Here are 54 scans of Velvia at 1280X1024 so you can see some detail. Subject
matter: world famous Eagle Creek Trail in the Columbia Gorge on the Oregon
side, taken 1/27/2001 on a sunny day. Total length of hike: 10 miles, 5 in
and 5 out.
These photos illustrate what I have been able to accomplish so far with my
SS4000 under VueScan and Photoshop, and they have benefited from much
information I have gleaned from this list.
When you click on a thumbnail, you will only see a 640X480 image. To see the
full resolution 1280X1024, you have to click on the 640X480 image. These
were compressed by Photoshop using maximum image quality (10), so as JPG's
go, they aren't going to get any better. The files average a megabyte each,
so may the gods give you patience if you have a slow internet connection and
you want to see the full-size images.
This is my first usage of Velvia. It is stunning, but it often produces
problems for scanning, as I document in my notes on the various images. A
couple of times, I couldn't get satisfactory results from VueScan and had to
resort to Polacolor Insight. The slides of the canyon in deep shadows
required substantial removal of blue cast with Photoshop curves, as I
mention in my notes. Often they also required adding some red. I never had
to touch green. Not surprisingly, my best results were on images that were
either fully illuminated by sunlight, or submerged completely in deep
shadows. I could not get good scans from these Velvia slides with mixed
sunlight and shadows, even though they looked great on the light table,
better than any other slide film I've used with mixed sunlight and shadows,
a lighting situation I generally try to avoid, even with negative film.
In a few cases, I have shown two different scans of the same slide, one with
VueScan and one with Polacolor Insight. In other cases, I show the same
scene shot around noon and then three hours later. In every case, the images
shot later in the day scanned much better, not to say that the original
slides were any better. The heavy blue casts of the VueScan images were not
a problem in Photoshop and removing them did not degrade the final image in
any way. I always scanned 48 bit TIFF files and operated on them in that
mode in Photoshop, then when I was satisfied converted the full-res (4000
dpi) image to 24 bits before saving. No sharpening was performed until after
decimating to 1280X1024. In most cases, the sharpening was relatively
benign: 75 strength, .75 radius, threshhold 3. I keep all 4000 dpi scans in
the original, unsharpened state so that I can fool with them later if I am
so inclined.
All of these pictures were taken on a tripod. Exposures varied from about
1/30 of a second to about 15 seconds. I took and used the following lenses
on this hike: 17mm f2.8, 20mm f2.8, 28mm-70mm f2.8, 135mm f2, 180mm f2.8,
and 300mm f4. All are autofocus Nikon lenses in current production except
the 17mm, which is a Tokina, also in current production. I shot with a Nikon
F100.
I don't mind anyone making 3X5 prints from these scans for personal use, or
using them as your monitor wallpaper.
Frank Paris
marshalt@spiritone.com
