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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> scanning old 35mm negatives
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 08/23/2007 04:18:29 AM · #1
hi guys,
anyone got any experience with scanning 35mm negatives?
I just bought a Plustek 7200i scanner but the files it saves (12bit Jpgs) wont open in my (rather old) version of Photoshop (I've got version 5). Can I solve this by just getting myself kitted out with a brand new PS CS3? I was thinking of upgrading anyway.
When I save the scanned images as tiff, I can open them in photoshop but they just don't look right. Even though I scan them as a "positive" image it loads as a negative in PS and when I change into a positive image in there it looks all wrong (very undersaturated and washed out).
(The software that came with the scanner is called "silverfast" and I can't find a way of changing the output to an 8=bit jpg...)

Any tips or suggestions?
 08/23/2007 07:04:14 AM · #2
If you're scanning a negative, then make sure you actually scan them as a negative - scanning negatives as positives or positives (i.e. slides) as negatives will give you unsatisfactory results on any scanner, not just yours.

Do your JPEGs open in anything else e.g. your web browser?

I would think that scanning to TIFF files instead of JPEGs is better anyway. JPEG is a lossy format (i.e. you lose information every time you save the file), while TIFF is a lossless format (all of your information will be in the file).
08/23/2007 07:44:17 AM · #3
As paddles said, sounds like silverfast is set to scan a negative as a positive. That will always produce poor results. If you are actually scanning negatives, set the software for negative, and if it allows you to set the type of emulsion, use that setting as well. You should get much better results.
As for JPEG, unless it's saving to the newer JPEG2000 format, which has never been really adopted by anyone, the older JPEG format is only 8-bit. You do want to save at a higher bit depth, so use TIFF, then if your final output is to be JPEG, once you have your editing done, save as an 8-bit JPEG.
 08/23/2007 09:42:40 AM · #4
thanks guys,
I'll try scanning as a negative and saving as a tiff and then taking it from there for further editing and processing in PS.
if all goes well I'll post an exampel result on here very soon!
Cheers.
Ingrid.
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