COLORS OF SCANNED NEGATIVES NOT REAL

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I have an Olympus D620L and get excellent results. I print through Epson printers and the result is photo quality. My problem is when I scan 35mm color negatives through my Olympus ES-10. The image is transfered to positive, but the colors do not look real at all. They are washed out, some colors more saturated than others, has a "watercolor" look, or worse, the look is closer to the old black and white photographs which where hand colored. Howerver I try to tweak the image through, no hope. Sometimes I come close, but still, one look at the picture, and anybody can tell it is not a regular photo (unlike the direct digital aquisition, which I can guarantee, at 8x10, nobody can notice it is digital, and can pass as a regular silver based photo.)

Is there a software that can take care of this problem? The slides and black and white negatives come out perfect. Only when converting color negatives, I have the problem of "unrealness". I use the software that came with the unit, also Adobe Photo Deluxe 3.0, and Microsoft "picture it". Non can do the job. Any software out there that can help? Or is this problem unique with the ES-10?

Thank you, Vicken O. Berjikian

-- VICKEN O. BERJIKIAN (BERJIKIAN@AOL.COM), August 20, 1999

Answers

In my experience,my Very Best PhotoCD images have come from scans of fresh, properly exposed negatives (slightly better than slide positives). If negatives produce good looking print positives but bad PhotoCD images, it may be that the scanning process is at fault.

I use Adobe Photoshop to correct minor color problems. It has been my experience that PhotoCD images tend to be undersaturated and low in contrast, compared to prints and slides. Unless the original image is very poor, Photoshop easily corrects these two problems.

-- Jim Popenoe (popenoe@humboldt1.com), August 21, 1999.


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