[Swift1]

Hey all, I have an Epson V500 and the Epson scanning software. I have been trying to scan a roll of Velvia RVP without doing to much to change the colors. All my scans have a distinct red cast to them.
The settings I have been using are,

Professional Mode
Unsharp Mask- Medium
Digital Ice on
Color control is set to Continuous Auto, Gamma 2.2
Auto exposure is set to Mid Point.

Once I get a preview scan then I play with the histogram a bit to get the lighting how I want.
I try not to do any color adjustment because I am trying to keep as much of the "Velvia" color as possible.

Here is one of my recent scans
P67, 45 f/4, Velvia RVP


This photo was a bit under exposed which may be partly to blame for the red cast.
The concrete below the bick should be more gray.


Any tips/help in getting better scans using this setup would be much appreciated,

Swift1

[Canada_Rockies]

I use a different scanner, but in the options I have several different film types. Perhaps you have a Velvia option? or at least a Fuji option? Sometimes I get weird colours also.

[Lowell Goudge]

this may be a dumb question but.

are all the shots like this or only this one.

The reason I ask is that this may be a result of shadows and the light reflected off what ever color surfaces were there providing light.

Normally in a shade shot I would have assumed a bluer tint, but if the surroundings have red in them, then the light reflected off the surroundings would influence things.

It was, however, easily correctable by using the tire sidewall as a white reference.

Although the image is dark I assume daylight since there is a bright brick wall showing in the top right,

what do you want it to look like?

[Swift1]

Thanks for thew responses guys.
Lowell,
all my scans have the red cast if I leave the color adjustments alone.
I am mainly trying to get the scan to look like the transparency. This photo was taken during daylight on a sunny day in the shade.
Last night I played around with another shot from the same roll. I got the red cast out but the colors are much less vibrant. I printed a copy and compared the print to the slide and didn't look near as good.
I think I need to recalibrate my equipment and also keep playing around with scanning till I get the hang of it. I am still a beginner at the whole scanning thing so I have much to learn.

Swift1

[Lowell Goudge]

I guess the other question is, how old is the shot?

I went back and looked at some of my old slides, or more importantly the scanned images.

Some of my old kodachromes look a little reddish. Not sure if they always did, but then again that was part of the kodachrome look, nice and warm, where as ektachrome was always blue and cold.

I guess the question is, how much leway do you have with the scanner adjustments and how much in an image editor.

I played a little more boosting saturation and then correcting WB (the change in saturation upset that a little) and got some pretty bright colors.

It may be a question more of post processing, I think the image is there, and while I am sure it frustrates you that it is hard to get the look you want right out of the scanner, you may actually want to think about it another way. You want the maximum image information out of the scanner, and go for the look in post processing,

Also remember that in terms of being "flat" the scanner may have a default low contrast for slides, knowing that slides are generally a high contrast medium.

If all of your scans come out with the cast create an action in Photoshop to eliminate it. Then run the action on your scans. You'll never keep the color "feel" of the film. Scanners just don't have that depth.

[ptempel]

Have you profiled your scanner with some software and a Kodak Q60 target? I remember using Monaco EZColor a few years ago since it was fairly cheap and could do it. Haven't shopped for profiling software lately so don't know what else is out there. Once you have a color profile created, then you can tweak the settings.

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Last edited by ptempel; 02-18-2010 at 02:51 PM.

[MikeW]

Ptempel has good advice. Profile your monitor and then profile your scanner using a scanner target. I also got the MonacoEZColor a couple of years ago. It works well, but there are newer and probably better ones available now. It was money well spent. Scanning got much easier.

FYI, Wolf Faust makes some very good (and inexpensive) calibration targets using Velvia and other film.
Affordable IT 8.7 (ISO 12641) Scanner Color Calibration Targets

I understand there are scanning profiles for Velvia, but have never needed to track them down. You could also make your own to your own standards once you get your system profiled. I found Tim Gray's book very helpful.
blog:
Tim Grey’s Blog
book:
Amazon.com: Color Confidence: The Digital Photographer's Guide to Color Management (0025211443163): Tim Grey: Books

[photographer15]

Epson is a good scanner, Velvia is a good film. I am a professional photographer in Holland and used Velvia and Fujifilm often. Your scan is a bit soft, and blue cyan. I worked a bit on ur scan on photoshop and think it looks better, right? See if you can change your basic scan a bit this way, maybe just by automatic scan? just try a bit. Good Photo !!!!

[Ben_Edict]

Hey all, I have an Epson V500 and the Epson scanning software. I have been trying to scan a roll of Velvia RVP without doing to much to change the colors. All my scans have a distinct red cast to them.
The settings I have been using are,

Professional Mode
Unsharp Mask- Medium
Digital Ice on
Color control is set to Continuous Auto, Gamma 2.2
Auto exposure is set to Mid Point.

Once I get a preview scan then I play with the histogram a bit to get the lighting how I want.
I try not to do any color adjustment because I am trying to keep as much of the "Velvia" color as possible.

Here is one of my recent scans
P67, 45 f/4, Velvia RVP


This photo was a bit under exposed which may be partly to blame for the red cast.
The concrete below the bick should be more gray.


Any tips/help in getting better scans using this setup would be much appreciated,

Swift1

Every scanner needs colour adjustment! You can do it visually, if you don't want to invest in colour calibration - but calibrating yields better, more consistent results.

I do not remember the Epson scan software, as I use Silverfast for slides and negs, but even VueScan will provide much better results and has an integrated calibration tool - you just need the test targets.

BUT nevertheless what you would do here is: Make a prescan. Adjust the colour within the scan software by means of curves mainly, which at the same time optimize brightness and contrast. Only the last tweaking should be done with any colour correction tool. Then save these corrections as presets for Velvia. The next time you scan Velvia you simply apply the preset and your basic corrections are in place. This should be possible with almost any scanning software and the Epson software wasn't that bad, if my memory serves me.

In the example image, it looks as whether you have a too low colour temperature selected for the slide. If you simply make a white balance adjustment with the eye dropper (use the white wall of the white rim on the tires), most of the blueish tint should be gone already.

Ben

[guidoanselmi]

I have a V500 and have had the same issue with scanning velvia and provia. The scanner doesn't have issues with other films (I tried ektrachrome and I don't think I had the same issue).

OTOH, I just got silverfast and should probably try running it through that.

[Swift1]

I haven't checked this thread in some time so I didn't see a few of the replies.

Thanks for all the great info and help. I have done a lot more scanning since I first asked the question and feel I am starting to get better at it and am more happy with the results.

MikeW I got the book by Tim Grey not long after I started this thread and it has been very helpful.

Ben Edict I will try your suggestion of making a preset for Velvia.