Digital BW, The Print

At 01:20 AM 6/19/2003, you wrote:
>Stan,
>
>Can you please explain how you set Vuescan to capture all the tonal range 
>of the
>image? Also, if it's not too complicated, how do you adjust the curves in 
>Photoshop?
>
>I use Vuescan with a Polaroid SS4000, and I've been about ready to give up on
>Vuescan lately, because I do get very inconsistent scans, especially with 
>color slides
>(media type set to Image). I get one nearly perfect one, then
>one too yellow, too green, or much too contrasty, or more than one of 
>those. I can't
>figure out how to tweak what I see in the histograms, other than changing the
>selected Image Curve on the Color tab. The various Brightness and Black & 
>White
>Point adjustments are a mystery to me.
>
>I thought maybe the problem was a scanner calibration issue... I was 
>thinking of
>going back to Silverfast, which came with an IT-8 calibration slide. The 
>problems
>have really made me frustrated with the whole process of scanning. And the
>inconsistency seems to mean that I can't really do batch scans, even from 
>the same
>roll of film.
>
>Peter

Scanning color slides, I set media type to "Image" as you said. I don't 
tweak the histogram other than to see that it's not being clipped. My 
typical settings for black and white points are 0 and 1 respectively. This 
usually ensures that I get all the info from the film into the computer.

In Photoshop, I use the curves tool (CTRL-M) to set my black and white 
points. I have the black point tool set to 5,5,5 and the white point tool 
set to 250,250,250. I vary these from time to time, but that's what I'm 
using now. I may also adjust the contrast by dragging the curve into an "S" 
shape. I also have several preset contrast curves that I use, but loading 
these curves undoes the black and white point settings. If the colors are 
really crummy, which does happen occasionally, usually due to a faulty 
exposure in the original slide, I use iCorrect EditLab filter from 
Pictographics to make adjustments. That filter will also take care of black 
and white points, contrast, brightness, saturation, color cast and flesh, 
sky, and foliage colors.

I haven't calibrated my scanner. Opinions differ on the usefulness of doing 
so. I do calibrate my monitor periodically and use paper and ink specific 
printer profiles.

Stan

================================
Photography by Stan McQueen
http://www.smcqueen.com