I'm finally getting around to converting my negative 35mm and APS film to digital. I have a Nikon LS-4000 ED, VueScan, Lightroom 4, and Photoshop CS6. What would be recommended workflow? Should I scan everything unretouched by VueScan then import to LR4 and do my grain and scratch removal there? Haven't looked too much into it yet but was hoping to get pointed in the right direction.
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Workflow suggestions scanning LS-4000 ED, VueScan, Lightroom 4
- Thread starter Winger67
- Start date
B
Basalite
Guest
I use a Canon FS4000 for my film scanning and Vuescan and this is what I do.
1- First, I accepted not everything was worth scanning. It would have also taken much too long to do. Not worth it.
2- In Vuescan I generally scan my negatives at the default settings after choosing my film type on that settings tab. You need to double check you are happy with the way the film type profile works for your particular film. It may not produce accurate results for whatever reason. Try another if that's the case. Essentially what I am looking for is no unusual color casts and that the contrast gives a slightly flat looking picture to preserve whites and blacks. For negatives 0 for both the black and white level will essentially preserve all the detail you see in the film under a loupe but it will yield an extremely flat picture that will require a bit more work. That may be worth doing for overexposed images. I also make sure Vuescan has nailed the focus as it doesn't always for certain film or frames.
3- With canned air I blow film in holder, then brush with a super fine bristled painter's brush, blow again.
4- Scan with infrared dust removal enabled and for 16 bit tifs. Not sure if your Nikon has infrared dust and scratch removal but if it does definitely use it and figure out which setting reasonably gets rid of dust and scratches while preserving detail/sharpness. I don't use any of the other editing options like grain, etc, as I think they are lousy, but results may be different with your scanner. And of course no sharpening.
6- Examine scanned frames at 100% for proper focus and to see how effective dust removal has been. For more important frames or strips of film I wet clean the film in 99% alcohol. First I dip for around 15 seconds, then I take out and gently wipe both sides with a wet 100% piece of cloth and then do a final dip in another tray of alcohol, shake off excess and hang to dry. I then scan them again. Each cleaning I use a different strip of cloth and replace the rinsing tray of alcohol frequently.
7- For really special images I may do a multi-pass scanning to reduce noise but for my scanner it ads a lot of time.
8- I am now using Lightroom 5 as my primary photo editing app with Paint Shop Pro X5 as my external editor and I get fantastic results. I couldn't be happier. For noise reduction I use Neat Image. I also do not sharpen in Lightroom.
I think I covered most everything. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
BG454
Veteran Member
I don't know about Infra-red dust removal, since I have never used it, but in my experience ALL the so-called filters you can introduce during the scanning process degrade the Image Quality to some degree.
For that reason, I scan all my important 35mm slides and negatives as 16-bit TIFF files using VueScan, with no filters or adjustments applied, and then spend a lot of time fine tuning them in my editor program. This might result in large image files, but it's nice to have some "headroom" when making adjustments.
I too use PaintShop Pro X5 and find the healing brush and scratch removal tools invaluable.
I also use Topaz plug-ins for sharpening ("Detail"), image enhancement ("Adjust 5") and noise reduction.
I keep everything 16-bit as long as I can, and only convert to 8-bit at the final stage if required, depending on how the final output is to be used.
For that reason, I scan all my important 35mm slides and negatives as 16-bit TIFF files using VueScan, with no filters or adjustments applied, and then spend a lot of time fine tuning them in my editor program. This might result in large image files, but it's nice to have some "headroom" when making adjustments.
I too use PaintShop Pro X5 and find the healing brush and scratch removal tools invaluable.
I also use Topaz plug-ins for sharpening ("Detail"), image enhancement ("Adjust 5") and noise reduction.
I keep everything 16-bit as long as I can, and only convert to 8-bit at the final stage if required, depending on how the final output is to be used.
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B
Basalite
Guest
If your film scanner has infrared dust removal I think you'd be nuts not to use it. At least with my Canon FS4000, the lowest setting in Vuescan gets rid of most dust with no reduction in sharpness or any other degradation of image quality. If you compare two of my scans, one with infrared dust removal and one without, they look absolutely identical at 100% except most of the dust spots are gone with the infrared scanning engaged.
In the worse case scenario with my 4000 dpi film scans it would take days just to correct all the dust in just one frame if I didn't use infrared dust removal.
