Vuescan Batch Scan

I recently got my hands on a Nikon Coolscan 2000 (LS-2000) scanner.The drivers and the scanning software VueScan is distributed by Hamrick Software. The original software Nikon Scan is discontinued. There maybe are ways to get it working on Windows 10 but I did not further investigate it after the first try.

The setup of the scanner and its drivers is described here.

The goal of this guide it to get the data as raw as possible from the over 20 year old scanner. The scan quality is acceptable with 2700dpi and 12bit ADC resolution. The VueScan software has two stages: [Scanning & Processing] (https://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/html/vuesc20.htm#topic14).We are interrested in the result of the Scanning stage as it does not include the filtering and color corrections we will later to on our own.The following table shows the settings which should be set in the Input tab of Vuescan:

I enable Multi-exposure mode in VueScan’s Input tab, to ensure that the full range of the negative is captured in the scan. With all that set up, scan the image. The result will be a negative image that still needs to be corrected before you can work with it. You can batch-scan a series of images this way before moving on to the next step. DOWNLOAD FOR FREE Verdict: VueScan is scanner software that allows you to get digital copies of negatives, photos, and documents. Using this program, you can scan several images at once without adjusting the sizes each time. Although VueScan doesn’t always correctly display the scan result during preview, it edits shots rather well.

In the Crop tab set Crop size to “Maximum”. Also untick Auto offset and Auto rotate to make batch processing smaller.

The above settings control how the scanner does the scan. The next settings are resposible processing the scan.

Processing Settings

In the Filter tab untick everything. For B/W film the cleaning using the infrared channel also does not work as noted in this article:

Infrared cleaning does not work for traditional black and white negs; the metallic silver in them interferes with it.Using it may give weird tonality. It DOES work perfectly well on C-41 black and white films, like Ilford XP-2 and Kodak 400CN, so you can use it on them. It also works fine for C-41 color films and E-6 slides.

The settings in the Color can all be set to default values as the raw image will be saved before the color correction takes place during the Processing stage. The values there only affect the view of the scan in the right side bar of VueScan. If you use the Input | Lock film base color setting the color of the film will appear in this tab. You can also choose a film model which is close to yours to get a good preview of the result you can achieve from the raw output.

Outputting the Image Data

The scanner offers linear CCD (charge-coupled device) sensors for the red, green, blue and infrared channel. The Output tab allows to capture this raw data by ticking the setting RAW file. The TIFF file, JPEG file, PDF file and Index file options can be left unticked as the output in these formats is already color corrected by VueScan. Furthermore it is important to choose 64bit RGBI for Raw file type and “Scan” for Raw output with to output the scan just after the Scanning stage before the Processing stage. Make sure Raw save film is unticked such that the value of “Raw output with” is used.

The format of the RAW file output is TIFF. The usage of the DNG format with the setting Raw DNG format does not offer a benefit like described by Tim Gray in a forum:

The most ‘raw’ file format out of Vuescan is the RAW tiff file. Gamma 1, RGB data off the sensor, no color space attached. While the DNG RAW is nominally similar, programs don’t necessarily treat DNG files the same as TIFF files and might/probably do some adjustments before displaying data (changing gamma, etc.). DNG wasn’t really intended to be used for scanner data. TIFF is what you probably want; it’s not unintuitive to store multichannel data, RGB or RGBI in this case, with an arbitrary gamma, usually 1, 1.8, or 2.2, in a TIFF file - that’s what the format has been designed to do.

Tim also mentions that the gamma can be chosen arbitrarily when storing the RGBI data in the TIFF. It is important to know that if the “Raw file type” is greater than 8bit per channel the image gamma of the output file is 𝛾=1.0 as noted here. If you are unsure what this means read in the Cambridge in Color page what this means.This fact makes it neccassary to convert the color space of the raw TIFF in order to open it in a editor software like GIMP or Darktable.

My workflow for converting between the linear RGB image data to the sRGB color space uses the color management capabilities of ImageMagick:

This interprets the input as linear RGB and converts it to the sRGB color space by applying the correct gamma. You can also do this using an linear sRGB ICC profile (created with RawTherapee) in GIMP and then converting it to sRGB.

If you do not do this then you will have troubles with correcting the colors in the post-processing step.Without converting the color space (and therefore not adjusting the gamma) before importing the image into Darktable I was not able to adjust the details properly.The following example should demonstrate this. The negative is an overexposed example of a tree during a sunset.

