Perceptual Color versus Relative Color Settings

We are constantly faced with the choice for printing photographs of using either Perceptual color or Relative color.  If you print mostly black and white, like I do, then you easily forget which setting does what.  Paper, ink and time are too expensive to waste, so I have put some references here to resources I use in helping me make that choice.

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Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Backup, Import, Backup

There are so many details to think about when deciding how to store images, how to label image files, how to backup images and which images should be imported into a library program. This article discusses an overview for the method of getting images from a camera (or scanner) into a Adobe Lightroom while maintaining an appropriate level of backups. This article will not discuss the pros and cons of different media, but overview the need for using multiple medias as backups.

The title of this article is really the summary of the entire workflow. Backup, Import, and Backup again. The order is also important, but mostly because of a limitation of many digital camera interfaces today. This article was also developed based on some of the other detailed work done in importing images into Lightroom and to give a further framework in the Image Conversion Workflow.

The speed of many digital cameras is very slow when uploading images. Only a negative scanner seems slower. Be that as it may, Adobe Lightroom seems to magnify the slowdown when importing directly from a camera. Thus, the first step: Backup.

Backup

The first step in our workflow is to backup the images from the digital card. If you use a negative scanner, then the first step is to scan the image to a backup medium. In my case, the backup is a USB mirrored hard drive attached to my workstation.

I use a Leica DLux3 which is a remarkable pocket camera that takes RAW images. I use the SD card reader in my computer, insert the SD card and copy the images to my external hard drive. See the article I wrote on naming directories for digital negatives and slides to determine how you will organize the image files. This is the fastest method for copying images from a camera - no additional processing in between. Next, we import.

10/13/2008 EDIT: Also see the article that discusses Backing Up Rejects.

Import

The importing function in Adobe Lightroom is a powerful tool. With a little practice and some digging, many options are available through the import dialog. If you copied your images to a backup in the first step, then the import step should use the 'copy the files to a new location' option.

If the files are RAW then you can also check the option to convert the files to DNG. Adobe's Digital Negative format continues to undergo improvements. The two primary reasons to consider using DNG formats are a) Adobe has made the format open source and it should be around for a long time to come and b) DNG formats are smaller than RAW formats because of some lossless compression routines. For TIFF files, JPEG formats and others, the DNG format doesn't offer much, but for RAW files, DNG is worth a look.

At this point you can also choose a MetaData preset or create one on the fly. Thus, we can be importing images from a soccer game shoot and automatically set the photographer's information as well as the soccer match information in the MetaData. Presets for MetaData are like bulk copies. They instantly make an array of changes to a group of files while they are importing. This saves mutliple selections and later typing.Also, keywords can also be added at the import stage. Similar to the MetaData presets, images can have basic tags created to get started.

This is not to say that further refining will not be necessary. In fact, changes should be necessary. There should be some title and description information put in the MetaData for each image. There should also be some keywords that will apply to some images and other keywords for other informations. The point is that much of the repetitive information can be input easily for all the images. This is the whole idea of an efficient workflow.

Backup

The last section almost could have been labeled Import-Backup. The importing dialog is the perfect time to make a copy of the images for our last backup. Simply setting the end of the dialog to copy the files to a CD when finished will add some time to the process, but will provide us with a moveable copy that could even be stored off site.

The copy to CD routine in Lightroom 1.4.1 seems to copy the images to a temporary directory and then burn them to a CD. However, the temporary files are not removed from the disk directory. Yet, when you export a new set of images to burn to a CD, Lightroom removes those old files first.

Exporting to CD can be done at a later time, but backups tend to get delayed if they are not completed when the images are added to the library. Then you find yourself getting busy and wanting to review the images. Who needs another backup? Well, the first backup is on a hard drive and the working copy is on another hard drive. Hard drives are prone to eventual failure, or in my case, prone to electrical failure from lighting strikes. So, to truly protect your images, using a backup that can be separated and that is not prone to descrtuction like the others.

Conclusion

The whole point of this article is to let us sit back and evaluate our current import strategy. Using the concepts above we have several advantages. First, we make a quick copy of our images and secure the location they are stored. Then we import them using presets to save lots of typing and reviewing. Finally, we make another backup to a CD or DVD as the import is taking place.

