Re: Scanning Slides with Nikon Coolscan V ED

Richard Karash wrote:
There have been a lot of threads about scanning, so this is one more.

I'm looking for the best way to easily get good slide scans from the
Nikon Coolscan V ED.

Here's what seems to work best with Nikon Scan 4.02:

- Set the film type (Slides vs. Kodachrome vs. Negatives)
- Generally, I turn off Curves, Color Bal, Unsharp Mask, and LCH.
- Digital ICE = Normal, except OFF for Kodachrome
- ROC = OFF
- GEM = 0-1 and later remove noise with Noise Ninja. Else 2-3.
- DEE is a STRONG control. It saves shadow detail in chromes by
reducing contrast. I have some images that were greatly improved by
using DEE=30-50, and others that are killed by DEE more than 10. I work
with the preview, adjust DEE and click "Redraw."
- Analog gain -- I don't touch it.
- Scan Image Enhancer = OFF. (This is like "Auto Levels" right?)
- I scan at 14 bits color, 4000 ppi; that is a BIG file.

Then to Photoshop, crop, apply Noise Ninja where required, make
adjustments, reduce to 8bit color, and call this my archival file.

For print or screen, I start with the archival file
- Change resolution and crop as needed
- Smart Sharpen
- Save as jpeg

Any comments? Anybody else have a good formula for the Coolscan with
Nikon Scan?

-=- Rick

P.S. I've seen complaints about Nikon Scan here, but so far, I find it
easy to get good scans.

After preview I set the grey point and dark and light end. Also, curves if necessary. This way I get a final scan that leaves me enough marginal for working in Photoshop. It is better to do these things while you are scanning.
Archival file is 16 bit tiff, I save it on DVD. Working file for Photoshop is 8 bit jpeg, that is good enough for printing in A4-size. Whatever I do in Photoshot, reducing noise (Neat Image) is always the very last thing I do in my workflow. Smart Sharpen or USM is not always necessary at all. All of the working files I save on two hard disks, internal and external.
Consider using VueScan. Very, very good scanning program, even better than Nikon Scan. Use glassless slide mounts.

Väinö Louekari
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Scanning Slides with Nikon Coolscan V ED
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