Hey! I’m using an Epson V850 to scan color negative film. I’ve been able to use XSane and Epson Scan. Color negative film has a fairly low DMax and as a result the dynamic range of the physical material must be expanded to produce a digital file with correct contrast.
Basically what I want to understand if I improve my bit depth fidelity by transmitting context about the desired output image to the scanner. Essentially the difference between: 1. Ask the scanner for the full raw image with 16 bit depth with no histogram or gamma adjustments and do all the work afterwards with the 16 bit file. 2. Instruct the scanner which segments of the dynamic range I care about (eg the lightest and darkest regions of each color channel). I see for example in the epson2 driver I can see that some parameters seem to be forwarded: Halftone Brightness Film type Gamma Which of these options (if any) provide material benefit to the output if I can set them up front? Or alternatively whether it’s simply a software calculation and it doesn’t matter if I scan every image uniformly and process them after? Essentially I’m trying to glean whether the epson scanner will adjust calculations up front based upon driver inputs (analog gain/exposure or internal processing of higher bit depth material) —Nick -- Thanks, Nicholas Andre