Next, we will delve into the details and choices available in the exporting dialog. Stay tuned!! ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Film Grain and GEM

This is part of my Scanning Images Workflow and the settings used on my negative to digital image scanner.

Film Grain and GEM

Film grain is similar to noise present in a digital image from a CCD. Film grain isn't as noticeable in slower speed films and small print sizes. However, any sizable print or high speed film has a tendency to show the sand like grain of the film. While many noise reduction programs work well, GEM is most commonly found in negative and slide scanners, so we will discuss the use of GEM in our film to digital workflow.

GEM or Digital GEM, was developed by Kodak for use with Adobe Photoshop and a variety of film scanners. The Nikon CoolScan Scanners carry GEM as part of their included scanning software. The concept is to view the grain through each of the three color layers and then remove that grain information from the digital image while keeping the detail. Kodak indicates that removing the grain effect while keeping the color shades and details will help 35mm film rival the larger format cameras. While larger format negatives have details surpassing 35mm, the GEM product has the ability to assist in grain removal that does enhance any size enlargement of a 35mm image.

Specifically, the GEM algorithums work well with scans of color negatives and slides. However, our focus is on the black and white negative. All of our comparison scans originate from Ilford HP5 black and white film exposed at 400 ASA and developed with Ilford Ilfotec DD-X fine grain developer. The scans were made with a Nikon CoolScan 5000 using the negative attachment. Scans were made at 4000 dpi and 16bit greyscale TIFF images were saved resulting in 40mb files. These image files were imported into Adobe Lightroom and compared side by side. The results are below.

GEM Zero - No GEM

The image below shows a native scan with GEM turned off or set to zero.



Notice how spotted the image is. This view is from Adobe Lightroom at a ration of 1:1 and encompasses the rock outcropping that is part of a waterfall. Let's see what some added GEM processing will accomplish.

Gem 4 - All the Way

Rather than stepping through the settings on the Nikon CoolScan 5000, let's see the most processing that can be enabled. The image below represents GEM processing at level 4 or the most available through the Nikon CoolScan.



Notice how the image looks a little less crisp, but much less spotty. This is the maximum grain removal for black and white films. The comparison is in the fine details to see if a little sharpening can bring them back out.

Compare GEM 0 to GEM 4

Let's compare the native scan with a GEM 4 scan side by side to see what differences are apparent. The following image was made through Adobe Lightroom while comparing the two images above.



Notice how the contrast between the grain is lowered to match the surrounding pixels. This comparison was done at a ratio of 3:1, or three pixels on the screen to match one image pixel. The results are much more dramatic at this magnification.



Here is the same image, at the same 3:1 magnification, but the viewing area is of a hiking boot. Notice how the highlights of the boot laces are muted in the GEM 4 processing image. Thus, the loss of contrast in the grain is apparent and will help some images improve immensely while some details will begin to fade away as well. Sharpening my not be enough to bring those details back.

Gem 0 versus Gem 2 - A Little Processing

See the image below where the same boot area is compared, but using Gem 0 versus Gem 2, or about 1/2 processing.



Notice here how the contrast is lightened somewhat compared to the native scan, but that the boot lace detail is still visible and has plenty of contrast. In these extreme detailed settings, a higher GEM setting can actually hurt more than help.

Sharpening Workflow

While there are no examples here of the effects of sharpening after using the GEM processing, the level of contrasting details will have a noticeable effect on the sharpening outcome. The larger the output, the heavier the sharpening may be. Careful integration of this grain management must be used with your current sharpening techniques. The best text, by far, I have ever encountered on Sharpening is Image Sharpening for Adobe Photoshop by Bruce Fraser.

Conclusion

GEM is a tremendous tool to reduce the effect of noticeable grain. If used carefully, a mix of lower contrast between grain particles, but no noticable lack of detail can be achieved. However, full blown GEM 4 settings can result in some lost detail if not careful.

For most images I use a GEM setting of either 1 or 2 depending on the scene. The Nikon CoolScan settings are saved so that I can pull them up quickly and use the same settings over and over. For images that are extremely important, a quick test of the GEM setting for that image may be necessary.

