[ismaelg]

Hello,

Getting to know Vuescan, I ran into a bump in this road. I have version 8.6.50.
I preview this particular strip of negatives. If I select the second image it looks properly balanced and "exposed" to scan. But if I select either the image on the left (some flowers) or the image to the right, (half moon) Vuescan goes wacky trying to adjust it. I want to keep the settings of the second image. I played around but can not make it stop changing it. How do I do that?
Here are some screen shots of what I mean:

Selecting the second image and it looks properly


close up


Selecting the first image to the left


close up


selecting the last image to the right


close up



I don't fully understand the lock exposure setting, as I see no change using it. I did read some articles online but no luck. I also played with Color balance and curves to no avail.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,

[klh]

I'm no expert having just purchased Vuescan last week, but I had a similar problem. Here's what I found.

You've got the Color Balance set to "White Balance". Supposedly Vuescan is trying to "adjust it to make neutral colors appear more neutral".

Your second photo is already averaging out fairly neutral due to the large amount of white and gray, so Vuescan is not adjusting color balance much. By adjusting on the first photo, which is mostly reds, Vuescan is adding green (or subtracting red and blue - I can never figure that out). When setting on the last photo, which is mostly blue and dark, Vuescan is again fooled. I wish I could see the histograms to explain better.

Now, what I did to fix that problem was to use the Neutral or None settings and adjust my color balance in post process (if necessary).

Hope that's somewhat helpful. I expect my explanation has some problems, but since you hadn't got a reply, I thought I'd try.

Kevin

[pasipasi]

This tutorial helped me a lot: Better colour neg scanning with VueScan. | Urban Motion

[John Poirier]

I'm no expert having just purchased Vuescan last week, but I had a similar problem. Here's what I found.

You've got the Color Balance set to "White Balance". Supposedly Vuescan is trying to "adjust it to make neutral colors appear more neutral".

Your second photo is already averaging out fairly neutral due to the large amount of white and gray, so Vuescan is not adjusting color balance much. By adjusting on the first photo, which is mostly reds, Vuescan is adding green (or subtracting red and blue - I can never figure that out). When setting on the last photo, which is mostly blue and dark, Vuescan is again fooled. I wish I could see the histograms to explain better.

Now, what I did to fix that problem was to use the Neutral or None settings and adjust my color balance in post process (if necessary).

Hope that's somewhat helpful. I expect my explanation has some problems, but since you hadn't got a reply, I thought I'd try.

Kevin

Hi Ismael. I've been out of town and back late, hence no reply. I think klh is on the right track generally speaking. I'd add Auto Levels to the list of settings to try, though. I've never really liked the white balance function in Vuescan.

I'm pretty wiped right now, so I'll get my scanning computer going tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

Just out of curiosity, do you have the Epson Scan software for that scanner, and does it have an advanced mode?

John

[ismaelg]

Thank you all!

UPDATE:
I played around with the Color Balance but could not make it stop changing from frame to frame. Even in MANUAL or NONE.
However,The tutorial helped me understand better a few things. (pasipasi, thanks a lot for the link!)
I found a workaround for these situations. Not sure if it's the best way but after calibrating the film as per the tutorial, I'm scanning beyond the image's borders, including the film areas between the images and a bit into the adjacent images. Then I crop as needed.
Here is the scan of the famous red flowers after a bit of post processing. (It looks oversharpened when resized)


The Moon picture is still fighting but that is not your average picture.

But here is one of the best scans of the day:


Thank you all again! I'm having fun with this.

Regards,

[John Poirier]

Thank you all!

UPDATE:
I played around with the Color Balance but could not make it stop changing from frame to frame. Even in MANUAL or NONE.
However,The tutorial helped me understand better a few things. (pasipasi, thanks a lot for the link!)
I found a workaround for these situations. Not sure if it's the best way but after calibrating the film as per the tutorial, I'm scanning beyond the image's borders, including the film areas between the images and a bit into the adjacent images. Then I crop as needed.
Here is the scan of the famous red flowers after a bit of post processing. (It looks oversharpened when resized)


The Moon picture is still fighting but that is not your average picture.

But here is one of the best scans of the day:


Thank you all again! I'm having fun with this.

Regards,

Nice to see you making progress again. I'm home late after another long day, so finally replying.

Another workaround that might help with something like the moon shot is to get your settings right for an easier shot such as number 2 in your first example, using auto levels or white balance, then switch to manual mode and select the moon shot. That should apply your settings for number 2 to the moon shot and get you closer to a decent scan.

By getting things right for frame 2, you established baseline data that should give reasonable results for all other shots on the same roll of film provided they are exposed roughly the same. When you switch to manual mode after getting that baseline, the settings are applied to whatever frame you select. Unlike auto levels and white balance, manual mode does not attempt to individually adjust each frame, so you are locking in both exposure and colour balance. Hope that helps, or at least makes sense.

I think I'm looking at another long day off-island tomorrow so won't be answering messages until late if at all.

John