Imacon Scanning Help

[greg_smith4]

I have access to use a FlexTight Imacon scanner and have used it a few times for slides which came out

very well, but I am now trying to use it for negatives and not getting good results. I am trying to scan

Kodak Portra 160 NC and have the scanner set to the right profile, but when I select the image and clikc

the "reset" then "auto" function the resulting image is really off, especially compared to the C-Prints I

made of the negatives. My results are really flat and dull, and the colors are completely off (usually a lot

warmer with a red tint), and my skies are coming out almost grey. I tried manually adjusting the

histograms but couldnt get it much better. Any advice? Im sure it must be something Im doing as its a

pretty advanced peice of equipment. Thanks

[tobiasfeltus]

hi grady,

I think that the imacon profiles are set up to get the most detail possible out of the film, and this means, unfortunately, not taking on board the special chromatic characteristics of the film. i have had this problem with cross processed material, that to get a decent scan, you end up losing the wonderful colours, and then have to add curves in photoshop to bring them back.

 

but then again, i have had rather poor results with VC when proofed on a minilab as well, as they normalize, in an attempt to not discriminate real film from a disposable camera, and try to make a "nice" snapshot.

 

t

[scott_eaton]

Not familiar with the Imacon software, but is there a way to pick a grey value in the scene and normalize that?

 

The dullness of the image isn't a problem since this means the scanner is capturing all the dynamic range in the film, and this can be corrected in Phootshop. Color casts, especially non-linear ones, are fare more difficult to correct post scan.

[steve_swinehart]

Do you know what version Flexcolor software you're using? There have been some changes in the software from the 3.xx series to the latest 4.5.2.

 

You need to check both the "setup" and "preferences" menus. See what profile is set for the scanner, and what color space the scanner is scanning into. If it's scanning the image into "3F" that could be the problem. Also, there are CMY setups and RGB. Make sure the scanner is set for RGB for the negative film.

 

Also, under "setup" it is possible to change all of the settings for a film type and resave it with the changes. Perhaps someone has done that when the corrected another image - making the stock setting a custom setting.

 

You also need to look under the auto corrections setting and make sure it's set to "0" (zero) for shadows and highlights.

 

Look through all of the "preferences" (first) and "setup" second. Copy down all of the settings. Get the version of Flexcolor and send me an email - I'll try to walk you through the correct settings.

[greg_smith4]

Thanks for the help. It's an older version of the software, not sure what one, I'll have to check

next time Im in. We're upgrading to the new G5 sometime in the next few weeks so we

should be upgrading to the newest version of the software when thats set up. Thanks again

and I'll check about the settings as well.

[elliot_n]

It's hard work getting good colour negative scans from the Imacon - especially if you're

trying to match a C-type.

 

The Imacon profiles for various colour negs are really poor.

 

Draw a marquee over the image area, plus a bit of the negative rebate (but not the film

holder).

 

Select the Imacon Portra 160NC profile.

 

Hit 'Auto'.

 

Use the middle eye dropper to neutralise a gray tone, adjust brightness with the middle

RGB slider, and then tweak the colour balance with the individual middle R, G, and B

sliders.

 

Add some contrast with the contrast slider (this won't clip your histogram). Set Shadow

Depth to 10.

 

Back to the middle sliders to tweak the colour balance again.

 

Disable USM and Flextouch.

 

Now the most important bit if you want to get a good match with a C-type:

 

Go into the Colour Correction window and start adding and subtracting colours from each

of the colour channels. The red channel needs the most work (start by adding 25 blue). In

my set-up for Portra 400VC I have numbers other than zero in 10 of those boxes.

 

Now go to File > Set Up and save your settings with a new name (e.g 'my portra'). Continue

to resave your settings until you've got it right.

 

Best to test with an image that has skin tones and lots of coloured objects.

 

Scan slightly flat - the aim is to get a scan which when opened in Photoshop only requires

a minor s-curve tweak (and no monkeying around with selective colour etc).

 

Hope that helps.

 

Elliot

[snapper london]

When you get the latest version of FlexColor it should come with a very good set of video

tutorials (mine did) which take you through all the settings in some detail, including scanning

in 3F. There is also a Photoshop plug-in allowing you to work on 3F files.

[elliot_n]

Yes scanning 3F is a good idea, especially when you're experimenting and trying to find the

best set-up for a particular type of film. (You can effectively 'rescan' the film many times,

without having to go back to the scanner.)

[greg_smith4]

I checked the software out, its pretty old, 1.9 or something. I tried to upgrade but it requires

the newest operating system which we do not have (yet). I guess I'll just have to wait until we

get the new computer and hopefully things will run a little bit better.