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08-17-2014, 04:42 AM   #1
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Heavy grain on scanned images

I recently had some 35mm images scanned to disk for me and was surprised at the noise some of which i can get rid off by the usual methods in PS or LR at however the expense of some of the sharpness.

The film was good old Kodak kodachrome asa 200 film.

I assumed that if I went for a slower film this would improve but a couple of people have mentioned that some of the faster films are more grain free?

For both colour and B/W given I am having scans made in three sizes would you recommend?

I got per negatives scanned as:- 5444 x 3649 at 52 .8 mb and 1840 x 1232 at 6.49mb as well as 600 x400 at 703 kb

Apart from a much greater dynamic range compared to a shot with my k of the same scene and the wider field of view, I am surprised that the big tiff is not any better quality than the digital and in fact i can pull the shadows up to match the film image anyway.

Its the grain which looks like heavy colour noise thats the disappointment, perhaps it's the film or my expectations are to high?

08-17-2014, 07:11 AM   #2
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QuoteOriginally posted by adwb Quote
Apart from a much greater dynamic range compared to a shot with my k of the same scene and the wider field of view, I am surprised that the big tiff is not any better quality than the digital and in fact i can pull the shadows up to match the film image anyway.

Its the grain which looks like heavy colour noise thats the disappointment, perhaps it's the film or my expectations are to high?
there is a great chance (if you see square pixels) that the limit is the scanner not the film.
If you scanne 3200 iso film (ilford Delta 3200 with great contrast scene) with a very good scanner, you'ill see grain not square as pixels.

So far, i've always got better results in printing picture from film , than fim -> scanner -> print.
08-17-2014, 09:08 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by aurele Quote
... i've always got better results in printing picture from film , than fim -> scanner -> print.
It is also my experience. Alternatives are many times more expensive.
08-17-2014, 09:44 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by Aksel Quote
It is also my experience. Alternatives are many times more expensive.
indeed ! And printing directly from the neg prevent the damn headach due to scanning negatives and hasardous auto WB from the scanner. Especially when it come with picture with deep white or deep black in a perfectly exposed picture.

08-17-2014, 09:32 PM   #5
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It looks like you are scanning your film at almost 20 MP. In my experience that is the upper end of 35mm film. At that resolution your film needs to be perfect-perfect-perfect : meaning, perfect focus, perfect development, perfect digitization. Otherwise, you are simply digitizing grain. I "camera scan" my films with a macro lens on my K-30 and 16 MP seems to work out just fine. Smooth film like Kodak Ektar and vintage slow speed slides come out very nice. Faster negative films or poorly developed reversal films show grain. That's not necessarily bad depending on what you are trying to achieve.

What bit depth are you having your scans made? Are you working with 16-bit or 8-bit TIFFs?
08-18-2014, 10:45 AM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by 6BQ5 Quote
...

What bit depth are you having your scans made? Are you working with 16-bit or 8-bit TIFFs?
My last experience with Epson V500 Photo: 2400 dpi, 24-bit, with original Epson software.

OK, maybe there really are some tricks on how to achieve a decent quality from film scanning (without pro lab or pro scanner), but for me (so far) though the experience is that it is cheaper to scan the printed photo and the result is better. And above all, I no longer need this type of operation - all my films are digitized.

I have no experience with the camera scan - perhaps maybe I should try it sometime in the future. Just for experience!
08-18-2014, 11:50 AM   #7
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I understand that scanning films is a lot more complicated than photographing them with a good macro lens. The software processing the data and the physical film holders (especially their height) make a huge difference in output quality. People buy aftermarket software and holders. When I researched this I thought it was too complicated for me so I simply bought a macro lens, some spacers, and film/slide duplicator attachment under the Accura brand off of eBay.

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