Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/23

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Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: Kodachrome scanning/VueScan
From: John Bean <john@jbean.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 14:14:42 +0100

Paul, when using Vuescan's automatic features (white balance, color 
restore, auto levels, etc) you need to set the black point and white point 
as well as the image gamma.  The default settings allow some clipping of 
the highlights, which is not acceptable in most cases.

In any case, Vuescan's adjustment tools are not good - I prefer to do a 
"neutral" scan (having set the film type) then correct with Photoshop's 
much better tools. The main benefit of Vuescan to me is it's ability to use 
the IR channel for image cleaning with silver-based images, and its 
multi-pass scanning capability, which reduces scanner noise and recovers 
more information from shadow areas. Nikon's software can't do the former, 
and only offers the latter in the much more expensive LS-2000. Don't 
underestimate the benefits of multi-pass scanning of Kodachrome or Velvia, 
especially for low-key images.

At Saturday 22/04/2000 22:09, Paul Bolam wrote:
>I was very surprised at the difference between the software. The Nikon Scan
>looked muted compared to the VueScan. However, in terms of realism the
>VueScan's highlights were washed out but, in general, it had punchier
>colours.


Regards

John Bean