SCANNING SLIDES WITH VUESCAN SOFTWARE

In order to get VueScan to apply its infrared cleaning (Digital ICE equivalent) to the Raw scan, you set РІР‚СљRaw output withРІР‚Сњ to РІР‚СљSave,РІР‚Сњ in a breathtaking example of user interface obscurity. Another option is 64-bit RGBI, which saves the infrared channel as a fourth channel this could be handy if some other program could do the infrared cleaning, but IРІР‚в„ўm not aware of any. РІР‚Сљ48 bit RGBРІР‚Сњ gives you 16-bit-per-channel TIFF files.

Setting the filename to (which is the default setting for the processed files) gives your Raw files the normal auto-generated filenames that VueScan normally uses. You can disable the saving of regular (processed) files, too, since those wonРІР‚в„ўt be useful. To get VueScan to save the Raw file, go to the Output tab and check the РІР‚СљRaw fileРІР‚Сњ option. (VueScanРІР‚в„ўs Raw mode should not be confused with digital camera RAW files, which are completely different and wholly unrelated.) It supports saving of РІР‚СљRawРІР‚Сњ files-and those files are actually just TIFF images that can be loaded into any image editor. Next, we have to make sure VueScan doesnРІР‚в„ўt do anything to the scanned image that we donРІР‚в„ўt want. Unfortunately, VueScan makes you guess at the adjustment and re-scan the preview until you get it right. I found it necessary to preview a frame and adjust the offset until it lines up properly. VueScan also doesnРІР‚в„ўt seem to be very good at finding the edges of the frames on a strip of color negative film, at least in РІР‚СљImageРІР‚Сњ mode. Of course, this means VueScan will no longer invert the negative or remove the orange mask, so IРІР‚в„ўll be doing that myself later. Obviously we donРІР‚в„ўt want this, or any other behind-the-scenes adjustments, so the first thing to do is set VueScanРІР‚в„ўs РІР‚СљMedia TypeРІР‚Сњ to РІР‚СљImage,РІР‚Сњ same as we use for slide film. With negatives itРІР‚в„ўs much the same: choosing РІР‚СљColor negativeРІР‚Сњ will make VueScan do terrible things to your pictures, based on РІР‚СљprofilesРІР‚Сњ it has for various types of film. With this setting, VueScan adjusts your scanРІР‚в„ўs colors to РІР‚СљcompensateРІР‚Сњ for the filmРІР‚в„ўs characteristics, neatly defeating the purpose of scanning it in the first place. One thing I found scanning slides was that setting РІР‚СљMediaРІР‚Сњ to РІР‚СљSlide filmРІР‚Сњ in VueScan is never, ever what you want when scanning slide film. VueScan does a good job, but has one of the worst user interfaces IРІР‚в„ўve ever used figuring it out is difficult and scanning with it takes a few times longer than it should, so itРІР‚в„ўs my hope that this will help others trying to do the same thing.

SCANNING SLIDES WITH VUESCAN SOFTWARE

IРІР‚в„ўm using a Nikon Coolscan 5000, with VueScan software to do the scanning. I make no claim that this is the best of all possible approaches, or that I wonРІР‚в„ўt figure out something better later, but it seems to work. But one thing that is certain is that I want to start with as faithful a representation of the film image as possible. The thing about color negatives is that there is no reference for what the image is РІР‚СљsupposedРІР‚Сњ to look like: not only is the film a negative, itРІР‚в„ўs got the orange mask. It was time to sit down and figure out a better method. Thus far my approach to scanning color negatives has been to play with it until it looks reasonable.

Scanning slides with vuescan