<--always lost...


nice jobs on the pics...i dabbled a bit with some of the photos i currently have and i noticed some pretty interesting differences... the blacks get more dark/glossy, but i also felt like i was adding way way too much light into the photos..i still have to work on that..

also, still can't figure out the sharpen option.....and the noise level starts at the lowest amount... so i can't reduce it even more..


man...

 

Dark Sub Rosa, not true. All my initial RAW-to-TIFF conversions remain at 16 bit (as did my direct-to-TIFF Coolscan scans). Technically I only have 14 bit data from my D70s IIRC, but the benefit of Levels adjustment without banding is still there. Photoshop is slowly adding 16 bit functionality. We get to do a little bit more, staying in 16 bit, with each release.

 

You can shoot 16 bit TIFF files? I'm not talking about converting RAW to TIFF and keeping 16 bit. I am referring to shooting in 16 bit.

 

Ah. No. Can't capture 16 bit in anything other than RAW (yet). My Coolscan 4000ED could, if you'd call that shooting.

 

I wish I had a negative scanner for all my old negatives I have thousands of frames from college that are collecting in a binder.

 

my contribution. probably not something you want to do all the time but i think it works in this instance.

 

can you post how you did that?

 

While waiting for MMagic, let me guess. There are multiple ways to skin most cats in Photoshop. I'd probably:

Copy the background onto a new layer.
Desaturate (or Channel Mixer-to-B&W) the copy.
Add a Blur or glow on the B&W layer (can't tell exactly which filters or layer styles he used but several could work)
Add a layer mask to the B&W blurred copy.
Paint the layer mask in the center where you want the background color and sharpness to show through.

The border and drop shadow are common techniques that you can find on-line tutorials for. Search on those terms.

 

look for an HP Photosmart S20, the one with a USB connection rather than the SCSI cable (the USB version is a much better scanner with better software). The scanner lens has enough depth of field that there is no focus adjustment, scans a single frame to 16 bit in Photoshop, HP software will do a strip of up to 5 in batch mode without negative or slide holders, and the software also performs auto adjustments on each frame that are actually ideal every time. It has fairly advanced adjustment tools, including a histogram. It also doesn't require any adjustment at all for different film types. It scans up to 2400dpi (negs or slides only), saves as bmp, tiff, or jpg. It'll do 35mm negatives, slides, and 3x5 prints. Uses any white card for calibration.

Pretty much all around works very well. The resolution can be bettered by newer scanners, of course, but not for anywhere near the price, and not without using film holders, focus adjustments, frame by frame manual tweaking and any number of other added hassles. The only real drawback I have found is it gets hot after a couple of hours of steady use, and banding starts to show up. Once it cools down, scans are clear again. I don't know of any other dedicated film scanner out there that doesn't have film holders, doesn't require focus adjustments, allows different exposure and color adjustment settings for each frame of a strip of five in batch scanning, and doesn't require some sort of profile or mask to compensate of different films.

It's not perfect, but I have passed on upgrading to a Minolta or Nikon because the only benefit those offer is resolution, everything else is worse. I'm not willing to give up every other advantage of the S20 for a resolution bump that my usage would never justify. One thing it doesn't have is any type of dust removal, but you can clean your negs prior to scanning, if it's a problem. I've only ever had dust issues from one-hour photo places anyway, never from ones I dev'd myself or professional shops.

You can find them on ebay regularly for under $200, but it seems lately the price has been climbing. Still under $300, though. HP still supports it with XP. I have no idea if there is an OSX driver, however.

 

I'd NEVER recommend a scanner without the infrared dust removal. Works great and no matter how careful you are, with an antistat brush and all, you'll be spending too much time cloning out dust. At least that was me.

What I liked best about my Nikon scanner was the automated multi-pass scanning to reduce noise. I wouldn't use it for every slide, 8 passes is a real long time, but for killer shots I'd let it grind and shadow noise just disappeared.

4000 DPI may not be necessary but best-case Velvia has detail at that level and beyond.

What I liked least was very narrow DOF. If the film is warped at all I'd have to find the high & low points and manually set focus in the middle. Oh, and the software is junky just like all Nikon software.