Quality of scanned colour negative film

[minhhich]

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Hi guys,

 

I have not been using Colour negative film much. But I started recently. Today I have a roll (fuji superia 200) developed and scanned at my local lab. Its ok for those taken outdoor but those indoor are crap as they have a green colour cast and with all the dark shadow including black objects, it becomes blue. I am so unhappy about it. COuld you guy tell me if this is the problem with exposure, scan, colour balance or...? And how to fix it please. Also some of them look really muddy.

 

Does colour negative films have colour balance? (for indoor, outdoor)

 

I attach here 2 pics of example. If anyone can help please fix them, repost and tell me how as this is so much different than adjusting a digital image from a DSLR. Thank you guy so much.

NB: these 2 images are the raw from the lab scanner. Just resize it and post up here

 

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[andybarton]

Are you sure the exposure was correct on these?

 

Colour negative film is "daylight" film. If used indoors it will be very warm.

[minhhich]

Forgot to mention I guessed the exposure on this so may be it is under exposed. But how about the blue colour on black object?

[leicamann]

First one was easy..second one you messed up or the software is "Characterizing" the neg,. which is bad..because you'll never get to it.

 

Now you need to supply some info , before we can proceed.

 

1) type of scanner and scanner software used

2) did you tweak, inside the inside the software setups before you scanned.

 

 

Things you need to consider:

 

1) flatbed scanners and their incumbent software are generally useless.

2) Use either SilverFast AI or VuesScan Pro

3) scan in 16 bit/ in VueScan thats 64Bit RGB

4) if you don't have Photoshop..get it.. Photoshop Elements and if your serious and have a 64 bit OS, Photoshop CS4.

5) get a good quality monitor

6) get a monitor calibrator

7) the best scanners are "dedicated film "scanners

Lastly the use of "Target slides" to calibrate your scanner and the us eof ICC color profiles will greatly ease the frustration of scanning.

 

and what do you mean.."Lab scanner"..please specify

 

Cheers, JRM

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[tobey bilek]

I have no trouble with scanner supplied sofware, Minolta or Epson. Keep it off automatic anything.

Experience printing color neg for 30 years helps.

 

Yes color neg is balanced for one kind of light. If you expose under tungsten it goes orange and green under most cheap fluorescents. There are hi color rendition fluorescent bulbs. Calumet photo uses them as I get good balance on a digi cam in their store. A local store goes yellow geen with same settings. Your option is to try to color correct the bad color balance indoor while scanning or use color correction filters. Indoor or tungsten color neg is mostly gone as it was a pro film and the pros who bought it are all digital. Digital is set in camera, any color bal, any speed all in one camera.

 

I would choose an 80A blue under tungsten or use flash. The filter requires 2 stops extra so your speed drops to 50.

 

under exposed negs print or scan blue black and show a lot of grain in the darks. 90% of any exposure tolerence is toward over with negative films, but there is still a quality loss. Expose correctly.

 

The first looks way under exposed. The second is very high contrast range and you can not get the right and left both correct in one exposure. With time you will recognise this in advance. Fill flash, grad ND filters, or reflectors, or wait for different light are the cures.

 

Or make two exposures and merge the shadow correct frome with the highlight correct frame in photoshop. Digi guys sometime call this HDR, but there are other merge techniques. You will need a tripod to make two identical pics changing only shutter speed and photoshop experience.

 

 

 

 

 

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[andybarton]

I thought the scanner was the lab's own scanner, not a home one

[pmu]

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Scanning issue, no doubt.

[earleygallery]

and what do you mean.."Lab scanner"..please specify

 

Cheers, JRM

 

He says he had the film scanned by the lab who developed the film, i.e. the processing laboratory's scanner.

 

Under exposure and scanning combined to make dreadful results! I find lab scans very variable, one time it will be great the next dreadful. I only use the lab CD as a digital contact sheet and rescan the keepers myself for printing (but decent CD scans are fine for web use).

[minhhich]

Thank you guys. The scanner was a laboratory's own scanner (Fuji SP2000 if I remember correctly). So basically this is the problem(the 1st one) with color balance and underexposed that fool the scanner.

[leicamann]

When scanning this week, I made a mistake on the "low pass curves" in VueScan, that's how you get a scan like that, its the fault of the Lab technician, it can easily be adjusted, guess he was lazy..best to do your own scanning.

 

Cheers, JRM