Scanning fluorescent orange yields pink

[Pete from Boston]

I was recently trying to scan a fluorescent orange item and kept
getting the on-screen image in faded pink rather than bright orange.
Something to do with the interplay of the lamp and the fluorescent
color, I guess. Anyone know how I can correct for this either during
or after scanning?

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

I was recently trying to scan a fluorescent orange item and
kept getting the on-screen image in faded pink rather than
bright orange. Something to do with the interplay of the lamp
and the fluorescent color, I guess. Anyone know how I can
correct for this either during or after scanning?

You'll probably need a high quality (spectrophotometer based) profile.

Bart

 

[Don]

I was recently trying to scan a fluorescent orange item and kept
getting the on-screen image in faded pink rather than bright orange.
Something to do with the interplay of the lamp and the fluorescent
color, I guess. Anyone know how I can correct for this either during
or after scanning?

Yes, optics are funny like that and a lot of things can "wrong", from
light source to CCD response, etc. The light source may not contain
the frequencies which make the color "fluorescent" so nothing is
reflected. Or, the CDD may not be sensitive to that part of the
spectrum, etc.

So it's not likely you can do much during scanning in such a case.
That means, make sure your monitor is calibrated and profiled so what
you see on the screen is what will eventually come out (either as
print or a JPG or whatever your desired output is). After that it's
down to your editing skills.

Don.

 

[DenverDad]

... or after scanning?

In the end if the scanner is capturing as well as it can, this may be
your only option - i.e., post processing. Sometimes that's all you can
do as some colors just don't scan well (or for that matter get captured
on film well). Fortunately it's not too hard to do these kind of color
corrections in something like Photoshop. I'm still learning Photoshop
myself, but I think I would use a Selective Color layer and a mask for
just the vest to adjust it back to as close to the original as I could.

Jeff

 

[Pete from Boston]

In the end if the scanner is capturing as well as it can, this may be
your only option - i.e., post processing. Sometimes that's all you can
do as some colors just don't scan well (or for that matter get captured
on film well). Fortunately it's not too hard to do these kind of color
corrections in something like Photoshop. I'm still learning Photoshop
myself, but I think I would use a Selective Color layer and a mask for
just the vest to adjust it back to as close to the original as I could.

Yeah, actually adjusting saturation worked fine for my purposes. For
some color setup reason it didn't work for me the first time, prompting
my post.

Still an odd effect, though. Never seen anything else come through so
dramatically different from how it looks in real life.

 

[Colin D]

Yeah, actually adjusting saturation worked fine for my purposes. For
some color setup reason it didn't work for me the first time, prompting
my post.

Still an odd effect, though. Never seen anything else come through so
dramatically different from how it looks in real life.

Some dress materials do the same, and a bride can get very titchy when
the bridesmaids' dresses are the wrong color. The bane of wedding
photogs.

Colin D.