and HDR do the same
thing. You output the scan from AI in the HDR format presenting a flat
output of all the information to be intrepid by HDR - which like ACR is not
destructive. The advantage here is that HDR is bundled with all the curves
for the supported film or can be modified to match the desired results - the
only difference between HDR and ACR is that HDR knows that it is working
with film.

            I use the AI/HDR combination for scanning all my negatives. This
allows me to batch scan for faster output of my two scanners and it also
allows faster image processing as no pre-scan is required.

            On the subject of scanning BW, I add Photoshop to the workflow.
In Photoshop, I normally turn off the R and B channels and use the
desaturated green channel for final output. Another technique I may use is
to kill the red channel, add blur to the blue channel and sharpen the green.

            Of course, everyone's workflow will be different based on their
perception of the desired output.

 

 

  _____  

From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Lew
Schwartz
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 6:21 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] VueScan

 

  

Apples/oranges: one wouldn't be scanning a negative if the camera in
question had digital output. In cases where we are able to use the same lens
on both analog and digital cameras, the color rendering characteristics of
the capture media (film or ccd) still come into play, so there's no way that
I can see to state positively that raw from the camera is better than raw
from a scanner. The Vuescan instructions state that the reason one might
want to same save scans as raw output is so that all other output formats
can be generated as needed without additional scans, and not because the raw
format is 'better.' Adobe's ability to read the Vuescan raw files is a
fringe benefit.

>Of course a RAW from a scanner is not as raw as a camera delivers

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