Vuescan profiling for negatives

[blaz]

I'm trying to get the colors right from 35mm negatives (yes, I know,
I've been warned...). Nikon LS-2000; VueScan 8.3.04; Wolf Faust IT8
reflective target. For completeness, in the present case, I'm trying to
profile a roll of Konica Centuria-100. Unsure what to do about the
preliminary steps of determining RGB exposure and Film Base Color
(Vuescan help, Advanced workflow). So I tried both (each time
restarting from a "blank state" having deleted vuescan.ini):
A) Skip steps of RGB exposure and film base color. Follow the steps to
create a profile from a scan of a negative shot of the Wolf Faust
target.
B) Go through determination of RGB exposure and film base color before
creating the profile.
The two profiles are quite different, e.g. the gammas. Case A:
2.98/2.78/2.66; case B: 5.75/5.14/4.93. This is not consistent with a
post by Bart van der Wolf 30-Aug-2004: "VueScan bases its calibration
on the Raw data..." . Or I don't understand what is a raw scan.
Besides, trying to use either profile in a (what I believe to be a)
consistent way, i.e. skip/include the determination of RGB exp and base
color for the scanning itself consistently with what was done for the
profile, I do not get plausible colors (either way), and end up
fiddling with autocolors in PS. Which I wanted to avoid.
Can anyone provide advice and/or a definite, step-by-step procedure
and/or explanations? Thanks by advance!

Regards,
Bernard

 

[bmoag]

You may not want to read this.
IMHO negative materials are far more suited for a combined film/digital
workflow than transparencies. Transparency films offer little advantage over
digital media.Color (in all its qualities) is what you and Photoshop make of
it; color negative film is still the latitude champion sans peers.
Vuescan may not be the best choice for scanning negative materials. In fact
Vuescan would be my last choice. The control you think you need, which I do
not believe you do, is promised but not really available via Vuescan or any
other scanning software.
This is not a fly by numbers procedure. Achieve your best scan and then
optimize in Photoshop.
You may wish to master the Nikon software or consider Silverfast for this
scanner.

 

[Maris V. Lidaka Sr.]

Look in the Help Files - User Guide - "Advanced Workflow Suggestions" and
try that route.

Maris

 

[blaz]

Vuescan "Advanced Workflow Suggestions" is all about determining the
first the RGB exposure (RGBE) then the film bas color (FBC). The
central point of my initial post is whether or not to determine RGBE
and FBC before determining a profile. And you advise me to read the
help file about "Advanced Workflow Suggestions"???

 

[Jeff Randall]

blaz: I think case A is the correct approach as it follows the Users
guide to create a film profile and the gammas are realistic (ie, close
to 2.2). Remember that Vuescan creates matrix profiles that only
specify the RGB primaries, RGB gammas, and white point. It does not
create a CLUT like other profiling packages do. Therefore, I suspect
that you will still need to do some color tweaking in your photoeditor.
Your results will be most applicable if the profiled film is shot
under the same lighting conditions as when shooting the IT8 target.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Randall]

Forgot to mention that to use of your new film profile, you should
follow the regular or advanced workflow proceedures for scanning your
film. Your film profile just substitutes for the internal Vuescan
generic or film specific profiles.

Jeff

 

[blaz]

Jeff:
I've been running some tests. The bottom line is that the steps in
"Advanced Workflow Suggestions" (especially Film Base Color) should be
followed either in BOTH profiling and subsequent scanning or NONE.
Results are very close and acceptable. Other choices lead to grossly
wrong colors. I posted the test results on:
http://lazareff.perso.cegetel.net/Photo/Scan/Profiling_negatives_with_Vuescan.html

Bernard