Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/05/28

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Scanning B&W
From: Kevin Leong <kevinl@ind.tansu.com.au>
Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 14:10:34 +1000
References: <39311548.D8B50A23@webshuttle.ch>

Nathan Wajsman wrote:

> In general I have always found that
> it is far easier to get a good color scan (whether slide or negative)
> than a good B&W scan.

Yes, I've found this as well on the LS-30, especially with silver-based
emulsions - scans can be very grainy (compared to prints made using an
enlarger) which, I guess, is due to the use of a colimated light source.

There is also a problem with highlight blow-outs with NikonScan; it's
almost as if the negative reversal function tries to simulate the dynamic
range of colour photographic prints. The best solution I've found for this
is to scan the negatives as positives and exporting full bit depth scan
(12-bit?) into Photoshop for curve/level adjustments; on the LS-30, I have
to use Vuescan to do this but I'm sure it's easily done with NikonScan with
the LS-2000.

I don't agree with Simon Lamb's suggestion of using the greyscale scan -
unless you're particularly concerned about memory usage or speed, I find
that there is much more control in using the channel mixer in Photoshop to
generate the final result.

- --
    Kevin Leong
    Telstra Future e-Development
    Phone: +61-2-9206-3474  Fax: +61-2-9281-1301
    TFN: 3453-7577-2424

In reply to: Message from Nathan Wajsman <wajsman@webshuttle.ch> ([Leica] Scanning B&W)