How to scan and process color negatives

CM
Posted By
Czarek_Mart
Feb 7, 2004
Views
2120
Replies
6
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Closed
I have purchased a PrimeFilm 3650u film scanner which comes with Adobe Elements 2.0 and Cyberview X. For testing I scanned a series of color negatives for which I already had prints. However, the quality of scanned images is terrible. The colors are completely off, they are terribly pink and they are not even close to the quality of the prints.
I am not an imaging expert so I don’t know how to adjust color settings with the Adobe Photoshop to get the exact setting as on the prints, but I believe there must be some automated setting to adjust the picture immediately on one click. The ‘pink’ problem seems to be common for all scanned color negatives.
Does anyone know how to fix it. It seems to be too common for not being solved. Thanks
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BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 7, 2004
I couldn’t find much information on the web about using Cyberview X, but it sounds as though you might need to make some adjustments in the scanning software itself. And are you getting this pink tinge when printing, too, or just when viewing on the monitor? The first thing you need to do is make sure your monitor is calibrated properly. From that point, on there are a wide range of color management issues that will impact the relationship between scans, monitor views, and printed output.

Cyberview X seems to be the software version for Mac OS X, right?

Here are a couple of very good sites on which you’ll find information about color management. On the first one, you may want to go back to the main page and check out the items under "Features". There’s a section in there on monitor calibration under Mac OS X which might be helpful.

<http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7-colour/ps7_1.htm>

<http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html>

I don’t find a review of Cyberview on either site, but you might find some clues about scanner settings by reading what’s been posted about other software.
CM
Czarek_Mart
Feb 7, 2004
The monitor is fine.
In fact, all slides come out good. The negatives present the problem. I kind of don’t believe that the problem must be so complicated. At the film/print developing centers like ‘1 hour photo’ I don’t think they have to individually process each print. They deal with the same negatives so they must have some automatic settings that apply to all prints.
Of course they deal with chemicals not pixels, but I think dealing with pixels should be easier than with chemicals.
DS
Dick_Smith
Feb 7, 2004
I believe the problem with negatives lies in the overall "orange" cast that the negatives have when processed. There are some software programs for scanning negatives that have a process for eliminating the cast.

It would seem that there should be someting in the documentation of your scanner or the cyberview program that would help you out.

The only time I tried scanning negative I ended up with lots of files that looked very "cyan" when viewed on the monitor.

Dick

Sorry I can’t be of more help.
BB
brent_bertram
Feb 7, 2004
I, too , believe the problem is at the scanning software level. My flatbed’s TWAIN software returns a decent colored image from the negatives. Then , there is only a little touchup required in Elements.
Perhaps the software is currently configured for slides as opposed to negative images. Hopefully, digging deeper will be successful.

🙂

Brent
NS
Nancy_S
Feb 7, 2004
Are you sure you have the scanner set for negative transparency for film? Do you the base side of film in the proper position?
BM
Brett_Matthews
Feb 8, 2004
Czarek,

The problem is that every brand of film has a slightly different orange mask. Most scanner software will only do a "generic" colour conversion. It will get the colours on a particular roll of film close, but never quite right.

After scanning, you might like to try these functions in the PSE menu. I have had some success with them.

Enhance > auto color correction
Enhance > adjust color > color cast
Enhance > adjust color > color variations

If you are willing to spend some extra money, you might want to consider buying VueScan scanner software.
<http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html>

VueScan includes specific colour conversions for hundreds of different colour negative and slide films – you just pick your roll of film from a list.

Hope this helps,

Brett Matthews.

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