New to scanning negatives- advice needed.

[claire_atkinson]

Hi All, I've recently started scanning negatives with my epson perfetion v100.

The scans of the negs were quite flat so i opened them up in photplus6 and

increased the contrast and adjusted the brightness etc. Ive included one of my

results, the scan looks terrible. Is there a way of avoiding this? I noticed I

could adjust the brightness and contrast before scanning but the levels would

have been different for every picture so i didnt bother.

Thanks

[doug grosjean]

My first guess is that *if* it's like my Epson Perfection 2400, there's a Configuration menu. On that menu, there's an option for "Automatic Exposure Correction." That can be toggled on or off. You prolly want it on.

 

The other thing is that if you include in your scan any totally black or totally white areas, the calculated exposure includes those areas, and will be way off. Try windowing just the area you want scanned.

 

Above are more than guesses, but since I have a different scanner I can't be sure they'll work for you.

 

HTH.

[colin_mattson1]

From the file you've posted, it looks like you're scanning at way too shallow a bit depth.

 

What settings exactly are you using to get your scans? A screenshot of Epson Scan (or

whatever you're using) might help others here get some insight into what's happening.

[ferensen]

Scan in RGB color. Disregard the B/W option.

[claire_atkinson]

Not sure if I made it clear or not but the picture I included is the scan AFTER I had increased the contrast and adjusted the brightness. Before I did that it looked fine, just a little flat. Ill try the suggestions anyway. Thanks guys

[claire_atkinson]

I'll post a screen shot as soon as I'm home too

[Stock-Photos]

http://www.scantips.com

[frank_dzambic]

Something is definitely wrong. I think Colin might have it with the too shallow bit depth. It looks like everything is dithered. The tonalities are so poor it almost looks like you scanned a print from an old dot-matrix printer or from a newspaper. From way back (so the pattern isn't visible) the contrast and brightness don't really look bad though.

[uncle git]

If your scanner has any kind of "Digital ICE" dust reduction technology turn it off - it won't work with B&W negs.

[kari v]

"Not sure if I made it clear or not but the picture I included is the scan AFTER I had increased the contrast and adjusted the brightness."

 

It shouldn't look like that no matter what.

I think the problem solves when you post your settings screenshot.

[claire_atkinson]

Turning the Dust Removal option off has worked, I can edit the scans without them looking like the image i posted. Only problem is removing all the dust spots in photoshop manually.

[geoff_foale]

With my Epson Perfection 3590 I turn off all automatic correction/enhancements and manually adjust Curves/Levels etc for each image then give a little tweak and sharpen after scanning. It takes a bit of experimenting to get the technique right and does take time to process. But each neg is a unique photo and needs to be treated as such instead of average batch processing to get the maximum quality.

[roger_smith4]

"Only problem is removing all the dust spots in photoshop manually."

Don't shoot conventional B&W silver negatives if you don't like the spotting. C41 process B&W or color negatives will work with dust removal.