Best way to resolve highlight clipping

[lbeck]

Lightroom Version Number

6.14

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I've used an inexpensive slide scanner to scan a number of 35mm slides and return JPGs. Most of the slides came out well but several have some serious highlight clipping. I've tried using conventional exposure/cloning/healing/adjustment brush with unacceptable results (the clipped images look better than the "repaired" ones). Is there a technique or trick that I can try? Or is there software that can use to mitigate the blown out parts of the images?

 

[Replytoken]

Do you have any ability to adjust the lighting of the scanner?

--Ken

 

[lbeck]

Yes - a bit. I think I'll simply rescan the most important ones.
Thanks for your input.

 

[PhilBurton]

What scan software do you use?

 

[Replytoken]

What scan software do you use?

Phil raises a good point. Your capture software software may allow you to adjust the exposure of your images.

--Ken

 

[Kierphoto]

NEVER adjust in the scanner software. It is a separate (maybee poor ) post adjusting software which does nothing in the scanner itself.
Use “Auto“, in all scanners, even the most expensive, then you will allways have the best highlight and shadow detail for perfect adjustments in LIghtroom.

 

[Kierphoto]

Optical resolution in Nikon Scanners are 2000 or 4000 Pixels

Hasselblad (Former Imacon) are 8000 Pixels.

Some scanner “rescan”, this just improves noise, not resolution.

In scanner settings ALLWAYS use optical resolution. (Often underlined).

Other resolution are resampled in a poorer algoritm than in Lightroom/Photoshop. So do the upscaling in LR/PS + Super resolution.

In all programs allways Crop before any adjustments.

Never think about Dpi/PPI, only quality that counts are true number of pixels on longest edge.

 

[Kierphoto]

“ In all programs allways Crop before any adjustments .“ - Then you have the perfect histogram, for evaluating Highlight and Shadows

 

[Replytoken]

NEVER adjust in the scanner software. It is a separate (maybee poor ) post adjusting software which does nothing in the scanner itself.
Use “Auto“, in all scanners, even the most expensive, then you will allways have the best highlight and shadow detail for perfect adjustments in LIghtroom.

I do not disagree, but I was thinking that if the software was dedicated to the hardware, it might actually turn down the brightness of the bulb, not make a software adjustment. Without specifically knowing what the OP is using, it is hard to know.

--Ken

 

[Kierphoto]

I do not disagree, but I was thinking that if the software was dedicated to the hardware, it might actually turn down the brightness of the bulb, not make a software adjustment. Without specifically knowing what the OP is using, it is hard to know.

--Ken

In fact ALL fimscanners in reality only scan in "Auto" internally without you knowing.
There is absolutely no light or bulb adjustment etc.
You can easily destroy your histogram, blow your highlights in the attached slow scanner adjustment program.
Just set as Auto scan in best optical res., Crop, Resize and adjust in Lightroom for best result. This is also fastest.

 

[Replytoken]

In fact ALL fimscanners in reality only scan in "Auto" internally without you knowing.
There is absolutely no light or bulb adjustment etc.
You can easily destroy your histogram, blow your highlights in the attached slow scanner adjustment program.
Just set as Auto scan in best optical res., Crop, Resize and adjust in Lightroom for best result. This is also fastest.

Interesting that it is a binary choice for the lighting. Since that is the case, I would concur with doing all exposure adjustments with a known software package like LR.

--Ken

 

[Kierphoto]

Interesting that it is a binary choice for the lighting. Since that is the case, I would concur with doing all exposure adjustments with a known software package like LR.

--Ken

Tip! Best reduce/control of real film grain in scanned film is Nik Collection by dxo. As standalone or perfect plugin for Lightroom. (Classic).
If you want to keep the grain visible, never save as jpg. (Makes image compression blocks of 8x8 Pixels) but save and print from Tiff.

 

[clee01l]

Interesting that it is a binary choice for the lighting. Since that is the case, I would concur with doing all exposure adjustments with a known software package like LR.

--Ken

It would seem the solution to controlling the light on the scanned subject would be to increase the spaces speed. A darker scan = faster scan rate A lighter scan =slower scan rate with the light hitting the area being scanned longer. This assumes the image is scanned in the negative.

This same principle is used with camera shutter speed.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Silverfast claims to increase the dynamic range by using multiple scanning at different exposures. I don’t think that’s ‘exposure’ in software, so maybe that is indeed what they use.

 

[PhilBurton]

Silverfast claims to increase the dynamic range by using multiple scanning at different exposures. I don’t think that’s ‘exposure’ in software, so maybe that is indeed what they use.

I can confirm that Silverfast multi-exposure does increase dynamic range with increased shadow detail, at least with Kodachrome slides. The equivalent settings with Vuescan did not show any increase in shadow detail. My scanner is an old Nikon 5000 ED. I have not tested NikonScan.

 

[Replytoken]

It would seem the solution to controlling the light on the scanned subject would be to increase the spaces speed. A darker scan = faster scan rate A lighter scan =slower scan rate with the light hitting the area being scanned longer. This assumes the image is scanned in the negative.

This same principle is used with camera shutter speed.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Assuming the software/hardware combination can do this, then yes, this would be a good solution.

--Ken

 

[Kierphoto]

I can confirm that Silverfast multi-exposure does increase dynamic range with increased shadow detail, at least with Kodachrome slides. The equivalent settings with Vuescan did not show any increase in shadow detail. My scanner is an old Nikon 5000 ED. I have not tested NikonScan.

The "Multi-exposure" in Silver Fastare the same as HDR. it scans -1, 0 and +1 and sample that file for better tonality and noise reduction.
But still scan in Auto, with no adjustment curves and sharpening. Do it in LR