Better colour neg scanning with VueScan.

April 21, 2008

Better colour neg scanning with VueScan.

Comments (87)

Filed under: photography,tips — Tags: color, colour, negative, scanning, vuescan — BennehBoy @ 10:31 pm

See my photos on flickr.

I no longer use this method, click here for my new ColorPerfect method

Introduction, A Few Simple Options, Film profiles suck, Scanning

Using The Histogram, & The Finished Article

Introduction

Hamrick Software’s VueScan is perhaps the most flexible and powerful piece of scanning software available to photographers today. Many people fall foul of its myriad features and options – it can be quite daunting when you first start the software and begin to explore the different option pages. I’m going to explain how to get the best out of VueScan with the minimum of fuss, the least fiddling, and the least deviation from the software’s default options.

If you’ve already got the software installed (at the time of writing the latest version is 8.4.70), then now is perhaps a good time to reset the options to default, you can do this from within the file menu “File->Default Options”

A Few Simple Options

The first thing I turn off in viewscan is the automatic saving of scans – you’re probably going to want to do things like adjust white balance, white point, and blackpoint before committing your scan to disk, so there’s just no need to have this option enabled.

You’ll also want to turn on VueScan’s histogram Graph, you can do this from the Image menu “Image -> graph b/w”, or by hitting ctrl-2. You want the b/w graph because this allows you to adjust white and black point using 2 graphical sliders (explained later in the article).

Film profiles suck

VueScan comes with some pre-configured film profiles, you may think that these are just great, but in reality they aren’t – they just take control away from you, and will more than likely deliver a scan that just does not come up to scratch. Why? Because each and every roll of negative film you shoot has it’s very own slight variations in both manufacturing tolerance, exposure, film fogging (heaven forbid), and most importantly development. All of these combine to change the film’s base colour density – so by choosing a preset you are using a ‘best guess’.

The good news is that there is absolutely no reason to settle for a best guess, and this is because VueScan will allow you to sample the base colour of your film directly. These tips are available on the VueScan homepage, but I’ve combined them with some screenshots to make it even more clear. So without further ado, here’s how it’s done…

Firstly you need to preview your film. Click the Preview button! When the preview finishes you should select an area of clear film between frames (or in the film leader). If the ‘Lock Exposure tickbox is ticked, untick it (see the picture below this one)

selecting an area between frames in vuescan

Hit the preview button again, when the preview finishes tick the “Lock exposure” tickbox.

Hit the preview button once more, when the preview finishes tick the “Lock film base colour” tickbox.

With these simple steps you have calibrated your roll of film. You only need to do this once per roll, it can be a pain, but it will save you major headaches in post processing.

Scanning

Now that you’ve optimised VueScan for your current roll of film, you’ll want to go ahead and scan some photos. A lot of people like to keep the film borders and frame numbers in their scans, I think this is a complete waste of time – it will also give you more hard work setting levels in post processing because your beautifully crafted photo will be competing with the levels of the border & bright yellow frame numbers. The answer is simple: use the frame crop box to highlight a scanning target just within the borders of each frame.

selecting your frame to scan with vuescan

When you’re happy that you’ve got the frame correctly selected hit the Scan button.

Using the histogram

Now that your scan is in memory you can do some adjustments, there are 2 main ones you’ll probably want to do, the first of which is using the histogram to produce a nice flat image which can easily be adjusted in PhotoShop. Drag the sliding pointers to left and right so that all elements of the graph are between them – if you want to clip some areas then adjust accordingly.

The final adjustment you may want to make is the white balance – find an area in the scan which is neutral and right click on it (hold down control on mac). VueScan will automatically adjust white balance, if you picked the wrong area just try again until you get something that looks correct — You’ll probably only want to do this once per roll (or once for each set of photos with the same lighting conditions) to ensure your scans are colour matched. Double right clicking resets the auto white balance.

The Finished Article

So now it’s time to save your frame, click on the disk icon or use the save image option in the file menu.

Hopefully you should now be able to successfully scan colour negative film and be sure that you’ll get consistent results. You’ll need to use Curves and Levels in PhotoShop to get the best out of your scans. Good Luck!

http://www.samuelbedford.com sam bedford

Ben explained this technique to me recently and I can vouch for its effectiveness.

Having been submerged in the woes of scanning for much of the past 6 months, its clear to me that using vuescan and this work around is almost the only consistent technique avaliable. At least in my experience.
plus the screen shots are skill. Thanks Ben.
http://www.samuelbedford.com sam bedford

Ben explained this technique to me recently and I can vouch for its effectiveness.

