>
> I couldn't see the flare either until I blocked the light from the
> window. Although the window faces north the early morning summer sun is
> still pretty bright. As soon as I blocked the glare the weak flare was
> clearly visible in the black area above the petals.
>
This particular slide is representative of a worse-case. I don't know how
it could be any more extreme. So, it should be a good representation of what
the Nikon scanners are capable of.
Honestly, I was very surprised when I did the DDE/ROC scan because it pulled
out stuff that I couldn't see with the loupe, even over a bright
light-source.
Also, it points out something else--just how good the NikonScan software
really is. This is with absolutely no curves or saturation boost. The
coloring of the slide is slightly more saturated, though. I generally do a
bit of saturation increase and a touch of curves to clear out the overall
haze effect common with all digitization.
It's hard, if not impossible to see in the on-line versions--even though I
attempted to show it, but VueScan's multi-exposure mode did not only bring
out more detail in the shadows, but provided a touch more resiliancy to
"solarization" at the extremes.
If you have a slide with deep dark shadows and you want to pull everything
out that you can, you have two choices: ICE4 which has DDE/ROC can be used
to pull out quite a bit--if it exists, you can get it. It does overscan to
accomplish it, not just does shadow/highlight recovery in post processing.
But Nikon only equipped the V/5000/9000 series scannes with ICE4. To
accomplish a similar function, you can use the multi-exposure mode in
VueScan to pull additional details out and boost the curve slightly so it
writes the file with maximum shadow detail.
Another option for extremely difficult slides is to do two scans--one at the
normal exposure and the other with the scanner exposure cranked up a couple
of stops. This is NOT the same as curves adjustment in the scanner software,
this is the base gain exposure. In VueScan this is found in the first tab,
in NikonScan, on the Tools Palette, it's near the bottom in the "Analog
Gain" section. Take the two scans and then do a standard HDR like combine.
After all, this is all that VueScan and NikonScan are doing automatically
with Multi-Exposure and DDE.
On a side-note, this slide was a horizontal version of a vertical shot which
made it on a magazine cover as well as a marketing flyer for a state park in
which it was shot. It was one of my better sellers in the art-print market.
I went to scan it again, but the last time it was used, the person who drum
scanned it damaged the slide with a rub-through on the back side of the
polyester base. Nothing that couldn't be fixed in post, but I didn't want
to jump through those hoops for a demonstration.
Normally, I aged my Fujichrome 50, but this shot was from 50-roll brick
which didn't achieve proper aging for another six months. Hence the slight
coolness. Aged F50 was almost a dead knockoff for Velvia 50. For all
publications and printings, we boosted the warmth and saturation, as well as
overall exposure of the mid-tones to get the leaves to stand out a little
more. But we also pushed the background down into black. Drove the printer
nuts as that magazine cover was mostly solid black and they struggled with
full-coverage without streaks.
AG
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