There have been very few cases in my black and white scanning where I found GEM 3 or GEM 4 produces pleasing results. I have not done extensive tests in RAW files, so I do not know if the color layers behave differently. Using a light GEM setting is better than no GEM setting at all. The best solution for grain management is the best exposure coupled with meticulous development techniques. Thus, GEM is not a cure for poor photography, but GEM will assist in converting negatives to digital images.

NOTES:

The GEM settings discussed here are based on the 0-1-2-3-4 settings of the Nikon CoolScan scanning software that accompanies the scanner. Other software may have different levels of GEM processing that do not coincide with these settings.
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Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Scanning Negatives - Hardware Considerations - Part II

In our Part I Post on Scanning Negatives - Hardware Considerations we discussed the properties of light, film and glass (lenses) in making the perfect photograph. We then showed that these same properties are used to scan the negatives or slides when turning them into digital images.

Here we discuss the aspects of light, glass and CCD's in negative and slide scanners. We also compare this to a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED to see if it fits the bill to create the perfect digital image.

Light

We have the perfect negative so what light do we send through it to make a digital image. CCD's are especially senstive to Red, Green and Blue light, hence the RGB designation in computer lingo. In order to scan a color image, slide or negative, the scanner should produce a red image, green image and blue image of the negative or slide. These three images can be combined as if they were created from a digital camera.

Dust and Scratches

Realistically, even a perfect negative or slide will contain dust and/or scratches. Digital images from CCD's in a digital camera are better protected although the newer cameras have modes to remove dust from the sensors. So how do we limit the scanning problems with scratches and dust on a negative or slide?

The answer is infared. Infared light can highlight scratches and dust. By creating a fourth layer used as a mask, signficant amounts of scratches and dust can be electronically removed from a scanned image.

Glass

The glass that the red, green, blue and infared light pass through to get to the CCD and result in a digital image, must be special photographic glass. In fact, the scanner should use the highest quality glass used in camera lenses. After all, focusing on a negative to create an image is nothing more than taking a phtograph of a photograph.

There are a variety of mineral glasses and low dispersion glasses available to create a proper scanning lens.

Film - CCD Sensor

The CCD sensor is the film for the scanner. The size of the CCD chip and the density of the pixels determine the quality of the resulting image. Larger size and higher density is similar to low speed film and should result in a higher quality image.

Because computer chips have occasional power spikes and other electronic interference, a simple one pass scan is insufficient for a perfect image. Using a single scan will produce errors in the scan with zero chance of help removing the imperfections. I.e., a second scan of the image will help the processor determine if any pixels are not properly rendered from the first scan.

Density of the scan is determined by dpi or dots per inch. The more dots that get scanned in a single inch of negative or slide, the more detail from the film will show through. In some cases, a scanner could even scan the grain of the film if it were dense enough in the CCD.

A film scanner should have the ability to scan negatives with a final optical output somewhere in the 3,500 dpi to 4,000 dpi and above.

Finally, what level of colors and/or gray need to be recoded? How many colors should be kept? The same problem occurs in photography prints. Photographic paper has a smaller range to record black and white images than the film contains.

Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED

How does the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED scanner stack up against our requirements? First, the case is very sturdy, well put together and protective of the computer inards.

Let's discuss the Light component: This Nikon scanner uses all three R,G and B lights by using LED's and contains a fourth - the infared LED to help with scratch and dust removal. The LED lights use less power and also last longer and cost less.

The glass used in a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED is the same extra-low dispersion glass found in Nikkor lenses. This limits the abberations that could be found in the resulting digital image.

The CCD is also strong in the Nikon Coolscan containing two lines to scan at a time and scans using optical resolutions of up to 4000 dpi. The scanner also contains a 16 bit converter so that the scanned images contain 16 bit color.

Conclusion

There are many other feature in the Nikon Coolscan that make it appealing, like the built in Digital ICE, USB 2.0, slide feeders, negative feeders, TIFF formats in greyscale and color and more. However, all those features aside, the physics behind the Nikon Coolscan make it a worthwhile investment to capture negatives and slides and turn them into digital images.

The Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED is my scanner of choice and we will provide some test results to see which settings are best to use when scanning media into digital images. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Print a Contact Sheet for filing with Negatives

This is part of my Image Conversion Workflow.

