Nikon Coolscan 4000ED Bleeding Light

[toonces]

Not sure what the technical term is for this, but my scans seem to have 'bleeding' edges that overwhelm the dark areas with lighter tones. For instance, with mounted slides, the plastic sleeve, which is opaque, should appear as solid black in the scanned file, but the edges have a very noticable 'light bleeding' effect happening. This doesn't just happen on the edge of the slide either as any dark area that butts to an edge of light area on the film will have the same problem. I have the gain turned down to zero and fear that if I turn it down any further, I'll lose the details in the shadows and have to do some sort of two-scan composite to match the light and dark areas as desired. Maybe my expectations for this scanner are too high when seeing the film on a lightbox and trying to achieve the same look. Any info's appreciated.

[remoteplaces]

Post a picture so we can see what you mean. I use this scanner and don't have any complaints.

[toonces]

Undoctored image, analog gain set to 0.00, calibrated RGB with sRGB profile, positive scan, 4000dpi, 8-bit, 16x sampling, no extras turned on. If you look at the left edge of the image, it's clear that the light seems to be bleeding over the black. Notice it's fine when the image goes from sky to trees. It alsmost seems like my contacts are drying out when I look at it. If you look closely at the center tree, you can see that the trunk is slightly lighter where it crosses the background treeline to the sky. That's not what it looks like on the slide; the color/shade is consistent. Color is very off on the scan too which I've been trying to figure out.

[remoteplaces]

If I am seeing what you are are describing, it looks like this might simply be the black edge of the film protruding from the slide mount. It looks like you have the "jet" black edge on the outer left, then a slightly less black strip, then the color part of the film. Look at the slide, I would guess that this less black strip is the area of the film beyond the emulsion. As for the color on the trunk....very difficult to comment on as I can't see the slide. I believe the Nikon scanner has a dynamic range that exceeds the film latitude. It's possible it's picking up something you have a hard time seeing on the very small slide. Regarding colors, this depends on lots of things. Don't expect what you see on the monitor to mirror what is on the slide, unless you have calibrated your monitor. Simply tweek any of the monitor controls and this will greatly affect the image you see, but not the color information in the image file. It may not be the scan that is off.

[Franglais]

Undoctored image, analog gain set to 0.00, calibrated RGB with sRGB profile, positive scan, 4000dpi, 8-bit, 16x sampling, no extras turned on. If you look at the left edge of the image, it's clear that the light seems to be bleeding over the black. Notice it's fine when the image goes from sky to trees. It alsmost seems like my contacts are drying out when I look at it. If you look closely at the center tree, you can see that the trunk is slightly lighter where it crosses the background treeline to the sky. That's not what it looks like on the slide; the color/shade is consistent. Color is very off on the scan too which I've been trying to figure out.

I use the Coolscan IV which is very similar. I don't use the Gain control - I use the histogram.

The first thing that I notice from your image is that the top of the center tree appears to be out-of-focus and the top right edge of the image is not square. this indicates to me that your slide it not held squarely in the scanner. You would be better off dismounting the slide and using the film holder supplied with the scanner.

As for the colour - it looks like you've done an auto-exposure on the image and it's taken the brightest point as being somewhere in the clouds and the darkest point as being somewhere under the trees and the colours in the grass have just gone dead into the shadows. Use the histogram tool to bring the darker tones into the mid-tones. You might have to let the clouds burn out somewhat.

By default the scanner gives you a straight-line interpretation of the slide, which is not what you saw on the light box. You can modify this interpretation with the various tools (and record them as prefererred settings) but you have to work at it.

Charles

[toonces]

I'll look into the histogram tool and learn to use it. Here is a modified version of the picture with the sleeve removed and placed in the film holder. Uh, heavily modified to show where the light is bleeding. I was messing around with duotone settings and saw this noting that the detail in the lower portion of the tree remains in tact while everything above the tree tops gets blown out. Anyhow, just a good depiction of where the light is. I've scanned this frame several times at various different settings and I'm thinking I just plain overexposed the sky perhaps. My eyes must be failing me at my old age :/

[Franglais]

I'll look into the histogram tool and learn to use it. Here is a modified version of the picture with the sleeve removed and placed in the film holder. Uh, heavily modified to show where the light is bleeding. I was messing around with duotone settings and saw this noting that the detail in the lower portion of the tree remains in tact while everything above the tree tops gets blown out. Anyhow, just a good depiction of where the light is. I've scanned this frame several times at various different settings and I'm thinking I just plain overexposed the sky perhaps. My eyes must be failing me at my old age :/

Really weird effect. Both the duotone and what you're complaining about in the scan. I have no idea what the answer could be.

Charles

[remoteplaces]

I don't think its a scanner issue at all. The photography was taken on a cloudy if not overcast day. In this type of lighting and for this photograph, its impossible to get a good shot of this scene. It exceeds the exposure latitude of the film. The contrast between the sky and the tree truck is too much for both have detail. If you go back to this spot, and take the same shot in the "sweet" hrs (just before dust or after dawn) on a cloudless day, with the trunk NOT in the shodow, it will look the way you want it to. The bleeding light might be a camera issue, if light was bleeding or being reflected to the strip beyond the picture area.

I typically do all manipulations in p'shop. What is the advantage of doing them with the scanning software?? Anyone got any side by side comparisons?