From: Liam Lawless (liam.lawless@blueyonder.co.uk)
Date: 02/17/03-10:04:54 PM Z
Michael,
I'm no expert, but I believe most scanners can recognise, and Photoshop
images accommodate, a much greater range than (likely!) exists in your
negative; the highest density in a good neg of *average* subject is around
1.55 for straight silver, around 1.8 for many of the alt processes. Your
scanner probably thinks of 3.0 or more as being "true black".
In the Levels dialogue, drag the two end sliders in to eliminate the empty
areas of the histogram. Photoshop then takes whatever tones it finds
between the two end sliders, and expands them so as to make use of the
Photoshop's full 255 grey tones. The middle slider lets you alter contrast
in the middle tones.
Why you got different results with trannies, I don't know. Maybe someone
else does?
Liam
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Sinclair [mailto:gruesomegrinch@hotmail.com]
Sent: 18 February 2003 03:57
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Scanner woes
Hello everyone,
I'm taking a workshop that includes preparing digital negatives to be
contact printed using a variety of alt processes. I'm starting from 35mm,
so I rented a Nikon Coolscan 4000 ED for a day, figuring I'd do a blitz on
my recent faves. I did slides, color negs and B&W negs.
Then I went to look at them in Photoshop. The slides were fine, but the
shots from the negs were not. Going into Levels, I found that the black end
of the histogram, from 0-23, was empty. Approx 10% of the tonal range was
missing.
Like I said, the slides were fine, but even so I phoned the rental joint;
they checked out the scanner and said it was fine. I took my negs and put
them under a densitometer; true black is definitely there. Conclusion:
somehow I screwed up the scans.
Does this ring a bell with anyone?
Thx, Michael
_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 03/04/03-09:19:09 AM Z CST