ColorPerfect Software
Recently I have started to take color photos again. This is tied up with a renewed interest in may MPP MKII large format camera and recent purchase of a Fuji G617 panorama camera. I also find that the excitement of black and white can fade with me as well.
Large format film is very expensive new and so I had pruchased some time back a box of slightly expired Kodak Portra 400 film to experiment with. Scanning this I found the usual frustration I have with negative film. I cannot get the colors to look right consistently without a lot of effort. This is true with non-expired film for me and I actually don’t think the expired nature of the film impacts this situation next.
On my Epson V500 scanner I use Vuescan software and when I scan Fuji Velvia reversal film I find some simple corrections of levels gets me quick good results. There is nearly always a shift of the red channel histogram that is offset towards brighter compared to the other colors. Getting this realigned on the black edge removes most of the red cast. Then sometimes some weaking of the other color levels to gett he white balance point and I am pretty happy.
The Vuescan settings for film types are useless. I tend to scan with no automatic color corrections (Manual) applied and look to correct in Photoshop Elements 10 later. White balance correction in Vuescan is inconsistent enough to make it a waste of time in my opinion.
In general if one wants simple color negative scanning I suggest the original Epson SW as it seems to do a better job on automatic settings in my experience. (See my blog post on scanning experiments of Vuescan vs EpsonScan.)
I had looked into ColorPerfect before and had downloaded the trial version which leaves a watermark until you pay for it. The interface is non-intuitive but the results on color negative film was much better. They also have up to date film types that make for much better initial corrections. The cost of about $70 was also a putoff. The ColorPerfect package includes ColorNeg (for negative films) and ColorPos for transparencies. It also includes a RAW to TIFF converter to use with digital cameras.
I finally decided with the cost of color film and the cameras that the price was not so extreme and paid online for the license. A couple of things to realize is that I tried this on Windows 10 PC running Photoshop Elements 10. ColorPerfect is a filter plugin.
Due to limitations in the plugin interface in Adobe Elements on Windows there are different versions of the plugin that are customized to scale the ColorPerfect screen to match your monitor resolution. This information is buried in the FAQs but is vitally important to understand. The evaluation copy I tried leaves a very small window of which the image is probably a quarter the size of my screen. This I found frustrating. Digging around on the ColorPerfect website I discovered the remedy. They build several different versions of the plugin scaled for different monitor sizes. You can download these and experiment by dragging the different versions into the plugin folder of Adobe and seeing how they look. This allows you to pick a much better window size to match your screen. It is a little work to do but well worth the effort.
ColorPerfect explains that difficulty of getting faithful scans of negative colors is that the simple mathematical inversion of color offered by Photoshop or scanning SW is not correct. The orange mask on negative film and other characteristics of color film means you do not get good results. They use a more sophisticated model of film to get better results in the conversion process. They also have color conversion profiles for many different films.
In order to use the SW they strongly recommend a 48-bit TIFF scan. In Vuescan I discovered you need to make 2 setting changes rather confusingly. One is the obvious 48-bit scanning option. The less obvious is you have to select 48-bit in the file saving menu when you select TIFF. You should also get a linear scan which means you should turn off all gamma corrections. There is a fuller explanation and tutorial on their website. The ColorPerfect SW will work on 8-bit scans as well but there is a warning banner in the plugin sas this is not optimal. In Elements 10 there are many operations that will not work on 48-bit color and will try and force a conversion. (dust healing is one example as is changing the angle of the photo) This means these operations should be performed after ColorPerfect for the best results.
You also need to scan the image not as negative but as a slide or image in the transparency option. Scanning as a negative means the scanner performs the inversion for you. Once the film type is selected the negative is converted pretty faithfully. Then you get into the complexity of the user interface.
I recommend the tutorial video which is helpful but will need multiple viewings to understand all the features. It does show a specific workflow however so one can see how it was intended to be used. You can undo to several levels and you can save at any point and return to that version. All of the controls and manipulations are fundamentally different to the way that Photoshop works. This makes it a bit difficult to use if you are well versed in Photoshop but ColorPerfect claims it is superior as away to manipulate images. In many ways I can begin to see this as true. For instance Colorperfect can manipulate the brightness or grayscale of the image without the color changing.
The panning and zooming on the image is not simple and can be a real pain to get used to. You select the zoom percentage then left click to pan to the area you want.
You can click on something neutral in colour to do color correction or white balance correction. This is called CC or Color Correction filter option. It is meant to mimic camera correction filters. This of course assumes you have some thing neutral to work with. You see immediately the RGB of this color correction which is meant to mimic and camera color correction filter. These numbers can be changed individually to tweak the filter as desired.
There is a Black setting which raises and lowers the black level and darkens the image. A White setting helps manipulate contrast. You can also change this with the gamma setting and saturation can be manipulated as well. There is a useful menu that allows each setting to be turned on or off to see the indicated changes quite simply.
