Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/03/13

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Subject: [Leica] Scanning Kodachrome
From: billcpearce at cox.net (Bill Pearce)
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:27:04 -0500
References: <4D7D94A9.5080004@threshinc.com>

So hey do come out JUST like Kodachrome?

Bill Pearce

-----Original Message----- 
From: Peter Klein
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:08 PM
To: lug
Subject: [Leica] Scanning Kodachrome

My scanning of 1970s-era Kodachromes continues.  I'm using a Canon
FS-4000 with VueScan Pro.  The FS-4000 can do a two-scan pass with
different exposures, which really helps with shadows.  I scan to 16-bit
TIFF, do my major adjustments in Picture Window Pro, then convert to
8-bit for resizing and sharpening.  Yes, my monitor is calibrated. I
save to sRGB once the file is adjusted in VueScan and goes from RAW
space to TIFF.

I hadn't scanned film much recently, so I am relearning Kodachrome's
scanning issues.  I don't mind the orangy-ruddy flesh tones, that's just
part of what the film does.  But one thing that drives me crazy is that
even with VueScan's Kodachrome profile, my old 1970s slides scan a bit
green/cyan in the shadows, and a bit magenta in the mid to upper
midtones.  Fixing either color makes the other worse.  Full sunshine
pictures are usually OK, ,but for contrasty pictures with both sunlight
and shade, simple color balancing using a white sample doesn't cut it.

Here's an example, which I posted previously as "Purple Mountain
Majesties."  You can find other examples in the same gallery:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/MyYouth/Franconia+Range+from+Cannon+Mountain.html

This is an extreme case (early morning angled backlight, deep shadows
and bright clouds in the same picture), but it illustrates the problem.
I have a lot of outdoor mountain photographs with a high contrast range
like this.  My old habit of underexposing 1/3 stop for better saturation
probably didn't  help, though in the above picture, I was cramming an
awful lot of dynamic range onto a contrasty film.

Anybody have any secret VueScan workflows or profiles that would help
with this?  Suggestions?  Making color masks for every picture is not
going to happen--I'd do that for a wall-hanger, but not for every good shot.

--Peter



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In reply to: Message from pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein) ([Leica] Scanning Kodachrome)