Thanks for the tips! With Vuescan I see I can output the raw CCD data to DNG. That way I can import to Lightroom or read back into Vuescan for editing. Everything else besides the infrared scratch and dust removal can be done after the file is saved. Any down side DNG vs TIF?
I'm on the fence for using infrared scratch and dust removal for APS since the self contained canisters seem to keep it pretty clean. What I'm appalled by is the amount of grain on APS. Maybe I'm expecting too much from zooming into a small negative. Neat Image looks like it does an awesome job. Might have to buck up for that.
Haven't worked with 35mm much yet. I might try capturing those with a DSLR setup after I've gone through the 50 rolls of APS.
I'm on the fence for using infrared scratch and dust removal for APS since the self contained canisters seem to keep it pretty clean. What I'm appalled by is the amount of grain on APS. Maybe I'm expecting too much from zooming into a small negative. Neat Image looks like it does an awesome job. Might have to buck up for that.
Haven't worked with 35mm much yet. I might try capturing those with a DSLR setup after I've gone through the 50 rolls of APS.
Where can we see the two scans you mentioned in paragraph 1?
By the way, you have provided some very helpful information. Thanks loads.
BG454
Veteran Member
Thanks for the information.
My Minolta Scan Speed does not support IR dust removal, and I have not had any experience of it's use. It sounds like a highly desirable feature, but unless I buy another scanner I'm not likely to be taking advantage of it. I made my comment based on the fact that a lot of the so-called "dust removal" filters will remove small specks, but always at the expense of fine image detail, and for that reason I prefer to scan at as high resolution as I can with no processing, and then remove dust and hairs later, manually. It is, of course, very time consuming doing it that way.
B
Basalite
Guest
No where. I don't have my scans online. That said, this is what it looks like with Canon's software from a review of my scanner.
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www.imaging-resource.com
You are welcome.
B
Basalite
Guest
Yep, I do all my scans as raw for future processing with Vuescan. Keep in mind that even doing that there are features/settings in the making of the raw scan that are obviously only available at the point of scanning such as exposure (RGB and Infrared), focusing, multi-pass, and some others that will vary depending on your scanner. So even if one does raw scans one has to be sure those preliminary functions/settings are the way you want them.
No downside at all. It is by far the best way to scan with Vuescan, especially with a dedicated film scanner and if you want the best results. Infrared dust removal also works with the raw file when using Vuescan. You can reprocess the raw file and turn dust removal on or off and adjust the level of dust removal because the raw file contains the infrared information from the infrared scanning pass.
What scanner are you planning to use that will also process your APS film. My Canon does it with the APS adapter but I don't know of any other scanners that do APS.
Yep, smaller sized film will do that. I feel the same way about 35mm.
To be fair, most dedicated noise reduction software are competent. I already had Neat Image so I continue to use it as it is still competitive with the other noise reduction software on the market. It is certainly far better than what's included with Lightroom 5.
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B
Basalite
Guest
Infrared dust removal is a two step hardware and software process. The scanner is actually making another scan pass with infrared light to identify dust and scratches. Software then kicks in to fill in those identifies dust spots using color from the unaffected surrounding pixels. That's a lot different to a simple software filter trying to figure what is dust and what isn't. The later definitely messes up image quality.
That's an understatement.
The Nikon LS-4000 ED has an APS adapter. Think I bought that as an option.
I think I'm going to upgrade to Lightroom 5 anyway. I'll give the noise reduction a quick try then if I'm not happy with the results I'll try Neat Image.
Thanks again!
B
Basalite
Guest
Lightroom 5 is definitely worth the upgrade. I don't think the noise reduction part of it was improved in any way.
B
Basalite
Guest
Update to my previous response to you. Here is an older screenshot comparison I found from my Canon FS4000 film scanner and Vuescan showing the difference between infrared dust removal and none at all. It is the corner of a 35mm frame so ignore the softness of the lens. It is a 100% crop of a 4000 dpi scan. It is on the highest dust removal setting and as you can see there is no affect on detail and sharpness beyond dust and scratches. Click on the original size option!
Just guessing but that crop represents around 3-4% of the entire image area. Imagine having to touch up manually the entire picture, especially areas like a sky. Works amazingly well if you ask me.
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