The first image was post-processed without converting the color space. This means the image data was interpreted by Darktable as non-linear sRGB:

As you can see I was not able to make the clouds as visible as in the second example:

Maybe there is a hacky way around this. The proper way is to convert color spaces though. The image is not a good shot but should demonstrate the importance of the interpretation of the raw data.

Overview of settings

The following screenshots should give you an overview of the settings which are needed for raw scanning:

Batch Scan With Vuescan

Input tab

Crop tab

Filter tab

Color tab

Output tab

When importing a raw TIFF into Darktable make sure that the input color space is sRGB.The steps which are needed to process the raw data data are the following:

1. Reduce the RGB (with infrared channel) to a single 16bit channel using the Darktable “channel mixer” module.
2. Invert the image using the base curve or invert module. The invert module takes the color of the film into account. This is needed if the raw image has an orange color touch. This maybe can be reduced by the Red/Green/Blue analog gain settings which are not discussed here.
3. Adjust the image using the base curve module or by adjusting the levels.
4. Further modules which can help to adjust the image are “white balance”, “exposure” or “color balance”.
5. Scratches or dust can be removed by using the “retouch” module.

There are already proposals for modules specific to film negative processing in the wiki. I’d love to see some of them implemented!

Thats it! Of course there is more to the post-processing, but as this is an subjective process I leave this open to artist.

I see a lot of images on the web that are scans from black and white negatives, and most of them look flat and dead.

Film scanners are designed primarily for scanning color transparencies, which have a much greater density range than a black and white negative. A full range of tones on a color slide will include areas of totally clear film and areas of almost opaque black. A full range of tones on a BW negative will include some areas of clear or near clear film in the deepest blacks, but the brightest whites in a properly exposed and developed negative will not be near as dense as the blacks in a slide.

For that reason, negatives will always scan in very flat looking. It seems that most photographers just accept the flat, lifeless, dull image that the raw scan provides. Some think that it is how its supposed to be, others know how a black and white image should look, and they conclude that scanning sucks and that it is incapable of quality rendering. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Film scans need to be edited in Photoshop or whatever software you like to increase the contrast to normal, like a proper black and white image should have. My examples below show a few of my photographs with the unedited scan and the final edited version so that you can see just how much needs to be done. Most photographers use WAY too little contrast in thier scanned black and white images.

In addition to this tutorial, I also have a Film Scanning Demonstration video on YouTube.

Screenshot of Vuescan with a prescan of a negative waiting to be cropped

I use a Nikon LS-8000ED scanner with Vuescan software. The information that I give below should work perfectly for any Nikon Scanner, and should be pretty close with other film scanners. I use Vuescan, rather than Nikon's scanner software, because Nikon stopped supporting Nikon Scan years ago. It tends to be unstable on later versions of PowerPC OS-X and Windows, and may not work at all on the Intel Macs. My instructions below are for the Professional Version of Vuescan, using the advanced control set. Vuescan's Mac and Windows versions are identical, so these settings work on either OS.

Vuescan is a very powerful program with a lot of settings. The controls are divided into several tabs. These are the settings that I use for scanning black and white negatives. I use Nikon's rotating glass carrier FH-869GR for all of my negatives.

Explaining the settings:

I want to explain why I use some of the settings that may not be self-explanatory.

-Media Set this to BW Negative. You can use the transparency setting, but the scan will look like a negative, and will need inverted in Photoshop. It'll also be even flatter looking, but that is sometimes useful when scanning very contrasty images. Buy office 365.

-16 bit gray Scanning BW negatives in a color mode just increases file size and does not increase tonal range or quality, no matter what anyone tries to tell you. Scanning at 16 bit is vitally important. don't even consider scanning as 8 bit. A 16 bit scan can take more curves and levels adjustments without losing quality than you can do with an 8 bit file. Since BW negatives scan in flat, you need this ability. File sizes are bigger; IT IS WORTH IT.

-Batch Scanning: This allows scanning more than one image at a time. See my Vuescan Batch Scanning Tutorial for directions.

-Preview resolution: Set this to 677dpi. The software makes the preview large enough to see on your screen. It doesn't need to be high resolution, so scanning for screen resolution makes the preview scan faster. The Prescan is just needed so you can set the cropping of the scan.

-Scan Resolution: Whatever your scanner's highest is. My Nikon does 4000dpi. Don't scan lower thinking you'll make smaller prints. You'll regret this deeply when you decide to make a larger print and have to rescan and redo ALL your post-processing, dodging and burning, retouching, etc.

