Scanning Problems

[Anubis]

Hi Everyone,

I was trying to scan some photos in on a second hand scanner I just bought. But the colour of the scan is rubbish. Nowhere near as vibrant as the colour in the original.

I tried changing Contrast and Brightness settings before the scan but nothing came close. I tried modifiying the colour in photo editing software, but again no useable result.

Does anyone know a surefire method for bring the colour in to line with the original?

Cheers,,

Bryan.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Decent scanning software and calbrate your scanner?

 

[Anubis]

As far as I know, scanning is handled by the scanner's own twain software and cannot be changed.

As for the photo software, i have Paint Shop Pro and Ulead Photo Impact.

I think it may be a case of I don't know which settings to modify for best effect rather than the software is not good at its job.

So if anyone knows which settings to change i'd be grateful!

 

[BLS]

Hi, Bryan. I'm a negative film user, so whenever I want to post a photo on the internet I need to use a scanner.

Mine is a flatbed scanner that scans prints, not negatives. The scanned image always differs from the print in 2 ways : the colors in the scan are less vibrant and the focus is ever so slightly soft. This is true no matter what settings I use when I do the scan.

I use PhotoShop to sharpen the scanned image (Unsharp Mask), and that works pretty well. I also try to correct the color with PhotoShop, but I have never been able to get the color to match the print.

You might want to try a negative scanner. I understand that they work better. I had some of my negatives scanned by my local photo lab and the colors actually matched to print.

Hope this helps solve your mystery.

 

[Anubis]

thanks for the info BLS, my gf has a film scanner in her office so I'll give it a try.

Hopefully I'll be switching to digital within the year and won't have to worry about it any more