Inverting scans

[DavidStone]

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I'm just in the process of scanning one of my old BW negatives. Using Vuescan and importing into LR3. For a largeish print, scanning as tif gives me a file of 96Mb, whereas scanning as dng gives just 18Mb. Obvious choice, I thought.

 

But …. The output from Vuescan as a tif is a positive, as expected. The dng file, however, with the same settings, comes out as a negative. And I can't find any way of inverting it either in Vuescan, or in LR3. Am I missing something?

 

And please don't tell me to buy PS.

 

David

[microview]

Does this help? Google search will show other methods.

Update: Inverting Your Images in Lightroom 3

 

Later: Yes, clever, works for me with colour image just as described.

Edited January 14, 2011 by microview

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[DavidStone]

Does this help? Google search will show other methods.

Update: Inverting Your Images in Lightroom 3

 

Later: Yes, clever, works for me with colour image just as described.

 

That is just toooo clever. Why didn't I think of that? And of course simple, and logical. Obviously not the kind of thing that Adobe would put in their help file. I'm going to keep an eye on that Laura. Thanks for the tip.

 

David

 

P.S. Just tried this, but there are no points at the extremities of the linear curve, and no obvious way of adding them.

Edited January 14, 2011 by DavidStone
addition

[01af]

Does this help? Google search will show other methods.

Update: Inverting Your Images in Lightroom 3

 

Later: Yes, clever, works for me with colour image just as described.

That's bad advice. The principle is correct but the curve is too simple. You will get terrible tones and colours that way. Rather than a straight line from top left to bottom right—i. e. {(0, 255); (255, 0)}—better use a curve similar to this:

 

{(0, 255); (32, 80); (64, 32); (128, 16); (192, 6); (255, 0)}

 

... that is, a curve that looks similar to a hyperbola (or the upper half thereof). This non-linear curve will yield more natural tones and colours with most colour negative films. Each film will need slightly different settings so use this curve as a starting point only—but the basic shape should always be hyperbolic.

 

When scanning negatives (colour or black-and-white) then aim for a scan that looks rather flat and is on the darkish side. If your scanner has settings for a 'linear' scan then use these.

[DavidStone]

Does this help? Google search will show other methods.

Update: Inverting Your Images in Lightroom 3

 

Later: Yes, clever, works for me with colour image just as described.

 

A new day here in northern Europe, and I took your advice on a Google search. Plenty to chew over. I'll get there eventually.

 

David

[stunsworth]

I'm sure there's a Vuescan setting that does what you want. I say that because when I tried the DNG option a while ago I had the same problem until I selected it. I'll take a look when I have a chance.

[stunsworth]

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I've had a play with Vuescan and think I have the answer.

 

On the output tab option "Raw output with" should read "Save", and then check the "Raw save film" box.

 

That should give you correct DNG files.

[DavidStone]

I've had a play with Vuescan and think I have the answer.

 

On the output tab option "Raw output with" should read "Save", and then check the "Raw save film" box.

 

That should give you correct DNG files.

 

There's a bit of a mystery here. A couple of days ago I sent a question about this to Ed Hamrick, and got a brief answer which seemed to say the same as you have said.

 

But when I go to the Output tab, I've got Tif DNG, but there's no RAW option. And I have got, according to the app. info., the pro edition.

 

Am I missing something obvious (it has been known)?

 

David

[stunsworth]

Here's a screenshot of my output settings, as you can see I'm not using the "Tiff DNG' option, but the RAW options further down the screen...

 

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[DavidStone]

Thanks for that, but I've kind of solved it. I changed Font Size to 12 in the prefs tab, because it was set to 16 for some reason. Back in output, suddenly there is the RAW option. As a matter of interest, I changed back to 16 again, and the RAW option is now there, large as life. I promise you I looked very carefully and that tab was definitely not there. And I only had half a glass of beer at lunchtime.

 

A minor bug perhaps, or even a gremlin?

 

Looks like we're up and running.

 

David

 

P.S. I have the current edition of Vuescan, just updated, and this was the first time I'd opened the update.

Edited January 16, 2011 by DavidStone
addition

[tobey bilek]

Just move the curve to top left to bottom right.

[DavidStone]

Just move the curve to top left to bottom right.

 

Yes, I finally worked out how to add the points to enable me to do that - I actually had to resort to reading the instructions. And I saved it as "invert".

 

But of course all the processing procedures are reversed. So I think that the Vuescan option might be the one to use.

 

David