![]() ![]() I’ve already covered my basic approach to getting the most from my negatives in this article, so I won’t go into them again. Its User Manual is thorough, and it needs to be because of the comprehensive range of settings available for a great number of scanner models. On the contrary, I’ve used ViewScan for years, and have scanned several hundreds of negatives, both B&W and color. And even though its User Manual doesn’t even cover any of its so-called advanced adjustments for levels or curves, I’ve experimented enough with them to feel okay about sharing my experiences with Epson Scan. I think it’s grossly simplistic and constraining to users who want to get the most from their negatives. I’ll cover some of those capabilities below. My strong preference is for VueScan because of its much greater capability to direct the V700 (or many other scanners) to read negatives having vastly different levels of density, contrast, color, and grain structure. What I share here is only from the perspective of a user, okay? Most if not all of them use Epson Scan that came with their scanner.īefore I get into this, let me say that I’m not associated with VueScan nor Epson in any way. I know none (except myself) who use VueScan (from ). I know lots of photographers who use film. Let’s compare scans from VueScan® and Epson Scan®. If your scanner (or how you’re using it) can’t differentiate very fine differences (which are actually delicate transitions) in film densities on the negative, no amount of processing and/or printing expertise will overcome that shortfall. Of course, such fine differentiation won’t matter in a print except to create smooth tonal transitions and discernible shadow and highlight textures, which are important to fine art prints of large size. ![]() The dynamic range of my V700 easily records metered values from 2EV (I’ve got a bit of flare in my Sekonic meter) and >18 EV, and it’s all captured on my negatives and, most importantly, in my scanned images. It can record differences in the highlights contained WITHIN the brightest specular highlight, recording separate tones on a negative within a specular highlight of 100% L at the center and 99.7% L from a peripheral area of the same specular highlight. My 10 year old Epson V700 (rated at DMax 4.0) can easily record tonal differences between film base + fog (FB+F)(0% Luminance, L) and an adjacent shadow luminance of 0.1% L. If you think about all the images (and/or negatives) you’ve trashed because the shadows were dumped or the highlights clipped once scanned, it might be time to question your scanning software and how you’re using it.īut first, you’ll need to trust that most modern scanners are highly capable machines. Or, you can continue throwing useful negatives away based on imperfect scans. So you need a scanning software program that can direct the scanner to ‘record’ all the grains of silver in as many situations as possible. But anytime you deviate (intentionally or unintentionally) from the ideal situation, such as pulling or pushing film, or departing from normal development time or temperature (or developer formulation), or missing the exposure reading by a 1/2 stop or so because of an aging light meter, then all bets are off. Well, you say, if the exposure is perfect and the development is perfect, won’t any scanning software accomplish the same thing? And my reply is… theoretically. Of course they’re not the same, in some of the most important aspects, including the ability to fully manage the scanner and make it do what you need it to do: Get all the detail possible from the negative without clipping (or dumping) the shadows and without clipping the highlights. Now it comes time to scan the negatives, and it could all fall apart unless you know the ins and outs of your scanner software.īut that’s all automatic, isn’t it? Isn’t all scanning software the same? ![]() You’ve been really careful developing the film. You’ve gone to all the trouble to set the right exposure and composition in your film camera. I’m not a scanning or film services vendor I’m just a film user who tries to get the most from his tools, and believes this information may be helpful to others who feel the same. This is a quick comparison of how VueScan and Epson Scan produce high quality images from negative film. ![]()
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