Re: Epson V600 color (examples)

Hi, John -

I'm still learning the ins & outs of the Epson V600 purchased a few months ago -
especially the ins and outs of the VueScan software (I ordered a manual on-line,
but it never arrived, so I've been fumbling around a bit).

Here's an example of a VERY difficult back-lit slide that I've worked on several times over the years.  It looks fairly decent when projected, but it's been a real challenge getting a print that shows much - if any - of the pilot or running gear.  If it weren't one of my all-time favorites, and of some histörical interest, I'd have given up on it long ago.

Here's an almost final edit of a scan done a few days ago using the Epson software. I had set the input option to "open shadow", hoping to pick up some of the shadow detail, but the scan had a lot of little red speckle "noise" in it - especially after I employed the PhotoShop "lighten shadows" tool, and I'm still not pleased with the color of the sagebrush and the left side cylinder cover:


And step zero of today's scan using the VueScan software set to 3 passes and 48-bit color (converted to 24-bit .jpg and resized for the NGDF):


Step one is to lighten shadows and darken highlights 25% each BEFORE converting from 48-bit to 24-bit, in order to minimize generated noise.  This VueScan file was MUCH cleaner than the Epson - probably due to the three-pass scan. Normally I would manually de-spot at this stage, and save this file as an archive:


Step two was brightening 25% and upping contrast 5% (I've skipped the tedious de-spotting step to get this posted before midnight - I'll go back and de-spot the "archive", then try variations of this easy step before making any further adjustments and color corrections):


- Rússo

p.s. For a comparison to results from my previous scanner - a Canon 9950 - and to a drum scan done in the "olden days", see [ngdiscussion.net].