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Old August 16th 04, 11:03 PM
RSD99
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Sounds good ... but jus to be sure include a raw scan of a well-known target ... such as
an IT-8 target for which you have the data, or an image of an Macbeth color checker ...
with your archives.





"Gary Whitehead" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

I wish to scan ~3-4000 slides, for two reasons, one to have the images
available electronically but mainly to have a safe archive/backup of the
images (most of these slides cover the period when I used to work for the
British Antarctic Survey, are c20 years old and I would be gutted if I lost
them...).

I've had a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED for a couple of months, and have spent the
time becoming familiar with it.... and colour management. On the colour
management issues I am now just starting to get a good overall idea of how
things work (and I must admit it was not simple, and I am speaking as a
lapsed physicist!).

I would like to scan these slides ONCE - i.e. I would like to get it right
the first time. I intend to scan at 48bits and 4000dpi (i.e. the max
resolution of the scanner).

Can anyone comment on the scenario below:

---------------------

* 16bits/channel / 4000dpi
* Raw scanner RGB at - gamma 1.0 - (Nikon colour management turned off).
* Only processing performed by the scanner being digital ICE
* Scanner calibrated using it8 targets and resultant icc profiles used to
perform conversion to the working colour space (presently Wide Gamut RGB)
on import of the raw gamma 1.0 files to Photoshop

----------------------

I am aware that there is a somewhat heated discussion on the subject of
gamma 1.0 editing, which is not what I am proposing here. My concern is
complete retention of the data delivered by the scanner. My reasoning is:

* The scanner sensor has a 16bit resolution.
* I acknowledge the sense in outputing a higher gamma file when using 8
bits/channel in order to space the resultant resolution perceptually.
However when performing such a transform on the full bit data all I see is
an increase in spacing of the scanner resolution at the shadow end at the
cost of lost information in the highlights. I.e. I see no gain.
* The scans are archival - I might wish to use the data in a couple of
decades, with display technologies that may be completely different from
today (i.e. why gamma encode the data with a value that derives from
today's display technology).

I would be particularly interested to hear from people in the high gamma
camp(!), since I would guess from the gamma 1.0 camp I am going to hear "Go
for it". The only potential problem that I can see here is whether the
application of a gamma 2.2 curve through Photoshop/icc profile is any less
accurate than in the scanner itself. I acknowledge that there may be
others I have missed....

Cheers,

Gary Whitehead.



N.B. I too fought with the colour management on the scanner, and gave up in
near disgust. Wolf Faust's targets, and resultant ICC profiles gave the
best results I had seen within minutes of generating them!