Working with some newer features of VueScan-

a paradigm achieving software.

By David F. Stein

Scanning a Black & White Negative on a Flatbed Scanner

Welcome. Like many photographers today, I have found scanning of traditional silver halide film negatives and then printing by inkjet to be a wonderful way to combine the traditional with the contemporary. We can photograph with a 100-year-old view camera, a 1950s folder or a pinhole wonder, then use and interpret our image in many ways. It is not a repudiation of what has come before, but an enhancement.

In this tutorial, I will illustrate a working method for Ed Hamrick's VueScan program. My goals are to help newcomers to the program through it's interface; demonstrate my working method with flatbed scanning (Old-new fashioned I admit-I am not a batch scanner, although VueScan is designed to be highly efficient at automatic-pilot, batch scanning!); and illuminate some of the remarkable features of this program.

In fact, let's first highlight some of what does set VueScan apart from other scanning interfaces I know of and make some working "reminders." This is written from a Macintosh perspective, but most things should apply to the Windows or Linux platforms. Not everything that follows will look "perfect" or perhaps be as good as others can do. That's what the real world of scanning is like. I hope, most of all, you will learn how VueScan might work for you.

Other tutorials in this series cover color negative scanning and reflective flatbed scanning of art work (done with an earlier version of VueScan-it's hard to keep up!). In the future, I hope to add a tutorial on scanning from disk images (the VueScan "raw" file). For best viewing, I suggest setting your browser TEXT to VERDANA. I have enjoyed e-mails from VueScan users and am always welcome to suggestions or questions. THANKS.

FEATURES

• VueScan holds both the Preview and Scan in memory. (Actually VueScan's new Scan from Preview feature means that if you set the Preview dpi appropriately, you can adjust a Preview and achieve a final Scan image with only one pass of the scanner across the film!)
• VueScan can generate a RAW scan file. You can later "re-scan" this file to your heart's content-including applying features added in the future.
• There are no Twain or Plug-in drivers-hurrah!-VueScan interfaces directly with your scanner. Thus, in Mac OS 8 or 9 (Classic Mac), there are no troublesome extensions to worry about.
• True 16-channel output in black and white or color, plus dust and speck removal (infrared channel) on scanners that have that feature.
• An extensive range of pre-sets for just about any color negative currently or recently made.
• VueScan is now a Carbonized Mac application and requires OS 9 or OS X.
• Among newest features: an RGB probe, a monitor profile dialogue (Mac users, add .icc to your ColorSync profile.), B&W or color curve adjustments, and a "clipped" pixel indicator.
• Also new: under OS 9, a VueScan prefs file is now created (which holds your serial #) in the System Folder under Preferences. Still, if an application has difficulty in classic OS, deleting the prefs file and the vuescan.ini file are first steps in troubleshooting. Keep that serial number handy.

REMINDERS

• You must turn ON additional features within each TAB, at the bottom.
• You do need ample program memory-142 MB is the minimum.
• VusScan will scan in discrete resolutions, up to your scanner's hardware max, i.e 300, 600, 1200, 2400, plus an extrapolation algorithm has been added
• Double-check the VueScan Mac Release Notes re: your specific scanner.
• In Classic OS, the VueScan folder MUST be on the Desktop. In OS X, it can be anywhere.
• No folders or pathways with / backslashes.
• Leave some desktop real estate about the VueScan window-redraws will work better.
• VueScan is updated constantly, often as 2 to 3 times a week. If you are having difficulties with the latest release, don't fret. Retreat to the last one that worked well for you and watch for new releases.

HOLD ON TO YOUR SCAN BELT, HERE WE GO! A LITTLE TRAVELLING MUSIC, RAY BLOCK.

• My basic setup and Preview. I am doing a transparency scan of a B&W negative at 16-channel output. Preview has been set to 300 dpi for good on-screen quality when Zooming In. Scanning is set at 1200 dpi, the hardware max of this particular scanner. Upon scanning, VueScan will automatically save the output file.

• Don't neglect to set File Type (here 16 bit Gray) in both the DEVICE tab and the FILES tab. By using the manual sizing dialogue, I find that the 14.2 MB file will have enought data to print about 7-1/2-inches square, at "supply to the printer" output of 360 dpi-my standard for Epson inkjet printing. If you look carefully, one of the cropping marks can be seen.

• A few more items to set. For film type-I am using Kodak, TMAX-100 and TMax CL = .55. I generally don't move these much, finding there are more powerful ways to fine tune the Histogram. TMax CL = .55 refers to the Contrast Index, similar to developing black and white film to a target gamma. Higher settings may help with specific images. I've set my File Color Space at Adobe RGB and I will next navigate to my Colorsync Monitor Profile, shown here:

• Time to check out the Preview Histogram. This is what it looks like with the Black and White starting points and B/W curve set at Log (medium). We are overboard-or clipped at the highlight end (RIGHT of curve) and have plenty of room to open up or expand the shadows (LEFT of curve).

• Here, I've moved the Black point and White point both out to zero. I guess you could stop here and scan-doing as many adjustments as possible in 16-channels in Photoshop or a similar image area. My own philosophy is to use the scanner controls to pre-visualize an image as best as possible and, ideally, be able to open the scan output in an image editor and hit PRINT. Sometimes, you can.

• Let's have some fun. I've reset the Black and White points to expand the Histogram. And here's what the Preview now looks like.

• I think it's valuable to adjust pre-scan both by "look" and by the Histogram-try both and see what the resulting files are like-we can go too far, as it were, and came back. VueScan or any image editor is a great place for "what-if" experiments.

• Here's one-what if I apply the Sharpen filter. I've decided not to use it before scanning. Note also VueScan's new RGB probe. Two of the cropping marks show well in this screen shot.

• A final tweak before SCANNING-changing B/W curve to Log (dark), giving richer shadow representation in the Histogram. I find this setting works well for many of my B&W negatives.

• Name our TIFF output and RAW output and we are ready to scan.

• Well, almost. An application can be associated with the TIFF (or JPEG) output in the PREFS Tab.

• Hit the Scan button. This screen shot captures nicely VueScan's "tips" feature.

• The detailed progress dialogs are another excellent feature of VueScan..

• The resultant SCAN Histogram. This is where we will stop for now. In the future, I will augent this tutorial on separate pages, (thanks for the suggestion), demonstrating Scan from Memory, the Grain Filter, and the "clipped" Pixel feature. PLEASE STAY TUNED.

Thanks, Ed Hamrick, for your ingenuity, dedication and generosity with information. If the reader has any questions, suggestions or corrections, please e-mail me, and I will do my best to help you.

A final note. We don't always have to make things "harder than they seem." I have taken color, black & white and chromogenic (Ilford XP-2) negatives, scanned them on a flatbed scanner (with transparency adapter) prety much automatically, opened the scan in Photoshop and with little or no adjusting HIT THE PRINT BUTTON and made an excellent print. All through one of Epson's fine inkjet printers-using ColorSync and Epson Color Management on "auto-pilot." Even Quadtones. We must keep things in perspective-the fun and the exploration and the communication-when we investigate "the rest of the story."

Other tutorials in this series include:

• Flatbed scan of a color negative.
• Reflecting flatbed scan of art work.

Please check here for a PRACTICAL article on Pinhole Photography that I wrote for the Luminous Landscape web site.

All images, text and page design ©DFStein 2002, 2003. Thank you.