Re: filmscanners: Novice scanner

["Mark T." <markthomasz@ozemail.com.au>]

At 09:44 AM 21/11/01 -0500, you wrote:
>I have an Acer ScanWit 2720S and Epson 1270 printer, and I'm using 
>Photoshop 5.

Ditto here.

>...All of the prints I've made so far, color and B&W, exhibit excessive 
>"grain."  I'm told that it isn't really grain, and I agree that it 
>probably isn't since it is quite prominent in B&W images shot with Ilford 
>Pan F, a film that has no grain problems.

If you're doing a lot of b&w (in fact no matter what you are doing!) get 
hold of Vuescan at www.hamrick.com.  On another list this same problem 
appeared, and the victim was amazed at the difference Vuescan 
made.  Miraphoto makes some lousy choices if left to it's own devices, and 
you can end up with noise in places it shouldn't be..  My Acer does have 
some problems with grain-aliasing in deep shadow areas of colour negatives, 
but I doubt if this is your problem with Pan F.  Re grain-aliasing - there 
are a number of helpful techniques discussed on this list some time back - 
if you want a copy give a yell..


>...Some of the prints are banded, but not all.  In one case, there even 
>appears to be banding in the scan!  But in scans that have no apparent 
>banding, I still get banded prints at times.

Unless the banding is in the same position on the print as on screen, it is 
probably inkjet cleaning time...  there are some scanner faults that might 
cause this, but if they are not always appearing on screen, it sounds much 
more like a printer issue.

>...I'm very frustrated that I can't dodge and burn in B&W images.  I've 
>read an article about simulating these functions by using multiple layers, 
>but I haven't learned about layers, yet, and the whole thing was over my head.

Be patient.  I'm still struggling with layers.. :-(

>I feared that this technology would not satisfy me after so many years in 
>a darkroom, but I thought it would at least give me acceptable results in 
>color.   So far, it's worse than I expected.  I'm sure that much of the 
>problem is due to my lack of knowledge and experience with the 
>software.  I also suspect that some of it may be the fault of the scanner.

If you got one of the good Acer's (they seem to have a few quality control 
issues, but mine is great), then keep at it..  Having played with both 
Nikon and Canon 4000 dpi-ers, I have decided that the Acer is excellent 
value for money..  So give it a bit more of a chance :-)

mt