Art of scanning

[don_hall]

Does anyone have any reccomendations for books related to scanning

for photographers ? I just purchased a Microtek 1800f for scanning 4X5

transparencies for output to an Epson 1280. The choices are staggering

!! Any help or tips would be appreciated.

Don

[www.graemehird.com]

I can't recommend any books, but you'll find a lot of very good information at www.scantips.com You might find that you won't want a book after reading the information there.

 

Cheers,

Graeme

[ellis_vener_photography]

You are actually asking about color mamanagement.<P>Basically take the

scan straight (no sharpening, curve or levels adjustment, color corrections,

etc.) Scan in 16 bit per channel mode at the highest resolution you have and

work in the Adobe (1998) RGB colorspace, Do your manipulations in

Photoshop, either the mighty professional Photoshop 7.0 or Photoshop

elements 2.0. <P>If you want to be very picky you might get a custom made

HutchColor IT8 target and use that in conjunction with OptiCal software from

ColorVision (or the similar software from Monaco) to create a calibrated

profile of your scanner and your output (printer+ specific ink and paper

combination.) but that might be more than you want to spend right now.<P>In

the meantime try to get a copy of <U>Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for

Photographers</U> by Martin Evening or a copy of <U>Real World

Photoshop 6.0</U> by Bruce Fraser.

[todd frederick]

I am in the same situation you are in and I am flying by the seat of my pants.

 

I bought a wonderful flatbed scanner with trans adapter from a photo.net member which will scan negs from 35mm to 4x5. My biggest problems are with 35mm. 4x5 is not a problem.

 

I think the equipment is advancing faster than the books can be printed.

 

My suggestion is to experiment, play with it, go this want and that, waste ink and paper, or to find a friend who knows how to do it. The more I play, the more I discover. I just learned how to retouch!

 

I just got back into 4x5 after many years away. Since I don't have a 4x5 enlarger that works at this time, I am doing contacts in the wet darkroom, and "enlarging" digitally.

 

Hey...I don"t know what I'm doing either!!! but here is one sample from a very old neg I took in the late 70's that I digitally scanned a few minutes ago.

 

I tend to oversharpen these images, so I'm going on the softer side this time. I have a lot to learn.<div></div>

[todd frederick]

Ellis...I hope we are now friends...but, I didn't understand a thing you said!!! ;>)

 

A local friend suggested I take a community college course in Photoshop...

 

Actually, this friend was a sutdent of mine when he was in my 4th grade class many years ago, and now he's giving me instructions...teaching me something!...what a wonderful blessing for any teacher! I think that is a great idea.

 

I am a visual and a tactile learner, and I don't understand how to do things when people tell me verbally. I need to do it and have someone show me. Books are of no help.

 

Check out what your local community college has to offer.<div></div>

[todd frederick]

Sorry...didn't mean to insert the sample photo twice.

 

Seriously...Check out community college classes in photoshop or digital imaging. I'm going to do that.

[light-zone]

Glad to see you recognize that you are over sharpening. That mistke is quite common, with the old adage, if a little sharpening is good, then more must be better....NOT.

It also depends on the output of the image as to the method of sharpening to use.

 

As far as pre-press books are concerned, there are two that come to mind. The first is Real World Scanning and Halftones / Peachpit Press / ISBN-0-201-69683-5

 

And

 

Scanning the Professional Way / Osbourne / ISBN-0-07-882145-2

[michael_fox]

The books mentioned above are good. Also, subscribe to Photoshop User magazine. If you need a more visual learning experience for Photoshop, I've found the videos on www.photoshopuser.com to be good as well as the CD training from software cinema.

 

I found I had to take notes or I'd forget the various details. How'd they make that luminance mask again? What was the trick to making an edge mask for the unsharp mask filter? How did they convert the alpha channel to a layer mask? Things like that. So as I read the books and watched the videos and CDs, I compiled my own personal manual. This way I don't forget an important step in my calibrated workflow and I have quick access to each of the techniques I've read about. No searching video tapes or stacks of old magazines. The effort was tough at the beginning but is now more like the tail end of an exponential curve. Each time I read something, I check to make sure I've captured it in my manual. Most things are now in there but some things get better explainations from a different source so I'll make an update.

