How to increase contrast of B&W scans from Vuescan

I just got this program and am getting some good results. My scanns

are about 90% of where I want to be with my B/W neg scans but I want

the finished product to have about 10-20% more contrast. How do I

adjust this? Everything else seems fine.

Thanks

Learn to use the Curves tool in Photoshop, or whatever editor you use.

Can I d something in Vuescan before it hits Photoshop?

Yes, just set the black point and white point more aggresively. This is not advisable however, because it causes you to lose information. I usually set the clip ratio to 0.5% on both ends.

You could experiment with Vuescan's TMax profiles, which offer 5 contrast indexes each, for D76 and Tmax developer curves. The lower the number, the more contrast. Tmax400 with contrast index D76ci:.55 is my norm (seems exact match of Ilford XP2). A lower number will give more contrast, though watch out for blowout. Sometimes, I'll just let it blowout, if it's sunny window beyond subject.

 

Ticking Filter|Restore fading (and raising brightness to compensate), will also give a bit more punch, though you're shadow detail may start to block up.

 

Also, post Vuescan, you could try this:

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast-enhancement.shtml

Vuescan's higher contrast indexes are also useful, when scanning as b/w negative, to recover blown highlights. Highlights seem to be retained if you scan as image, but the inverted image is awkward to work with, and I find the b/w profiles to have better tone, both in shadow and highlight.

 

Lowering contrast index usually requires a corresponding lowering of brightness, and when raising contrast index brightness usually needs raising as well.

Great info Thanks so much.

GG