Having been submerged in the woes of scanning for much of the past 6 months, its clear to me that using vuescan and this work around is almost the only consistent technique avaliable. At least in my experience.
plus the screen shots are skill. Thanks Ben.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danburbridge/ Dan Burbridge

Nice – one thing though, double clicking for whitebalance resets it, one click sets it (IIRC)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danburbridge/ Dan Burbridge

Nice – one thing though, double clicking for whitebalance resets it, one click sets it (IIRC)
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Oops, yeah you’re right – article amended!
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Oops, yeah you’re right – article amended!
http://www.stpiduko.com/ stpiduko

Am I an idiot for using Epson Scan?
http://www.stpiduko.com/ stpiduko

Am I an idiot for using Epson Scan?
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Nope, just use what you feel comfortable with.
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Nope, just use what you feel comfortable with.
Sery

A great big thank you for making the mystical simple.
Sery

A great big thank you for making the mystical simple.
http://init0.blogspot.com Enric Martinez

Thanks!
I bought Vuescan a year ago, but never really got used to it (Laaaazy).
Finally with your tips and a bit of reading I have been able to put it to work.

Lovely.

If I can manage to use Digital ICE with color negatives I will be the happiest man in the world
http://init0.blogspot.com Enric Martinez

Thanks!
I bought Vuescan a year ago, but never really got used to it (Laaaazy).
Finally with your tips and a bit of reading I have been able to put it to work.

Lovely.

If I can manage to use Digital ICE with color negatives I will be the happiest man in the world
Richard Ward

Thanks!
I first tried Vuescan about a year and a half ago and had an utterly horrible time try to scan color negatives. I wish I had this tutorial back then, it would have saved me turning to my Lab for the scans. (Fuji NPH 120 6×6′s shot with my Rolleiflex TLR). I’ve since upgraded from a Umax Powerlook 1100 to a (yet to arrive) Epson Perfection 4870 and am EAGERLY! awaiting giving color negative scanning and VueScan another workout.
Richard
Richard Ward

Thanks!
I first tried Vuescan about a year and a half ago and had an utterly horrible time try to scan color negatives. I wish I had this tutorial back then, it would have saved me turning to my Lab for the scans. (Fuji NPH 120 6×6′s shot with my Rolleiflex TLR). I’ve since upgraded from a Umax Powerlook 1100 to a (yet to arrive) Epson Perfection 4870 and am EAGERLY! awaiting giving color negative scanning and VueScan another workout.
Richard
http://blog.memrestore.org/ Peter

I too have been struggling with colour negatives and this has cleared up the issue very nicely. Thank you for putting in the time and effort. Im off to try again.

Peter
http://blog.memrestore.org/ Peter

I too have been struggling with colour negatives and this has cleared up the issue very nicely. Thank you for putting in the time and effort. Im off to try again.

Peter
Christopher Layne

Just created a tutorial on how to do exposure locking with B&W film that I think compliments this great article as well:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kediwah/sets/72157608202483073/
Christopher Layne

Just created a tutorial on how to do exposure locking with B&W film that I think compliments this great article as well:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kediwah/sets/72157608202483073/
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Thanks Chris.
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Thanks Chris.
Pingback: Vuescan and Fuji PRO400H - Leica User Forum
rockyhorror

I did a little side to side test with the epson software and the vuescan software on my v500, using the methods you explain here on the vuescan, and the difference was day and night, in favour of the epson software. Like a fuji s5 file on high saturation vs a d200 file on low saturation, and the vuescan won’t seem to ever get exposed right – it seems to work so strange aswell, like its scanning way too dark and then correcting itself (abit)

I might give it another chance for the black/white, but colournegatives i’m really done with this.
Only downsite of the epson software is that its heavy and slow on my system.
oh well,thanks anyway for the tutorial anyway. it was worth the try.
// rockyhorror

I did a little side to side test with the epson software and the vuescan software on my v500, using the methods you explain here on the vuescan, and the difference was day and night, in favour of the epson software. Like a fuji s5 file on high saturation vs a d200 file on low saturation, and the vuescan won’t seem to ever get exposed right – it seems to work so strange aswell, like its scanning way too dark and then correcting itself (abit)

I might give it another chance for the black/white, but colournegatives i’m really done with this.
Only downsite of the epson software is that its heavy and slow on my system.
oh well,thanks anyway for the tutorial anyway. it was worth the try.
Matthew

Fantastic! This is so helpful. You made my day.
Matthew

Fantastic! This is so helpful. You made my day.
Peter Unterweger

This looked like the ideal solution, but as a totally inexperienced VueScan user I ran into an immediate snag. I followed your steps and had Mode=transparency and Media=Color negative, but when I hit Preview, I got a positive image, whereas your tutorial shows a negative. So I changed media to slidefilm and that did produce negative images. I then proceeded as you suggested and got some pretty good results. Was that the right way to go?

I also looked at your Flickr images and was inspired. I’m velomaniac by the way.
Peter Unterweger

This looked like the ideal solution, but as a totally inexperienced VueScan user I ran into an immediate snag. I followed your steps and had Mode=transparency and Media=Color negative, but when I hit Preview, I got a positive image, whereas your tutorial shows a negative. So I changed media to slidefilm and that did produce negative images. I then proceeded as you suggested and got some pretty good results. Was that the right way to go?

