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Creating perfect photos from your slide and negative scans with ColorPerfect: Creating Linear Scans
Suitable scans are the key to producing color integrity with ColorPerfect. The following tutorials will show you how to scan using different hard- and software.
We have compiled tutorials for numerous scanners and scanner software in this section to help you get started with ColorPerfect and editing your slide scans in ColorPos mode and your negative scans in ColorNeg mode.
What to look out for when scanning negatives and slides for further processing with ColorPerfect?
To fully harness the potential of our Photoshop plugins, it is important that your images are scanned with minimal alterations, producing results comparable to raw data.
The scanned image file must be in RGB mode with a color depth of 16 bits per channel (48-bit RGB) and ideally should feature a linear gamma of 1.0. These scans share properties with digital photos taken in raw mode, as ideally they are direct representations of light intensities captured by a CCD or CMOS sensor. There is no need to delve into covert, technically warranted corrections in the shadow regions in that analogy.
Our former plugin, ColorNeg, could exclusively process linear images. For processing negative and slide scans in the ColorNeg and ColorPos modes of the ColorPerfect plugin we still explicitly recommend linear input.
In ColorPos mode, however, gamma-encoded image material is typically expected, hence the "G/L" button must be switched to "L" for linear source material in the plugin. Its default setting "G" can be modified in the options of the ColorPos mode if necessary.
ColorNeg mode now also provides additional settings for processing gamma-encoded negative scans. This flexibility is crucial as some scanner software does not support creating linear scans. As long as all color-altering edits can be disabled, this should not pose a problem. Where necessary, the tutorials detail this process, as seen in the tutorial for "EPSON Scan".
The necessary steps to create suitable scans vary depending on the scanner software employed. Depending on the scanner software, creating a suitable scan can be straightforward or unfortunately more complex.
Please note, learning and mastering the creation of such scans is the most crucial step in successfully utilizing the capabilities of ColorPerfect with scanners. It is particularly key to achieving successful negative conversion in ColorNeg mode.
Which scanners are suitable for scanning slides and negatives, and what settings are necessary?
Scanners with an analog-to-digital converter capable of 14 bits per channel precision and whose software can write image files with 16 bits per channel are generally suitable for creating negative scans.
For scanning slides and black-and-white negative films, devices with 12-bit precision may suffice. Special techniques are necessary to create color negative scans with these devices. This involves brightening the blue and possibly the green channel through analog amplification before the actual digitalization, leading to a greater range of digital brightness values. This is feasible with tools like "VueScan Professional", "Silverfast Ai 6.x", and "Nikon Scan 4".
Some scanner software lacks an explicit option to create linear scans. However, you can often produce such scans by adjusting the gamma setting from the standard 2.2 or 1.8 to 1.0 and disabling any "Color Enhancement" or "Color Management" features.
The automatic removal of dust and scratches, such as digital ICE or iSRD, as well as hardware-based exposure or Analog Gain settings, can typically be used without issues.
Since you do not want inferior automated mechanisms of the scanner software to invert your negatives, but plan to use ColorPerfect later, the negatives should generally be scanned in a mode intended for slides or positive images. Some scanner software offers a special mode for negatives, which does not invert the data but stores it unprocessed. Such modes can also be suitable.
Your aim is always to preserve the negative as it is. This means that after you open the image in Photoshop, you will see the photo in its negative form. It may display the same or a different color cast as the original negative depending on the scan settings but will typically appear very dark. This appearance is due to a misinterpretation of the input data by Photoshop.
This is normal, benign, and desired at this point since the correct color profile with the appropriate gamma for later output by ColorPerfect should already be assigned. Whether through our utility MakeTiff or directly by the user in Photoshop before invoking ColorPerfect.
To get started simply open the scan in Photoshop, assign the desired target color space, set the Gamma C setting of ColorNeg mode accordingly, and the output data will be displayed correctly.
Although ColorPerfect's ColorNeg mode was primarily developed for processing color photos, it is also exceptionally well-suited for converting black-and-white negatives.
Detailed Instructions for Individual Scanner Software
This section of our website provides a growing number of detailed tutorials on creating suitable scans for ColorPerfect using various scanners and scanner software. We hope to expand this further and need your support. If you are working with a different scanner or software than those listed here, or if you have the localized version of a software whose screenshots shown here are from the English version, we would like your assistance.
If you have a different software version, we would appreciate screenshots via email.
If you are using completely different hardware or software not yet introduced here, it would be great if you could help determine a suitable workflow. You can do this yourself and then inform us about your findings, or you can contact us for assistance in exploring the procedure.
The products currently described for scanning merely reflect the hardware and software available to us or other users of the software. Other hardware and software may also be suitable.