Help with first scan

It looks good on this end - a little selective USM on the bird's head is perhaps needed but that has nothing to do with the scan

The scan looks fine. More USM as EJ said and maybe lighten it up some in the midtones to bring out more detail in the perch. I use the same scanner and usually have to take out some of the blue which I cools the colors down a bit. Great image.

Mike Wilson wrote:The scan looks fine. More USM as EJ said and maybe lighten it up some in the midtones to bring out more detail in the perch. I use the same scanner and usually have to take out some of the blue which I cools the colors down a bit. Great image.

Thanks Mike and EJ, I understand how to do selective USM on the head, how do you lighten up the midtones-would you use curves-if so I know how to do that. I assume you would do the midtones and the USM in PS, not during the scan?

john j. henderson wrote:how do you lighten up the midtones-would you use curves-if so I know how to do that. I assume you would do the midtones and the USM in PS, not during the scan?

You can either use curves or levels. When using levels, move the middle(midtone) slider to lighten or darken the midtone values. I would do everything in PS and not do any sharpening or brightness changes with the scanning software.

Mike Wilson wrote:

john j. henderson wrote:how do you lighten up the midtones-would you use curves-if so I know how to do that. I assume you would do the midtones and the USM in PS, not during the scan?

You can either use curves or levels. When using levels, move the middle(midtone) slider to lighten or darken the midtone values. I would do everything in PS and not do any sharpening or brightness changes with the scanning software.

Thanks Mike, so lighten the whole image another 1/2 stop or so. The original slide was fairly dark but I shot it dark to save the whites. The exposure latitude of the film must be fairly shallow because it was only 1.0 hrs after sunrise and it was not overly bright or contrasty. When looking at the histogram in Nikon Scan, it cover the whole range from 1-255 with most of the peak at the low end but sufficient data in the 1-10 range of whites.

You are getting some good advices from Mike already ...
I too would leave all the manipulation in PS after the scan, John. :roll:

I read somewhere to do most adjustments of color in the scan preview before scanning, but I'm not sure where now. In any event, I use the same scanner and I tend to use the Nikon Scan software to adjust the curves and levels slightly before I scan (Photoshop allows you to import with Nikon Scan as your TWAIN source). I suppose it doesn't make a huge difference although if you do this, you will see that you can make further more fine adjustments after the scan. I tend to prefer the results with this method (adjusting prior to scan and fine tuning post-scan) but I'm sure it can be done either way.

Looks good from my end John !!! You can also use plug-ins that allow selective sharpening !!!

btw is that at the Venice Rookery? That bird looks familiar

AForns wrote:Looks good from my end John !!! You can also use plug-ins that allow selective sharpening !!!

btw is that at the Venice Rookery? That bird looks familiar

yes, it is venice about 10 days ago.

what plug-ins allow selective sharpening? I have used NIK and PS USM

John, scans never reproduce the sharpness that's on the slide and they tend to muddy up the darks. Other than sharpening this up a bit, you could run this through the shadow recovery filter to bring out more detail in the blacks. It's a nice shot.

Alan Murphy wrote:John, scans never reproduce the sharpness that's on the slide and they tend to muddy up the darks. Other than sharpening this up a bit, you could run this through the shadow recovery filter to bring out more detail in the blacks. It's a nice shot.

Alan, what is a shadow recovery filter

I would try to do as much adjustment as possible within the NikonScan software--that way you start with all your pixels intact in Photoshop (where any adjustment you make is discarding pixels). Rather than make significant changes at the preview level, I do most adjustments after the scan is finished, but before saving the file, which allows me to see the results at a 100% view. Here, I suspect you might benefit from an S curve--i.e., fix a midpoint (not necessarily the midpoint), then pull the bottom half of the curve to the left (brightening the dark areas of the image). That will take the top half of the curve to the right (i.e., darken the whites). That probably isn't necessary here, so you might want to lock down the top of the curve before pulling the bottom half to the left. Velvia is famous for going dark very quickly with underexposure.

john j. henderson wrote: Alan, what is a shadow recovery filter

John, in PS CS, if you go to Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlight. Play with the sliders until you like what you see.

Alan, thanks-I have used the shadow/highlight tool before, just never knew it was a filter

John Photokit Sharpener will allow selective sharpening. It is a very sophisticated program with lots of features. You can find a review in the Luminous Landscape http://www.luminous-landscape.com/revie ... ener.shtml