[leonard_evens]

As someone already suggested, start with

 

www.scantips.com

 

for the basics of scanning. But scanning is only the start. Don't worry too much about getting an optimal scan, just make sure that you don't clip either the shadows or the highlights. You can then adjust further in a photoeditor. The scanning software does basically the same thing you would do in the photoeditor from the raw scan.

 

I strongly recommend getting Vuescan

 

www.hamrick.com

 

You can try it for free and if you pay the $40, you get a registration number which removes the pattern overlaying the scan. If you are going to be doing color work, it has some neat features which can save you a lot of effort in the photeditor.

 

I work mostly with the Gimp under Linux. There are also Windows and Mac versions, so if you don't already have Photoshop, you might consider it. The best introduction to basic photoediting I've found is "Grokking the Gimp" by Corey Bunks. There is a link to it at the Gimp website

 

www.gimp.org

 

It is oriented towards the Gimp, but the basic principles also apply to Photoshop.

 

Photoshop has lots of bells and whistles, but a serious photographer will find that the most important tool by far is the curves tool. A large format photographer who has done darkroom work and is familiar with the Zone System will find it quite natural. Professional Photoshop by Dan Margulis is the best exposition I've seen for how to use Photoshop. It is oriented mainly towards CMYK and prepress, but I found it extemely helpful working under the Gimp with RGB and making inkjet prints. Even with Photoshop, you don't have to switch the CMYK unless you are going to be submitting your work to commercial presses.

 

One final bit of advice. You need to have some basic understanding of what is called gamma. Your first assumption will be that this is the same as gamma or contrast index for film. But, although related, it isn't. You can find several expositions of gamma for digital work on the web. Search for Charles Poynton, who is the recognized expert on the subject. There are also some unconventional views espoused vigorously by some people with fancy web sites, which contradict what Poynton says, but Chris Cox, one of the designers of Photoshop, thinks they are nonsense. It is probably best to stick with the conventional view.

 

In connection with gamma, it is pretty important that you calibrate your monitor. There is some expensive software out there for that, but you can do it yourself and get pretty close. Photoshop provides a gamma tool, but I find it is not too accurate. You might start with Norman Koren's web site

 

www.normankoren.com/index.html

 

I also like

 

www.cs.berkeley.edu/~efros/java/gamma/gamma.html

 

Under Windows I use the Adobe gamma tool to vary gamma, but I use the applet at the above site to estimate it rather than the Adobe applet. Under Linux, I use xgamma.

 

Don't think about calibrating the printer until you are comfortable that you have the monitor approximately right. Of course, you will probably want to go back and recalibrate both as you get experience, but remember this is not "rocket science". Getting reasonably close usually suffices.

 

Norman Koren has a lot to say about printers. Again you can get commercial software at great expense which will help you. But I find I do pretty well with test prints. In your photoeditor, you can make some step wedges in gray and also in each color R, G, B. Then print them out on your Epson 1280, making manual adjustments to various settings. The default settings should be pretty close to start. But don't expect perfect agreement between what you see on the screen and what you see in the print. The latter depends, for example, a lot on the lighting in which you view it, and also the printer inks and phoshors in the monitor have different responses.

 

One warning about the 1280. Epson printers have a tendency to clog if not used frequently. You should make at least one print a week and/or run a cleaning cycle. Use the nozzle check to see if you need a cleaning before making a large print.

 

I spent a lot of time mastering scanning, editing, and printing on the 1280. I don't claim to know everything there is to know, but if you get stuck, I may be able to help you on the basis of my experience. Feel free to communicate with me directly.

[don_hall]

Thank you all for the very informative responses. A lot of good info and some good links. I will continue experimenting. Thanks again

Don

[brian_ellis3]

The guy who maintains the scantips.com web site (Wayne Fulton) also self-publishes a book entitled "A Few Scanning Tips." "A Few" is a misnomer - the book is some 200 pages long. The equipment references in my copy, which was written in 1998 or so, are now way outdated but I nevertheless found it very helpful when I first started scanning. There may be a later edition than the one I have. I think it cost about $20 and I ordered it through his web site as I recall.

 

I respectfully disagree with Ellis Veneer's recommendation of "Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers" by Martin Evening unless you're already very knowledgeable about Photoshop. I bought the 6.0 version of this book and found it way over my head with my rudimentary knowledge of Photoshop at the time. The book that was better for me was "Photoshop 6.0 Artistry" by Haynes and Crumpler.