Understanding Curves

[chris_burck1]

<p>I've been sloughing my way through the scanner learning curve, no doubt made<br>

doubly steep by the fact that I'm not able to apply myself at it on a consistent, regular<br>

basis. I have a Microtek S400 clone which does not output RAW files. So far, I've been<br>

using TIFF as the file format. Since learning that Silverfast won't work with my scanner<br>

due to its oddball clone nature, I've limited myself to the Scanwizard software that came<br>

with it (it actually seems fairly capable, but my experience is limited to this device, so what<br>

do I know. . . .), and since I don't have Photoshop or any other 'advanced' photo editor,<br>

I'm trying to learn how to adjust the scanner output to where it's at least reasonably<br>

close to what I'm looking for in the final image.</p>

<p>The question I'm wrestling with right now has to do with curves, and how to use them.<br>

Do curves in scanning have anything to do with characteristic curves? You know, with toe<br>

and shoulder? This was what I though at first, but have found the output doing unexpected<br>

things when I try to set a curve like that. Which may mean that I really don't understand<br>

characteristic curves (I probably don't), and/or that film response curves and curves adjustments<br>

in scanning, just don't translate, so to speak (looking in the archives, I've so far found only<br>

one entry where someone offers a concrete example of a curves adjustment in scanning, and<br>

it was a gently sloping 'upward' or 'convex' curve, but that was for color slides, and I'm scanning<br>

b/w neg).<br>

Apologies for not being more specific, but I'm still grappling with these concepts. I will try and<br>

post some images, or links, as I complete my current batch of negs.)</p>

[steve_mareno1]

<p>I wouldn't fool w/ any of that. Just get a decent scan and do everything in post. By the by, you won't be able to get RAW files, as that's a digital thing. It's nearly always better to get your image "fixed" in post, not in scanning.</p>

<p>Here's some good, free photo editing software choices. You will absolutely need to get something going on this end.</p>

<p>http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbasedwin/tp/freephotoedw.htm</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>You might like to post the curve that's causing the problem, but in general it is the case that wet printing will involve a material with a characteristic curve somewhat like that of film, whereas a scanner will tend to have a curve which is more linear (i.e. has a longer straight line portion). I must confess I've not felt the need to adjust scanner curves, the most obvious thing to do would be to flatten the gradient to reduce the contrast of scans if you feel this is excessive.</p>