I also looked at your Flickr images and was inspired. I’m velomaniac by the way.
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Hi Peter,

I have no clue why the output was reversed for you, perhaps it’s peculiar to your scanner? Have you tried getting the latest version of Vuescan?

I no longer use this method by the way, I’m now using a product called ColorNeg which I’ll be blogging about soon.

Ben
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Hi Peter,

I have no clue why the output was reversed for you, perhaps it’s peculiar to your scanner? Have you tried getting the latest version of Vuescan?

I no longer use this method by the way, I’m now using a product called ColorNeg which I’ll be blogging about soon.

Ben
Peter Unterweger

Thanks, I am using the latest Pro Version, and will be interested in ColorNeg. I have Kodachromes and negatives going back 40+ years.

Peter
Peter Unterweger

Thanks, I am using the latest Pro Version, and will be interested in ColorNeg. I have Kodachromes and negatives going back 40+ years.

Peter
christian

i’d love to see your colorneg workflow
christian

i’d love to see your colorneg workflow
http://www.thechrisproject.com Chris Norris

Thanks so much for this, Ben! Very helpful.
http://www.thechrisproject.com Chris Norris

Thanks so much for this, Ben! Very helpful.
Nyakayama

Hi, Thanks for this.

But I always wonder if the film edges are to be included in the scan area since I came across scanning an image of a bright pink wall with blue writings that contain no 100% black nor 0% white in the frame. If you exclude the edges the Vuescan will enhance contrast to set shadowy part of the image as 100% black and brightest gray part with 0% white to scan in a wildly exaggerated way. While including film edges tells Vuescan at least a complete black point so it scans the midtone only. It seem to work on both positives and negatives. I set black cut-off point in “Color” panel at 2 to 3 % to keep the edges as 100% black. Please give it a try.

Nyakayama
Nyakayama

Hi, Thanks for this.

But I always wonder if the film edges are to be included in the scan area since I came across scanning an image of a bright pink wall with blue writings that contain no 100% black nor 0% white in the frame. If you exclude the edges the Vuescan will enhance contrast to set shadowy part of the image as 100% black and brightest gray part with 0% white to scan in a wildly exaggerated way. While including film edges tells Vuescan at least a complete black point so it scans the midtone only. It seem to work on both positives and negatives. I set black cut-off point in “Color” panel at 2 to 3 % to keep the edges as 100% black. Please give it a try.

Nyakayama
cara

This is exactly the tutorial I’ve been searching for to help me with color correction on my scanned negatives. I was so close to giving up on film & going digital until I found this.

Thanks!
cara

This is exactly the tutorial I’ve been searching for to help me with color correction on my scanned negatives. I was so close to giving up on film & going digital until I found this.

Thanks!
James

This tutorial has helped me get much better colour scans from my negatives – thanks so much!
James

This tutorial has helped me get much better colour scans from my negatives – thanks so much!
Pingback: Issue with Ektar - The Photo Forum - Photography Discussion Forum
Pingback: Kodak ektar - P
Pingback: Problems scanning color negatives (Fuji Reala and Epson Perfection V750) - Leica User Forum
http://flickr.com/photos/garghe garghe

Hi Ben, how are you? Just a simple question, what’s the matter about numbero of scan pass? Should I use 1, 2 or more? I can’t understand the difference.
cheers,

m
http://flickr.com/photos/garghe garghe

Hi Ben, how are you? Just a simple question, what’s the matter about numbero of scan pass? Should I use 1, 2 or more? I can’t understand the difference.
cheers,

m
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Hi Garghe,

The idea with the scan passes (number of samples) is that vuescan averages the results to try and subtract any noise, the more you use the slower it will be but theoretically cleaner – some scanners cant take multiple samples from the same physical pass so you can introduce a lack of critical sharpness by the very small errors introduced in scan head placement (most of the newer Epsom scanners will take multiple samples without having to move the head, 4990, v700 etc)

Don’t confuse this with multiexposure! Multiexposure is where the scanner does more than 1 pass with different lamp brightness, in effect it attempts to construct an HDR scan by extracting more detail from the shadow and highlight areas.
http://benneh.net BennehBoy

Hi Garghe,

The idea with the scan passes (number of samples) is that vuescan averages the results to try and subtract any noise, the more you use the slower it will be but theoretically cleaner – some scanners cant take multiple samples from the same physical pass so you can introduce a lack of critical sharpness by the very small errors introduced in scan head placement (most of the newer Epsom scanners will take multiple samples without having to move the head, 4990, v700 etc)

Don’t confuse this with multiexposure! Multiexposure is where the scanner does more than 1 pass with different lamp brightness, in effect it attempts to construct an HDR scan by extracting more detail from the shadow and highlight areas.