I was wondering which of these degrade image sharpness (and general quality)
I know Digital ICE can affect sharpness a bit but what about
Digital ROC
Digital GEM
Digital DEE
Scan Image Enhancer.
Which ones do you tend to leave alone?
(I have found that using Scan Image Enhancer is needed to make the slide look 'right' - ie as it does on a projector. Wihtout it, the contrast is wrong - (too dull).......but does it degrade the image?
Personally, I would say that you should try the assorted settings for yourself - what one person might not like could be what you DO! I use a Konica Minolta film scanner and I keep all the built in filters switched off for high res scans but keep the ICE on for smaller scans. It takes a little extra time to clean up any dust etc (with ICE off) but puts control back in my hands rather than letting the software making decisions.
MATWSIJ.....
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Hi Nod,
I have had a quick try with the settings. I have found that DEE softens the image but the other filters don't (to my eyes) degrade the quality. Without Scan Image Enchancer, many of my slides slightly lack contrast, however it sometimes overcooks and I find the 'enhanced' image looking more grainy. It's a tricky one
Am I right in thinking that I can correct the contrast in Photoshop afterwards? I've already scanned 600 or slides (still got 1400 to go!) and I don't want to have to re-do them!
Personally I would only have ICE turned on and do any colour/contrast corrections in Photoshop afterwards.
Hi Meredith,
I've heard many people on this forum saying that they perform USM and virtually everything else AFTER the scan in Photoshop.
Can I assume that Photoshop doesn't degrade the image - (e.g. if you're performing an autosmartfix, auto contrast, auto colour correction) and assuming that you save with no compression?
As long as you don't keep saving, closing and reopening JPEGs, Photoshop shouldn't degrade images. Using Photoshop's auto corrections may not be the best way to do everything though, setting the parameters yourself gives the control back to you rather than letting the software decide what's best. Having said that, with 2000 files to correct, it will be a LOT faster to set up an automated action to apply all the auto corrections while you do something else for a while.
I've always done scans on a film by film basis so have been happy to "play" with each file but if I was faced with 2000 I would probably go for the automated route. Having said that, I would keep an original set of files just in case the corrections were no good.
MATWSIJ.....
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I use a Coolscan 5000 and keep ICE turned on as getting rid of dust etc in Photoshop is just too tedious and I'm not convinced that I can do it as well as the scanner can. Generally I don't use any of the other settings.
Nod/Large Format.
Upto now, the only setting I have used extensively in NikonScan is ICE. I also alter the basic red,green,blue and the brightness prior to scan, to make it look as 'normal' as possible.
I anticipated that dust removal in PS would be arduous. However the most tedious part of this (for me) is the actual scanning. I usually end up do 2 scans because I don't want ICE on if I can possibly avoid it...but in many cases the 'raw' scan is peppered with dirt. I have a rocket blower and aerosol spray which are of little help!
I suppose I will end up keeping all the original raw scans and then having an edited version as well (where needed). Not every scan needs the PS treatment - probably about 1/3 at the moment.
When I scan I don't keep the original scan in a separate file. I use adjustment layers to do all the tweaks in Photoshop which leaves the original data untouched at the bottom of the stack. I save the files as .psd which keeps all the layers and I can go back at a later date and retweak if I want to.
Scan at 16bits per channel / 48bit overall and then any adjustments performed later in Photoshop won't degrade the image quality.
ROC is a tool for reconstructing colour on a badly faded slide or colour negative.
GEM is a tool for reducing the impact of film grain. If you use it this will have a softening effect and when you sharpen the image (unsharp mask) it will bring back the grain, so not much point.
DEE never used it so don't know what it does.
Scan image enhancer. probably it will do what it 'says on the tin'. Again I have never used it so can't explain further.
Bear in mind if you use any of these they will slow down you scan speed dramatically so use only if absolutely necessary.
Oh!When I scan I don't keep the original scan in a separate file. I use adjustment layers to do all the tweaks in Photoshop which leaves the original data untouched at the bottom of the stack. I save the files as .psd which keeps all the layers and I can go back at a later date and retweak if I want to.
Scan at 16bits per channel / 48bit overall and then any adjustments performed later in Photoshop won't degrade the image quality.
I've been scanning at 8 bit colour to keep the file size down. (My eyes can't see any difference between 8 and 16 bit BTW)
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