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High end scanners - Negative inversion (Lasergraphics etc..)


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Hello all!

 

I recently acquired a high-end drum scanner for stills and while looking for the best scanning method one point remains unclear to me : "The negative inversion".

So i was wondering, what is the negative inversion technology behind motion picture scanners like Lasergraphics and Arriscan XT ?

 

Can we upload a negative (with orange mask) .Tiff file in the software of these scanners and convert it into positive?

If yes, where can i get these softwares?

 

I'm shooting Vision 3 500T / 200T on my still camera to accompany my upcoming film,

 

 

Thanks all!

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Do you have software to drive the scanner? I would think, though I've never had a drum scanner, that that function would be part of the scanner software.

 

If not, maybe Vuescan software could make the conversion, even if it can't drive the scanner itself.

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Hi Bruce,

 

Yes i have the software of the drum scanner but it's an old software and people say that manual inversions through Photoshop is such more suitable..

 

So i thought that modern High end motion picture scanners have certainly an elaborated technology for inverting negatives, and i also shoot motion pictures films on my still camera, inverting through Lasergraphics or Arriscan XT software can be really interesting..

 

What do you think about Vuescan?

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Vuescan works as does Photoshop. Any software that can link to and import scans from a film negative scanner, will be able to invert the image. I have many times with Kodak Portra film stock which is a close cousin to Vision 3 and the results are great.

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Thank you Chris,

 

Actually i'm trying to figure out the best workflow / negative inversion process for my setup which is : "Drum scanner + Motion picture film negative", and i want to explore every paths..

I would like to try the Lasergraphics / Arriscan XT software, i feel like the results can be truly interesting so if someone has it or has an opinion about the best negative inversion process, please let me know..

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Hi Bruce,

 

Yes i have the software of the drum scanner but it's an old software and people say that manual inversions through Photoshop is such more suitable..

 

So i thought that modern High end motion picture scanners have certainly an elaborated technology for inverting negatives, and i also shoot motion pictures films on my still camera, inverting through Lasergraphics or Arriscan XT software can be really interesting..

 

What do you think about Vuescan?

I'm not sure that Photoshop has any built in function to remove the orange mask on the negative. But, Vuescan does and seems to work pretty well. I don't shoot movie film for stills, but I'll guess that by selecting the Kodak Portra choice in Vuescan will get you in the ball park. I think Vuescan can open a .tif image to work with. Vuescan is also pretty cool in that it can drive almost any scanner every built, but probably not drum scanners...

 

I do have some experience using the 5218 to 2383 LUT in Photoshop to convert from LOG positive film scans and the result is very movie film like. This would suggest that the Portra film is not so different in color reproduction than movie film. I actually like this workflow as it retains the "film look" for my color negative film stills. Otherwise, scanned film can look very close to a digital capture, but with grain :)

 

I made this scan using Vuescan of Portra 400, processed using the Kodak film emulation LUT in photoshop the other day, and I think it retains well the "film look" :)

post-4387-0-20246300-1552241832_thumb.jpg

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HI

 

No motion picture scanner software I know of has a facility to ingest a file and export it as you would want.

 

Furthermore none of these software packages will even run without the scanner attached to the computer, LaserGraphics Scan Station, Xena, Arriscan, DFT Spirit-Bones etc. all are proprietary and dependent on the scanner hardware to be there.

 

Have you looked at the Silver Fast software? I think they support older scanners with their newer software.

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There's no "technology" per se. On the Northlight, it's done by altering the color of the light going into the scanner with a physical filter. This eliminates the orange cast. The scanner is also calibrated to the density of the film, typically by looking at an area of unexposed film (frame line, or the area between perfs). On the ScanStation, the color of the light can be adjusted because it uses discrete R-G-B LEDs to create a white light source. So when you select Negative, you see a slightly bluer light than when you work with positive film.

You could remove the orange digitally after, in photoshop. There are plenty of how-tos out there that cover this. If you have large batches, you might look into doing it with something like ImageMagick, which lets you script these sorts of color adjustments. 

But for desktop software, I'd agree with Rob - check to see if SilverFast works with that scanner. it's pretty widely used for connecting to old scanners, and may just do what you need when it scans. 

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I am experienced drum scanner user (not only) and interested in Lasergraphic 16k output for 35mm stills. Anyone?

To make story short: most drum scanners are 12 bits and very worn that means fine details are lost due to register error.

Also wrote inversion plugin back in 2004 for Photoshop.

My sample scans (Scanmate): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByP8kkW_h00uY0ZfdDQwa2ZCMGc

Edited by Jacek Zagaja
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