Which Extension to use for saving Scanned Film for use in Photoshop?

[disposable12]

I understand the general concept that the more information photoshop has to use the better you can manipulate the image. That from a digital camera RAW gives you as much data as possible to work with and compression can lose data that can be used to manipulate the image. At least I think that's the way it is.

My scanner however does not have a .RAW file format in which I can save data. It has things like JPEG, GIF, PSF, TAG, TIF, PNG, BMP, PCX, FPX and EPX. I did notice for instance that a TIF file of one particular image had about 15 times more size for the same image as a JPEG.

So does that mean that I'm better off using the TIF instead of the JPEG in photoshop? Is one of these formats better to use than TIF for the purposes of giving photoshop all it can get from this scanner?

 

[dj_paige]

TIF maintains each pixel as the scanner saw it. JPG compesses the image so some pixels are no longer exactly the way the scanner saw it. In many cases, human eyes can't visually see the difference between JPG and TIF. Experimenting is probably a good idea.

If your scanner has the capability of scanning in more than 8bits, then TIF probably is the better choice, as it preserves all the bits from your scanner, while JPG limits you to 8 bits.

Mr. or Ms. Disposable12 ... in the future, we here at Lightroom Forums would appreciate you referring to the software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom as "Lightroom", and not as "Photoshop", which normally means something else.

 

[disposable12]

Paige, I work in It at a software and engineering firm in the utility industry and we tend to call all Photoshop applications that deal with images "Photoshop". I'll try to remember for the purposes of this board to detail specific application names.

Thanks for the image in Tif information. I noted that the scanner allows me to compress the tif file or not, I'll leave it uncompressed.

I also just noted that down through the various tabs or options in my scanner software that one process was still going on during the scan which I was unaware of that the scanning application calls "color correction". I just turned that off. My gut feeling being I want the raw scan of the film and no processing so the images can be digitized and manipulated as fully as possible in Photoshop.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi disposable.

TIFF compression is usually lossless, so you should be ok leaving the compression turned on. It'll save you some hard drive sapce too.

I'd be inclined to agree that turning off the scan software's colour correction too, and then you've got plenty of information to work with.

 

[clee01l]

[quote author=disposable12 link=topic=7983.msg54442#msg54442 date=125424126']
My scanner however does not have a .RAW file format in which I can save data. It has things like JPEG, GIF, PSF, TAG, TIF, PNG, BMP, PCX, FPX and EPX...
So does that mean that I'm better off using the TIF instead of the JPEG in photoshop? Is one of these formats better to use than TIF for the purposes of giving photoshop all it can get from this scanner?
[/quote]Adobe's RAW format (.DNG) and most proprietary camera Mfg RAW formats are an extension of the TIFF/6 format standard. You should try to manage the highest pixel per inch (ppi) possible from your scanner that may be 24''/48'' non interpolated. Keeping in mind that your digital output will not likely be more than 6'' dpi in pront and 12' ppi on a monitor. The scanner can usually capture 3 or 4 colors (most likley 3 - Red Greeen, Blue (RGB)) Your choices for resolution for each color is either 8 bit or 16 bit.

With this information, your most versitile file format for scanner image capture is a 16 bit TIFF. If you are using a flatbed scanner and scanning print images, 6''-12'' ppi If you are scanning 35mm slide or print file then 24''-48'' ppi would be the best choice.

 

[hassiman]

I have been learning a lot about scanning my 4' year film archive with a Nikon CoolScan 9'''. I am scanning everything full-frame at the scanners native optical resolution 4'''dpi to avoid interpolation. I scan to the tif format and import the file into LR. I usual try to scan with as little correction as possible... but remember that you can't work with detail in LR/PS that didn't make it from the original to the TIF file so sometime the image must be tweaked a bit... I am still learning how to use SilverFast to do that. Good scanning is far from easy...