Printing a contact sheet is important to help identify the link between the negatvive or slide in storage with the digital image usedy by the computer. If disaster ever strikes, or you are looking for a negative or image, using a properly labeled contact sheet can make the different between a few minutes or a few hours of searching.
Print the contact sheet as scanned in. This would be after any keyword or metadata updates, but before any developing. Using this state of the image will allow viewing of the full image, including imperfections or parts of the negatives.

Printing an image after cropping or enhancing is misleading as to what the negative will show.

If you don't already have a contact sheet template created, see this article on creating a contact sheet for instructions.

Put all contact sheets in archival page protectors, labeling with any additional information necessary and include them in the binders where the negatives or slides are stored. In the case of digital images, use a binder that sits with or next to the DVD and CD storage. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Extra Files When Editing??

I was working on some portraits I took of my boys in Lightroom and after I edited them using NeatImage to remove some grain noise, I found extra files. Here's what happened.

I had been using my standard workflow, scanning some freshly developed negatives, importing them into Lightroom and burning a CD for backup. After assigning some additional meta data and new keywords, I began comparing some of the frames to see which expressions I liked the most.

I narrowed my view down to four images and found one that I liked both the expression and the eyes. My next step was to try and reduce some of the grain in the negative. Simple, I thought, I'll use the menu item to edit with a third party program - NeatImage. Since I hadn't made any changes to the development of the image yet, I used the Edit Copy rather than the Edit Copy with Lightroom Adjustments option.

It took a moment, but then I have 46 megabyte files on a network raid array, so that is expected. After finishing and returning, the sort order had changed on my photos. I keep lightroom set to order by the filename since I don't have all the exposure metadata when using film over digital cameras.

After looking deeper, I found that I had created four copies of images - one each of the four I was comparing. They all had the -Edit extension added to the filename.

The lightbulb went off! Lesson Learned: When you have multiple images selected in Lightroom and choose to edit them in an external program, Lightroom will make copies of all the images even if the program you access doesn't open them all! This behavior is good and expected as Lightroom's power involves work on multiple images at the same time. We just have to be aware of it!

Conclusion

Since I have been using Lightroom now for four months, I checked and found many instances where I had more -Edit copies than I thought. Use the Library module and access the Metadata panel on the left. Select the File Type and choose Photoshop Document. You may be surprised at all the extra files you find! ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Exporting Greyscale Files - Too Large?

Exporting greyscale images from Adobe Lightroom can at first seem to make the file larger. For example, I use TIFF images that come from scanning my black and white negatives. If I do a simple export from Lightroom and burn them to CD or DVD, my imaages are larger. How much larger? They go from 45mb to 133mb, or a factor of three.

Why Does the Filesize Triple?

The file size triples becuase the 16bit greyscale file is converted to 16bit RGB. This means one channel is converted to three channels. Do not be fooled, there is no more data than in the original file. In fact, all three channels, Red, Green and Blue have exactly the same data, unlike scanning a color image which results in different data for each channel. Since we haven't gained any new data, we have to determine how to get the filesize back to normal.

Maintaining Original Filesize

Observe the export dialog used to export library images to a disksource and copy to CD or DVD afterwards. There is a file settings section that frequently defaults to JPEG. My experiments started by using the TIFF selection since my original images are TIFF's.
However, notice the bottom item which is labled Original as shown in the picture to the left. This selection disables many of the choices underneath file settings like size and quality. This is because the Original setting does exactly that - it copies the original file, with no lightroom adjustments and no conversions from greyscale to RGB. The only items included would be any metadata that has been written directly to the file.

It is this Original setting that we have been looking for and the Original setting that we should use in order to keep the file in it's native form. The same is true of RAW files - the Original setting will copy the file as is and leave the RAW information unaltered. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Image Conversion Workflow

Image conversion workflow involves getting images ready for importing and organizing the physical media as well as the digital media. This is part of my Digital Image Workflow. Follow the steps below: (also review the discussion on Backing Up and Importing.)

1. Label image set with the next index number
2. Scan images onto hard drive
3. Import images into library
4. Identify Rejected Images
5. Set metadata for images
6. Set keywords for images
7. Export to DVD or CD for backup
8. Export to Secondary Hard Drive for Backup
9. Print a Contact Sheet for filing with Negatives
10. File all materials

... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.