Scanning Black and White Negatives with Vuescan

The other day I watched a video about scanning black and white negatives with Vuescan software. This is the same SW I use but the video had a very different workflow form mine. While I think it probably works for the author I felt that there was a simpler more flexible workflow that I have evolved over time. I thought perhaps I should document my approach and the rationale behind it. These techniques also apply to color negative and positive film as well. 

The basis for the workflow I show here is that the objective is to avoid the scanner doing any manipulations on the scan at all. I just want pixels. I have used Vuescan for years and have played with all kinds of the settings trying to get the right contrast, black points, white points, and colors. It has always been frustrating and the results not always satisfactory or consistent. 

Vuescan and most other scanning SW aim by default to make it easier to scan large numbers of slides or negatives and get reasonably good results. Vuescan has a whole tab dedicated to color where you can set color correction, curve points, film types and bias brightness and color channels. This tabs makes one believe you can get great results with just a few clicks. But do you scan for white balance or tungsten, landscapes, portraits, levels or what? I chased my tail in this menu for years. 

The start of better results began with ColorPerfect. ColorPerfect requires a flat 16-bit scan and they show you how to get it with different scanner packages. This is where I began to see the problems. First I wasn't doing 16-bit per color scans but only 8-bit. This meant some manipulations were losing some image information. Second I realized that the scanning software adds gamma and other curve corrections as it aims to produce a reasonably nice image. These manipulations are difficult to reverse especially if you throw away bits in the process. (Ironically though I still use ColorPerfect I often don't need t though at times it produces real miracles.) 

In Vuescan there is one key thing to know. In the 'Output' tab there is an option for a 'Raw' file output. This bypasses the curve and color corrections and produces a 16-bit per color tiff file which is an uncompressed and unmanipulated version of the scan data. Just pixels thank you. This 'Raw' file is not like a camera RAW file with proprietary formats and special SW required to use it. No it is a simple tiff file and cna be used by most any if not all photo software (GIMP, Affinty, Darktable, etc). The input tab must also match the bits per pixel settings of 16/48 depending on grayscale or color film types.  

Now a flat or linear scan is not anything nice to look at but it has all the tonal information the scanner can extract from the film. This becomes a basis for making your own manipulations to get an image you like.

Once you have the scan you then need to know how to set black and white points. This I do in Photoshop Elements but the same principles can be applied with most any photo editing SW. 

Rather than go through a lot of confusing text and screenshots I reduced this to a two-part video on my YouTube channel.  The first half takes you through the Vuescan screens and menus while the second half sets the black and white points and covers my simple workflow to get to images that can be shared on social media or used to make prints.

Here is the link to the video...