My Evolving ColorPerfect Workflow (Updated Aug 1 2018)
In my evolving flow for this SW I start with a 48-bit Vuescan file. I then crop it to remove any of the film framing I don’t want as this will influence the color and histogram.
Next I select the filter menu and find CFSystems option and wait for the ColorPerfect plugin to load.
I then select ColorNeg if it isn’t already set there. There is a ColorPos option for positive images or transparency film and TouchUp for fixing an already inverted image.
Next I select the film type to match what I have scanned. At this point the image is usually pretty close in terms of color rendition. The next step for me is to adjust the exposure. Originally I started with the Black setting. However recently I have started with the gamma setting. This allows me to get the overall exposure correct by mostly adjusting the midtones.Then I adjust the white and black settings. Black changes mostly the highlights and white the shadows though I think the authors of Colorperfect would debate this. As the brightness of the image affects the perception of color this is best done first before saturation is added.
I then left click a color neutral area if I want to make some basic color correction. I often experiment with clicking different areas until i get what I want.
Now I will look to add some saturation depending on the film and image. I typically start with a value of 120. If you set the saturation first then look to the contrast you can get cloying colors on your way to getting the contrast right.
Next I make more subtle color changes. I use the Ring CC tool. This initially confusing tool places a thumbnail of the current image in the center and surrounds it with different colored versions (magenta, blue, yellow, red, green, cyan, and darker and lighter). This images are directions to push the image color and are thumbnails correct by a unit of one in each direction. Clicking on a colored image moves the image in than direction by 1/2 the amount displayed. All the images are refreshed then to show the thumbnail thus corrected. You can cancel the effect by clicking the colored thumbnail directly opposite the central image.
It takes some getting used to but I am increasingly learning to use it. By clicking out of the Ring CC box you can see your full sized image again. These steps usually get me to a desired image color.
There are many more options in the SW most of which I am still learning about. There is a very nice highlight and shadow compression tool that is worth looking at. Recently I have begun to look at their version of Curves/Zones in the context of B&W negatives. I find already there is a lot of control available in B&W negatives compared to Photoshop Elements.
After exiting ColorPerfect then I might make a small level adjust for final brightness. I save this file as a 48-bit tiff file as subsequent operations require an 24-bit (8-bits per color) image. Next I convert the files to 8-bit in Photoshop Elements and then perform any straightening, dust removal and sharpening. This result I then save as a JPEG as it is more universal in application for sharing online.
Large format film is very expensive new and so I had pruchased some time back a box of slightly expired Kodak Portra 400 film to experiment with. Scanning this I found the usual frustration I have with negative film. I cannot get the colors to look right consistently without a lot of effort. This is true with non-expired film for me and I actually don’t think the expired nature of the film impacts this situation next.
On my Epson V500 scanner I use Vuescan software and when I scan Fuji Velvia reversal film I find some simple corrections of levels gets me quick good results. There is nearly always a shift of the red channel histogram that is offset towards brighter compared to the other colors. Getting this realigned on the black edge removes most of the red cast. Then sometimes some weaking of the other color levels to gett he white balance point and I am pretty happy.
The Vuescan settings for film types are useless. I tend to scan with no automatic color corrections (Manual) applied and look to correct in Photoshop Elements 10 later. White balance correction in Vuescan is inconsistent enough to make it a waste of time in my opinion.
In general if one wants simple color negative scanning I suggest the original Epson SW as it seems to do a better job on automatic settings in my experience. (See my blog post on scanning experiments of Vuescan vs EpsonScan.)
I had looked into ColorPerfect before and had downloaded the trial version which leaves a watermark until you pay for it. The interface is non-intuitive but the results on color negative film was much better. They also have up to date film types that make for much better initial corrections. The cost of about $70 was also a putoff. The ColorPerfect package includes ColorNeg (for negative films) and ColorPos for transparencies. It also includes a RAW to TIFF converter to use with digital cameras.
I finally decided with the cost of color film and the cameras that the price was not so extreme and paid online for the license. A couple of things to realize is that I tried this on Windows 10 PC running Photoshop Elements 10. ColorPerfect is a filter plugin.
Due to limitations in the plugin interface in Adobe Elements on Windows there are different versions of the plugin that are customized to scale the ColorPerfect screen to match your monitor resolution. This information is buried in the FAQs but is vitally important to understand. The evaluation copy I tried leaves a very small window of which the image is probably a quarter the size of my screen. This I found frustrating. Digging around on the ColorPerfect website I discovered the remedy. They build several different versions of the plugin scaled for different monitor sizes. You can download these and experiment by dragging the different versions into the plugin folder of Adobe and seeing how they look. This allows you to pick a much better window size to match your screen. It is a little work to do but well worth the effort.
