Scanning and Processing - Book Recommendations?

[gweber]

I am using a Nikon LS-2000 to scan many slides from my collection, most
of which are Kodachrome. I know that Kodachrome has some peculiar
aspects and I have read many messages on that issue. I have purchased
Vuescan and have achieved better results on Kodachrome with that
software over the Nikon software. I use Photoshop 7 for processing.
However, I am really "just tweaking buttons" as opposed to really
understanding what I am doing.

I would like to understand just what some of the overall concepts and
elaborate tools are really doing. I would really like to understand
colour space, curves, histograms and just what does analog gain really
do etc. How significant is colour calibration and how does one
accomplish this? I just want to know how to make specific adjustments
to get a desired result with a sense of deliberation and repeatability.

Can anyone here recommend a good book or two that will help explain
these topics?


Gary Weber

 

[Don]

I am using a Nikon LS-2000 to scan many slides from my collection, most
of which are Kodachrome.

Uh-oh... ;o) Brace for trouble!! Lots of trouble!!!

I know that Kodachrome has some peculiar
aspects and I have read many messages on that issue. I have purchased
Vuescan and have achieved better results on Kodachrome with that
software over the Nikon software.

Vuescan is very buggy and unreliable. Once you delve into details and
examine the scans all the Vuescan "warts" will start showing up.
However, some *casual* users are very happy with it. Nikon Scan, on
the other hand, is very "stubborn" and hates to let you turn things
off. But at least it only has a couple of bugs and it's quite steady.

In your context, the acid test (for any scan program) is dark
Kodachromes. Pay particular attention to dark midtones and shadows at
maximum magnification.

I can't speak for other scanners - although there are reports some are
more capable when it comes to Kodachromes - but Nikons seem
particularly "touchy". It's a very complex subject and I myself joined
this group with the same questions you are pondering some 3 years ago!

Going over the archives of this group can be very educational. Pay
particular attention to messages from Kennedy!

I would like to understand just what some of the overall concepts and
elaborate tools are really doing. I would really like to understand
colour space, curves, histograms and just what does analog gain really
do etc. How significant is colour calibration and how does one
accomplish this? I just want to know how to make specific adjustments
to get a desired result with a sense of deliberation and repeatability.

It's a *very* complex subject. Optics are like those Russian dolls
with seemingly unending complexities within other complexities...

So you've got a very steep learning curve ahead. It's a fascinating
subject though, but time consuming if you really care for detail and
maximum quality (as you appear to do) and want to get to the "the
bottom of it" (as I also aspired to when I joined).

BTW, analog gain (which is essentially exposure in photographic terms)
will not be able to help with Kodachromes. You may be able to correct
one density (i.e. one part of the image) but if you carefully examine
the rest you'll notice a red and a blue cast. How important that is,
is another question because it deals with subjective esthetics.

Another thing regarding Kodachromes is to look into "high dynamic
range" images and/or scanning each image twice (once for shadows and
once for highlights) and then combining the best of each.

Can anyone here recommend a good book or two that will help explain
these topics?

I don't have a book as such to recommend, but there are some good web
sites around. It gets tricky though because you would need to take
some of it with a grain of salt. But, then again, the same goes for
any source including books.

Here's a tiny random sampling in no particular order:

www.computer-darkroom.com - a generic site

http://www.aim-dtp.net/ - sometimes controversial site but lots of
stuff including:
http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/download/gamma_maps.zip AMP gamma files for
Photoshop

www.brucelindbloom.com - look for "RGB16Million.tif.zip", handy for
tests

http://www.reindeergraphics.com/free.shtml - free 12-bit histogram
Photoshop plug-in also handy for tests

....and many, many, more...

As I said above, this group's archives are a veritable treasure chest
of information but you may need to sort the chaff from the wheat.

Don.