White Balance, Advance Workflow and Vuescan

[Alan Smithee]

Should or does the advanced workflow for colour negatives in Vuescan
"balance" the colour on the scan? It seems my Vue' scans always have a
blu'ish or green tint if I don't select a balancing option (I usually pick
"None"). I prefer to balance my colour work in Photoshop, but I've noticed
that EpsonScan balances much closer to what I think the final colour should
be. Is it design this way on purpose? Is it just showing more what the
actual film has recorded? Thx

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

Should or does the advanced workflow for colour negatives in
Vuescan "balance" the colour on the scan?

No. However, it does optimize exposure and it eliminates most of the
mask color.

It seems my Vue' scans always have a blu'ish or green tint if I
don't select a balancing option (I usually pick "None"). I prefer
to balance my colour work in Photoshop, but I've noticed that
EpsonScan balances much closer to what I think the final colour
should be. Is it design this way on purpose?

Correct. 'None' does *not* change the White balance.
Right mouse button clicking on a known neutral tint does apply White
Balancing.

Is it just showing more what the actual film has recorded? Thx

Yes, in a way that's correct.

 

[Noons]

"balance" the colour on the scan? It seems my Vue' scans always have a
blu'ish or green tint if I don't select a balancing option (I usually pick
"None").

Use "Neutral", or else use the right-click "Manual"
white balance option. If you want to do the lot in
one go instead of using raw files.

Or output into "raw" - which stops the conversion to positive as well
as all colour manipulations and then do all that in Photoshop.

I've found that for scans of film strips, it pays to output to raw in
48-bit. This makes the scans faster. Then I burn the raw scan
files to CD and go through a second round of reading them,
colour correcting and cropping in 16-bit inside Vuescan - that
gives me more latitude for colour corrections - and then output
a 24-bit final proof in tif. That is then processed in Photoshop
for bad spot cleanups, crops, final colour balance touch-ups
and sharpening, with the output in jpg for printing or web.

 

[Alan Smithee]

No. However, it does optimize exposure and it eliminates most of the
mask color.


Correct. 'None' does *not* change the White balance.
Right mouse button clicking on a known neutral tint does apply White
Balancing.


Yes, in a way that's correct.

OK. But...
If I was to put the same negative into a dichro head and make a print would
I have the same problem colour balancing? When making a traditional
chromogenic print how does one neutralise the orange mask. Are the problems
the same as one encounters when scanning? Seems I once had a conversation
will an old colour photographer/printer who said he rarely had to touch the
dial on his dichro head.

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

SNIP

If I was to put the same negative into a dichro head and make a
print would I have the same problem colour balancing?

No, just a different problem.

When making a traditional chromogenic print how does one
neutralise the orange mask.

With a combination of the paper's specific sensitivity for the lamp
emission spectrum and the film's absorption of that spectrum, tweaked
with filters (depending on the combination of materials).

Are the problems the same as one encounters when scanning?

They are actually quite similar. The scanner also has a lamp (or LEDs)
as a lightsource with its own emission spectrum. The film will again
selectively absorb that spectrum, and the CCD just like the printing
paper has its own sensitivity to the light spectrum transmitted by the
film. The difference is that the printing paper is specificly made for
the film transmission, where the scanner has to deal with all sorts of
films.

Seems I once had a conversation will an old colour
photographer/printer who said he rarely had to touch the dial on
his dichro head.

Yes, that's because the film and paper were specificly made for each
other. The scanner (lightsource and CCD) need to be calibrated for the
type of film if you want a similar workflow.

 

[Alan Smithee]

Yes, that's because the film and paper were specificly made for each
other. The scanner (lightsource and CCD) need to be calibrated for the
type of film if you want a similar workflow.

Sure. But can I do this by tweaking Vuescan? and then locking the settings
down? I can live with using one film if it means that I'm not constantly
trying to balance colour every time I scan.

 

[Roger S.]

Sure. But can I do this by tweaking Vuescan? and then locking the settings

down? I can live with using one film if it means that I'm not constantly
trying to balance colour every time I scan.

You can do this and create INIs for different film types.
This is what I do based on this workflow to get a good manual color
balance:
http://www.erik-krause.de/tutorial/part1.htm

 

[Noons]

You can do this and create INIs for different film types.
This is what I do based on this workflow to get a good manual color
balance:
http://www.erik-krause.de/tutorial/part1.htm

Good find! Thanks a lot.