Adobe DNG Converter can not open VueScan raw file

[camera critter]

A few months ago I scanned several rolls of 120 roll film, and played
around with saving the scans as .jpg and .tif and VueScan .tif raw
files (sort of getting all my bases covered with one scanning session).

I discovered today that Adobe DNG Converter 3-1-0-17 (released May
2005) doesn't recognize any of the VueScan .tif raw files, and
complains that "the folder contains no compatible files."
OK, so VueScan .tif isn't a raw format to DNG Converter.

Photoshop CS2 and Elements 3.0 (both using Camera Raw 3.1 plug-in
released May 2005) and IrfanView 3-97 can open the VueScan raw files,
but the images from color negative film exhibit the brownish-orange
mask and inverted colors, and the images from transparency film are low
contrast and very dark. Yup, lots and lots of work is necessary to
massage those raw images into something usable.

This is in marked contrast to how easily DNG Converter 3.1 and Camera
Raw 3.1 process my Fuji (.raf) and Olympus (.orf) raw files into
something easily usable.

Does this mean that I'm locked into using VueScan to convert its .tif
raw files before I can use them easily in other painting programs?

Is there much hope for a future version of VueScan writing its raw
files in something readable by DGN, or something better presented by
Photoshop?

VueScan 8.2.02 (released April 2005) added support for Adobe DNG.

I'm now up to VueScan 8-2-17, having downloaded but not yet installed
8-2-21 (released July 2005).

Thanks in advance for helpful replies.

 

[Wayne]

Photoshop CS2 and Elements 3.0 (both using Camera Raw 3.1 plug-in
released May 2005) and IrfanView 3-97 can open the VueScan raw files,
but the images from color negative film exhibit the brownish-orange
mask and inverted colors, and the images from transparency film are low
contrast and very dark. Yup, lots and lots of work is necessary to
massage those raw images into something usable.

This is in marked contrast to how easily DNG Converter 3.1 and Camera
Raw 3.1 process my Fuji (.raf) and Olympus (.orf) raw files into
something easily usable.

Does this mean that I'm locked into using VueScan to convert its .tif
raw files before I can use them easily in other painting programs?

I believe you are confusing digital camera images and scanned film
images. They are NOT the same thing.

Digital cameras dont produce inverted (negative) images, nor do they
have any orange backgound color, and Adobe DNG has no need to deal with
that. Adobe does call their proprietary universal format a digital
negative, but not with any inverted or orange meaning like an actual
negative. It's just a cute name.

A raw file from a scanned negative will be inverted and orange (because
the film negative is inverted and orange). Raw film scans are just 16
bit TIF files, however RAW means the film image has no processing at
all, no inversion, no removal of the orange mask, no gamma, no nothing.
Scanning software knows how to deal with that, and there is excellent
reason to use it instead of RAW.

You probably dont really want RAW files from film. There is no white
balance advantage like from digital cameras. You paid for the scanning
software's ability to process your film, and you may want to use it
for that purpose. Adobe isnt going to do it for you.

If you only had the "need to get all you can possibly get" from the
film negative, then probably what you wanted instead of Raw was a
regularly processed 16 bit image from Vuescan (with 0 for both Black
and White Points for the widest image). If 16 bits, you can still do
anything to that you could do to a RAW image, but inversion, orange
mask, and gamma will already be done properly for you. That is what
scanning software does. But then, other than already having gamma done,
it would then compare to digital camera images.

 

[Erik Krause]

Photoshop CS2 and Elements 3.0 (both using Camera Raw 3.1 plug-in
released May 2005) and IrfanView 3-97 can open the VueScan raw files,
but the images from color negative film exhibit the brownish-orange
mask and inverted colors, and the images from transparency film are low
contrast and very dark. Yup, lots and lots of work is necessary to
massage those raw images into something usable.

Vuescan 16 bit per channel RAW files are mere TIFFs in linear (gamma
1.0) color space containing the image data as it comes from the
scanner. Neither is the orange mask from color negative film corrected
nor are they white point or contrast adjusted.

Does this mean that I'm locked into using VueScan to convert its .tif
raw files before I can use them easily in other painting programs?

No. You can open the RAW scan files in Photoshop if you assign a gamma
1.0 color space (to be created in main color settings dialog - see
manual). For color negatives you would have to subtract the orange mask
'by hand' and then invert the image. But why would you want to do this,
since Vuescan provides a far easier way...