Robert said:
I have a epson 4870 and am trying to scan negatives, but the previews are so
way out coulour wise I wish to know what settings are a good place to start,
or if there is someonoe out there who I could chat with to get me somethere
close
First of all, you monitor needs to give you an accurate view of the
image data. Make sure you're not seeing odd colors in images from
other sources.
I'm assuming that your scanner is working properly and that you know
the basics of Epson Scan (such as selecting "negative" as the scan
type). There are a number of things you could try (some are mutually
exclusive).
1) If you're new to image editing, go to scantips.com as CSM1
suggested. Read up on how to use the histogram, curves, and
black/white points to adjust colors and contrast.
2) Make sure that only the image frame is being scanned. Crop away any
of the surrounding borders. This will help the software correct the
contrast and color properly.
3) In professional mode, click the "auto exposure" button after
creating a preview. This usually produces excellent color, but it also
tends to clip the highlights heavily. Adjusting the histogram to
expand the dynamic range throws the colors back out of whack. If
you're happy with the clipped output, just stick with the auto exposure
button.
3b) Or use the white, black, and gray point eyedroppers available in
the histogram window. If you correctly choose neutral white and black
areas of the image, you'll neutralize the color cast.
3c) If you turn off the auto-thumbnail preview (right-click the
"preview" button, I think), you can use the non-image areas of the
filmstrip (you can click anywhere, even outside the selection marquee)
to set a very accurate black point that should work for the entire
roll. That by itself can be enough to get the colors into shape; if
not, you can try using the white & gray droppers in the selected frame.
The non-thumbnail preview also allows you to drag the existing
selection marquee from one frame to the next and just tweak the
settings as necessary--much less trouble than managing a separate box
for each image. If you drag a single marquee from frame to frame, the
tradeoff is that you have to scan one image at a time--you can't set up
the whole roll and just walk away for half an hour.
4) Try switching the output color space from sRGB to AdobeRGB. That
can sometimes produce better results for certain problem colors that
are out of sRGB's range.
5) Find the installation disk for whichever version of Silverfast came
with your scanner, then download and install the latest update from the
Lasersoft website. It's a little harder to understand the interface at
first, but the feature set of the "light" SE version is just about
equivalent to Epson Scan's, so if you understand one you can learn the
other. The AI version can do far more than Epson Scan, so if that's
your version, you're better off learning it anyway.
Once you have it
up and running, preview your film and look for the Negafix pop-up
window. It has settings for many different lines of negative film; if
you can find your film type or a close match, Negafix will usually
bring the colors *very* close to your expectations. Watch the
histograms and fiddle with the Negafix "auto" slider to control
clipping. If you don't mind a small learning curve (and one or two
restrictions on SE's output options compared to Epson Scan's), this
might be your best long-term option.
Hope this helps.
false_dmitrii
