Scanning and color correction

[pan2]

I just got my first scanner, an Epson V39. I've been using it to scan prints in the default mode: 300dpi, no color correction. Some of these photos are old enough that the colors have changed and the've developed a red cast. On a lark, I tried turning on color correction in the Epson scanner software and found it did a better job than I was able to do with Lightroom on the non-color corrected version. (I'm experienced with Lightroom, though not an expert).

Clearly, I should just use the color correction mode, except I've already scanned a lot of photos without it. Is there anything magical happening at scan time that I can't recreate after-the-fact with the appropriate (consumer-grade) software and skill set? Assuming no magic, can Lightroom do this or do I need PS? Any advice on how to do this with Lightroom or otherwise is welcomed!

 

[Doug Pardee]

Is there anything magical happening at scan time that I can't recreate after-the-fact with the appropriate (consumer-grade) software and skill set?

Just that the scanner software understands that it's working with scanned images, probably film, and has a lot of special smarts built in for those conditions.

Assuming no magic, can Lightroom do this or do I need PS? Any advice on how to do this with Lightroom or otherwise is welcomed!

The easy, but not cheap way, is to buy the Kodak ROC plug-in ($100 US) and set it to "Optimize for Film". There's a free trial available, but I don't know what the limitations are on that. Yeah, the Kodak plugins are old, but they seem to do a good job. However, because they're old they only work with 32-bit software, not 64-bit, so you'll have to install and use it in 32-bit Photoshop.

I've seen at least one recommendation for ColorPerfect ($67 US), which is available with 64-bit processing. I can't tell if they've got a free trial or not.

[I haven't personally used either of those... I'm not an Adobe user... so I can't personally vouch for them.]

Or you could just go back and rescan the problematic photos. It'd probably be faster than trying to load, adjust, and save each one.

 

[D Cox]

It is probably quicker to scan the dud ones again than to spend time on each one in Photoshop Elements (or whatever you are using).

You may find that in some cases the scanner gets it nearly right and a final adjustment with software is an improvement.