ColorPerfect explains that difficulty of getting faithful scans of negative colors is that the simple mathematical inversion of color offered by Photoshop or scanning SW is not correct. The orange mask on negative film and other characteristics of color film means you do not get good results. They use a more sophisticated model of film to get better results in the conversion process. They also have color conversion profiles for many different films.
In order to use the SW they strongly recommend a 48-bit TIFF scan. In Vuescan I discovered you need to make 2 setting changes rather confusingly. One is the obvious 48-bit scanning option. The less obvious is you have to select 48-bit in the file saving menu when you select TIFF. You should also get a linear scan which means you should turn off all gamma corrections. There is a fuller explanation and tutorial on their website. The ColorPerfect SW will work on 8-bit scans as well but there is a warning banner in the plugin sas this is not optimal. In Elements 10 there are many operations that will not work on 48-bit color and will try and force a conversion. (dust healing is one example as is changing the angle of the photo) This means these operations should be performed after ColorPerfect for the best results.
You also need to scan the image not as negative but as a slide or image in the transparency option. Scanning as a negative means the scanner performs the inversion for you. Once the film type is selected the negative is converted pretty faithfully. Then you get into the complexity of the user interface.
I recommend the tutorial video which is helpful but will need multiple viewings to understand all the features. It does show a specific workflow however so one can see how it was intended to be used. You can undo to several levels and you can save at any point and return to that version. All of the controls and manipulations are fundamentally different to the way that Photoshop works. This makes it a bit difficult to use if you are well versed in Photoshop but ColorPerfect claims it is superior as away to manipulate images. In many ways I can begin to see this as true. For instance Colorperfect can manipulate the brightness or grayscale of the image without the color changing.
The panning and zooming on the image is not simple and can be a real pain to get used to. You select the zoom percentage then left click to pan to the area you want.
You can click on something neutral in colour to do color correction or white balance correction. This is called CC or Color Correction filter option. It is meant to mimic camera correction filters. This of course assumes you have some thing neutral to work with. You see immediately the RGB of this color correction which is meant to mimic and camera color correction filter. These numbers can be changed individually to tweak the filter as desired.
There is a Black setting which raises and lowers the black level and darkens the image. A White setting helps manipulate contrast. You can also change this with the gamma setting and saturation can be manipulated as well. There is a useful menu that allows each setting to be turned on or off to see the indicated changes quite simply.
My Evolving ColorPerfect Workflow (Updated Aug 1 2018)
In my evolving flow for this SW I start with a 48-bit Vuescan file. I then crop it to remove any of the film framing I don’t want as this will influence the color and histogram.
Next I select the filter menu and find CFSystems option and wait for the ColorPerfect plugin to load.
I then select ColorNeg if it isn’t already set there. There is a ColorPos option for positive images or transparency film and TouchUp for fixing an already inverted image.
Next I select the film type to match what I have scanned. At this point the image is usually pretty close in terms of color rendition. The next step for me is to adjust the exposure. Originally I started with the Black setting. However recently I have started with the gamma setting. This allows me to get the overall exposure correct by mostly adjusting the midtones.Then I adjust the white and black settings. Black changes mostly the highlights and white the shadows though I think the authors of Colorperfect would debate this. As the brightness of the image affects the perception of color this is best done first before saturation is added.
I then left click a color neutral area if I want to make some basic color correction. I often experiment with clicking different areas until i get what I want.
Now I will look to add some saturation depending on the film and image. I typically start with a value of 120. If you set the saturation first then look to the contrast you can get cloying colors on your way to getting the contrast right.
Next I make more subtle color changes. I use the Ring CC tool. This initially confusing tool places a thumbnail of the current image in the center and surrounds it with different colored versions (magenta, blue, yellow, red, green, cyan, and darker and lighter). This images are directions to push the image color and are thumbnails correct by a unit of one in each direction. Clicking on a colored image moves the image in than direction by 1/2 the amount displayed. All the images are refreshed then to show the thumbnail thus corrected. You can cancel the effect by clicking the colored thumbnail directly opposite the central image.
It takes some getting used to but I am increasingly learning to use it. By clicking out of the Ring CC box you can see your full sized image again. These steps usually get me to a desired image color.
There are many more options in the SW most of which I am still learning about. There is a very nice highlight and shadow compression tool that is worth looking at. Recently I have begun to look at their version of Curves/Zones in the context of B&W negatives. I find already there is a lot of control available in B&W negatives compared to Photoshop Elements.
After exiting ColorPerfect then I might make a small level adjust for final brightness. I save this file as a 48-bit tiff file as subsequent operations require an 24-bit (8-bits per color) image. Next I convert the files to 8-bit in Photoshop Elements and then perform any straightening, dust removal and sharpening. This result I then save as a JPEG as it is more universal in application for sharing online.
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