-Auto Focus: Always (if you scanner offers this..flatbeds don't usually). On the Nikon scanners, you can choose a pont on the image for the autofocus mechanism to lock on to. This should be a detailed area, not a flat tone. If you use autofocus only on the prescan, it may focus on an area without much texture and reduce image sharpness in the final scan.

-Fine Mode: If you use a Nikon scanner use this. Some Nikon scanners, such as the LS-8000ED, have a bug that produces banding in the final scan. Fine mode increases scan time a bit, but eliminates the banding. I don't think this is needed for the last generation Nikon scanners, like the 9000ED and 5000ED.

-Multisampling: Don't bother with multisampling, it does nothing for BW negs. Use it for slides; it improves dark tone noise in dense slides.

-Filters: Infrared cleaning does not work for traditional black and white negs; the metallic silver in them interferes with it. Using it may give weird tonality. It DOES work perfectly well on C-41 black and white films, like Ilford XP-2 and Kodak 400CN, so you can use it on them. It also works fine for C-41 color films and E-6 slides.

-White and Black Points: Set white point and black point both at 0% to avoid clipping of highlights and shadows.

-Leave Curves and Brightness settings at default

-Output Colorspace: For color scanning, you have a choice of output colorspaces, like sRGB and Adobe RGB(1998). We're scanning in greyscale, so choose Gray.

-Film Type: Vuescan has presets for a number of color films, and for color these settings do make a difference. For black and white negatives, there are only presets for the three Tmax Films (there are also settings for C-41 BW films). I have not seen a real difference between them and usually leave it at Tmax 400.

-Printed size: Scan Size, 100%. You'll get a file the size of the negative (about 1x1.5 inch for a 35mm neg) at whatever resolution you scanned at. More on this later.

-File Type: TIFF, not raw or Jpeg! The RAW files don't give any advantage in BW work and a JPEG is 8bit only, and we need 16 bit images to do final adjustments on later.

-Tiff compression: None. TIFF Compression is lossless, meaning quality is not reduced, unlike JPEG, which does lose data to reduce size. However, TIFF Compression does not save much file size and makes the file open and save slower.

-Tiff File Type: 16 bit Gray. For all the reasons mentioned above. You've noticed we had to choose Greyscale three times and 16 bit twice! I'd make this easier if I wrote the software.

-Leave the other settings at default

The Final Scan:

As you can see in the screenshot above, the final full resolution scan is quite flat looking. Lets open it in Photoshop and fix that.

Click the image to see a large version of the Image Size settings.

After opening the scan in Photoshop, we see that it is small. According to the rulers, it is about 1x1.5 inch! Open the Image Size dialogue box under the IMAGE menu. It shows the image to be 1.416 inches by 0.944 inch at 4000 dpi. We don't print at 4000 dpi, and we don't need a tiny image. What we need to do is set it at 360 dpi, but without resampling the image. We don't want to change the number of pixels in the picture, just the DPI setting so we can see how big the file is at normal print resolution. Epson printers work at 360 dpi, so thats what we'll set the file at.

Click the image to see a large version of the Image Size settings.

Uncheck the RESAMPLE IMAGE box and enter 360 in the Resolution field. The Width and Height will change! This does not change the number of pixels in the image, there is no interpolation or reduction of detail. Now we see that the picture is 10.489 inch by 15.731 inch at 360dpi.

Contrast Correction:

We've set the image size, but it is still flat and lifeless. By applying some curves adjustments (it often takes more than one to fine tune it), we can make that lifeless image life-like.

More Examples:

I scanned this black and white negative as a transparency so the original negative can be seen.

This is the raw scan inverted in Photoshop to a positive image. Note how flat and lifeless it looks. If I had scanned it using the BW Neg mode, it would still be too flat, but not quite as much as this example. This is Fuji Neopan 1600 at EI-640, developed in D-76 1+1

The finished image after applying three curves adjustment layers.

Another scan right from the scanner. This is Kodak Tmax 400-2 at EI-320 developed normally in Tmax Developer 1+7

The file after some curves adjustment layers. This is my son pouring his root beer at a restaurant.

Yet another straight scan. Kodak Tmax 3200 film at EI-1600, developed in Tmax Developer 1+4.

Finished image after curves adjustments. This is from The Doll House.

Straight scan from Fuji Neopan 1600, EI-1600, developed in Tmax Developer.

The final edited image. This is my son.

The knowledge that I am sharing took many years of study and practice to attain. If you find it valuable, please donate through my Paypal button below. My creative work is how I support myself and my son. Thank you!

©2021 Christopher Crawford

Vuescan Batch Scan List

260-437-8990