Scaning and shapening

[Assaf]

Good evening friends,

I have to scan many 35mm BW pothos. The final results should be 900 pixels wide, for online galleries, and 1280 pixels wide for full screen presentation.

I wonder what's the best combination for acheiving best shapness:

1) What is the scan resolution you use? Final resolution or higher and then you reduce it?

2) JPEG, TIFF or DNG?

3) In what phase do you sharpen? Scan software, PS raw converter? PS? Do you sharpen at all?

I use Epson V700, Vuescan and CS3. I must admit that my minilab automatic color scans (using Noritsu) look much sharper and more vivid than the ones I do at home. However, I still prefer scanning the BW negs myself.

Thanks for your answers and take care
Assaf

[mfogiel]

For really best results, you should scan as Tiff at about 4000dpi and bin 4 in 1 - lookup advanced functions in Vuescan, - there is an option for Tiff reduction. This way, the scanner wil interpolate information from 4 adjacent pixels and generate 1 pixel which best rappresents the tonality registered. This way you should get an image about 1300 pixels wide - you might want to sharpen it later in PS (don't bother sharpening before) applying both the "microcontrast" sharpening (20,60) and "edge" sharpening (from 0.5 to 3, 200). Be careful when edge sharpening not to enhance the grain. if you are a precision freak, you could first scan at 6400 dpi, then edge sharpen (2,200) and later reduce to the desired pixel size, and contrast sharpen if desired. I was getting some artifacts when scanning at 6400 dpi though.At the end you convert to jpegs. Your Noritsu scans have more contrast, because Epson V700 above 1600 dpi or so is producing a very soft image, which has to be sharpened and adjusted substantially to get even - nothing to worry about for this type of resolution requirements.

[Spyderman]

I do not use any sharpening at all. It looks rather un-natural to my eyes. I only use curves to adjust contrast. You can go check my online pictures by clicking the "Flickr" link in my signature.

[Assaf]

Many thanks mfogiel!
I tried scanning at 4000dpi+reduction. However, I'm not sure that I understand which PS sharpening options you refered to. I have in PS - filter/shapern and then
Sharpen
Sharpen Edges
Sharpen More
Smart Sharpen...
Unsharp Mask...

I tried scanning as you said, to 4000 and also to 800 and 800 with Vuescan sharp filter. I must admit that all looked quite soft before adding PS shapening.

If it's OK, can you please guide me how to scan to 900 pixels resolution so I'll be able to post it and we'll see if it's OK?

I'm not such a shapness freak, but I recently bought Zeiss Planar which appeared to be sharper than a samurai sword in minilab work. I don't manage to achieve same shapness at home.
Many Thanks for your kind help!
Assaf

[lZr]

Assaf, if you want output for screen, sharpen is the last resource, if at all you need it. Scan with unsharp=on and decide/image.
Screen is 92 dpi (Mac) and 72 dpi (PC) at most and you can scan 1200 dpi, size down and sharpen.

[Assaf]

Lazar, didn't you use sharpening in your color images from d-spot?
If so, then either I'm doing something wrong or something is not OK with my scanner.

[lZr]

Assaf, I use sharpen as the last step. Sometimes sharpen can be bad. If you change colors or lighting, sharpen (if you need) as final step after resize

[Assaf]

Thanks!
Assaf