Vuescan White Balance

[A. Merschman]

Hi there,

I am having troubles with my negatives and vuescan white balance. The
scanner is a Nikon coolscan v. Color Balance 'white balance' works
fine with slides, but I consistently get a nasty blue cast with
negatives (mostly fuji reala). Any ideas why this is the case? If I am
stuck with auto levels I can basically use Nikonscan, which seems to
yield the same results as vuescan with autolevels but gives me ICE and
GEM.

Also I noticed that the film profiles for cn films provided with
vuescan are really not much help. I think they need to be updated,
since most of the films offered aren't even produced anymore. And
those that are don't work with my scanner.

Yours
A. Merschmann.

 

[Erik Krause]

I am having troubles with my negatives and vuescan white balance. The
scanner is a Nikon coolscan v. Color Balance 'white balance' works
fine with slides, but I consistently get a nasty blue cast with
negatives (mostly fuji reala). Any ideas why this is the case?

Most probably you didn't include the film border in the preview area.
Vuescan needs to determine orange mask (film base) color from some
border or otherwise 'clear' area.

Either you increase your scanning area or you use advanced workflow
(see manual).

Also I noticed that the film profiles for cn films provided with
vuescan are really not much help. I think they need to be updated,
since most of the films offered aren't even produced anymore. And
those that are don't work with my scanner.

You don't need a profile if you use advance workflow. Just use generic
negative.

 

[A. Merschman]

Most probably you didn't include the film border in the preview area.
Vuescan needs to determine orange mask (film base) color from some
border or otherwise 'clear' area.

Either you increase your scanning area or you use advanced workflow
(see manual).

Thanks,

but does the border have to be inside preview/scan area or inside the
*crop* area. I am quite sure I have the border inside the preview/scan
area - and it seems to be converted to black allright - but I still
get these colour shifts.

Yours

A. Mersmann

 

[Maggie]

Most probably you didn't include the film border in the preview area.
Vuescan needs to determine orange mask (film base) color from some
border or otherwise 'clear' area.

Either you increase your scanning area or you use advanced workflow
(see manual).


You don't need a profile if you use advance workflow. Just use generic
negative.

How can you include film border from a mounted slide?
All my scans from slides come out with blue cast always. I don't know
how to fix that. I use Fuji Velvia, Sensia, Provia

 

[Mendel Leisk]

How can you include film border from a mounted slide?
All my scans from slides come out with blue cast always. I don't know
how to fix that. I use Fuji Velvia, Sensia, Provia

fwiw, I've noticed a definite "change" in the white balance, going
from 8.0.08 to 8.1.14, doing scan-from-disk from same Velvia100F raw
file (all settings the same). I'd say it's improved, more
neutral/balanced/natural looking.

 

[Erik Krause]

How can you include film border from a mounted slide?

Including the film border is only necessary for negatives and if you
don't use advanced workflow, because it is clear (orange). This allows
vuescan to determine the film base color correctly. Slide border is
black, you can't determine film base color from a black area - you need
a clear one.

All my scans from slides come out with blue cast always.

Using media type slide works only, if you use advanced workflow. If you
use media type image and still get a blue cast, you might try this.

I don't know how to fix that. I use Fuji Velvia, Sensia, Provia

I use the same films an I get no blue cast on my Nikon LS40, neither
with media type slide and advanced workflow nor with media type image.
I use color balance none or neutral most of the time.

 

[Erik Krause]

but does the border have to be inside preview/scan area or inside the
*crop* area. I am quite sure I have the border inside the preview/scan
area - and it seems to be converted to black allright - but I still
get these colour shifts.

I assume you get the cast for both preview and scan. If you get it only
for scan, lock exposure, preview again and lock film base color. But
it's better to use advanced workflow anyway.

Try white balance neutral and negative type generic, do a right click
on a detail that should be white or light grey in order to adjust white
balance manually. Once you get good results you can use this for
subsequent scans with same lighting. Read manual for details.

 

[Jeff Randall]

How can you include film border from a mounted slide?
All my scans from slides come out with blue cast always. I don't know
how to fix that. I use Fuji Velvia, Sensia, Provia

I remove the blue cast from my LS4000 scanned Kodachromes by
decreasing blue brightness (actually blue gamma) and increasing red
and green brightness in VueScan. Think of this as manual profiling.

The other thing you could possibly do is profile your scanner with
IT-8 targets made with the film you use.

 

[Mendel Leisk]

How can you include film border from a mounted slide?

Obviously, that is a problem. Usually when I get slides back now, the
processor includes a piece of the leader, loose. It has a black
(exposed) portion, and a clear portions, usefull for advanced
workflow. If you can get that, I would suggest to mount and label a
clear piece of the leader, for use with Vuescan advanced work flow
(locking exposure).

In case getting the leader is not possible, go through the slides and
find one (per roll) with a clear area. Slides being so easy to
blow-out, it should be possible. Then crop to just the clear area.