1. I have been scanning BW film as positive and getting better results. I recently got a new scanner (120TF, Microtek) with silverfast. When I scan BW negs as positive(14bit gray, when I scan as 48/24bit color I get nasty color casts and dark scans, when I use Negafix it is worse, most probably my limited experience with the scanner/software) I get slightly hot highlights which can be fixed later. How to use Negafix for BW?
2. For color negatives, Negafix again does the same. I have heard good things about this so it may be my limited experience again. How do you scan color negs? Also as positives? Removing orange cast is equally difficult for me, again am doing it for the first time. Please help. I found that Vuescan does a much better job scanning color negs, am talking about straight scans from scanner.
3. This has nothing to do with negative scanning. When I scan an IT8 target and create profile for my scanner what should be the embeded profile for all my images? When I import the files in PS, it has a Adobe RGB profile!?
2. I have no experience with the Microtek or Silverfast - I can just say I feel your pain. I love the dynamic range and subtle colour of "wedding" neg. films but scanning them can be a royal PITA. I usually get best results scanning as a positive and manually working the curves in the scanner software to exclude the orange mask before the final scan. But sometimes I just sweat and sweat and get no results at all I think a lot depends on getting a decent tonal range in the neg. at the time of exposure.
Negafix has profiles for negative scans. If you plan to use it - scan as negative, not positive. Whether the best results are achieved when scanning as neg/pos is really up to the specific scanner and software used. There is no one method that always works. Most consumer grade scanners are optimized for RGB scanning so scanning as positive often gets better results, but this may not be the case for this scanner.
The IT8 target tells the scanning software how to apply color correction. Photoshop does not need to use it. The scanning software can map the resulting file into Adobe RGB or other color spaces as needed before feeding it to Photoshop.
I have also found when scanning color negatives to not include any black border in the scan. When the black is included the color cast is tough to deal with. Just make sure you scan with a crop enough to remove the black film border. Other than that I have not had any issues scanning color negative film, using either Silverfast or the Epson software.
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3 replies2. For color negatives, Negafix again does the same. I have heard good things about this so it may be my limited experience again. How do you scan color negs? Also as positives? Removing orange cast is equally difficult for me, again am doing it for the first time. Please help. I found that Vuescan does a much better job scanning color negs, am talking about straight scans from scanner.
3. This has nothing to do with negative scanning. When I scan an IT8 target and create profile for my scanner what should be the embeded profile for all my images? When I import the files in PS, it has a Adobe RGB profile!?
may the curves be with you!
The IT8 target tells the scanning software how to apply color correction. Photoshop does not need to use it. The scanning software can map the resulting file into Adobe RGB or other color spaces as needed before feeding it to Photoshop.
Guy