Need advice with color settings...

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:38 pm

I just received my new scanner today and have been trying to set the correct color settings for hours now. I'm about to just give up but thought maybe someone on Beta could help me. My scanner is a Canon Canoscan 8400F. The scans are coming out a little to reddish. Here is an example:

Here is a scan taken from my old dead scanner. The tones are a bit off but are very close to the colors of the cel:

Here is the scan from my new scanner. The skin tones look much better but Sano's hair has to much of a reddish tint to it. Plus the line fading has been enhanced due to the reddish tints and therefore appears bright:

Since alot of you use Photoshop I thought that maybe you would know alot about color settings, then maybe you would know if there is something I can do with changing the settings of the brightness or contrast, etc. for the scanner settings. Or, it may be possible to use this scan and somehow enhance the scan in Photoshop.

As soon as I can figure this out then I'll be scanning ALL my gallery cels and tons of new ones that just arrived. Thank you.

kittens · Post by **kittens** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:20 pm

I cannot give you advises but it looks nice

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:38 pm

Wow! That's quite a difference!

Nope, sorry, I'm a PS noob.

I'm waiting for someone in the know to reply, so maybe I'll learn sumpin too.

Plus, now I'm going to have to scan in one of my own cels in our new scanner, and compare it to the scan I already have from the old scanner!

I'm curious how far off ours is too!
Thanks for bringing this up!

Plus, maybe I can get our new scanner to pick up the blues in the hanken!

4_degree · Post by **4_degree** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:25 am

Isn't digital imaging fun?
What's probably happening is your new scanner is exposing the image differently from your old scanner, most likely due to updated/different exposure software.
The bad news is that the "more correct" skin tones are a result of an overall reddish cast to the mid-tones, which you're seeing more of in the hair. The good news is that it can be corrected.
Here's how I do it:
I've found it is easier to make corrections in Photoshop than it is to adjust the settings in the CanoScan Toolbox. The trick is the Variations tool, which can be found under the Image, Adjust> menu. This will allow you to see how a change to the color balance will look before you make the change. You could also use the Hue/Saturation adjustment tool and lower the red channel saturation, too.
Either one is easier than adjusting the levels in the CanoScan toolbox.
As for what's actually happening: your scanner is looking for a reference point from which to make it's exposure. For cameras this is a point which has a reflectance of 18 percent (neutral gray). I'm not sure if the scanner is looking for the same reference point or not, but it's not finding the reference point it needs and is shifting the color balance as a result.
I know this probably sounds really complex. Let me know if I can answer any more specific questions for you.

EDIT: I did a quick and dirty photoshop adjustment and found Variations alone won't fix the color. I shifted the color into the cyan range a little through variations and then I shifted the red channel into the yellow range by +7 using a hue/saturation adjustment. That lands it sort of in-between your two posted scans.

4_degree · Post by **4_degree** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:31 am

aernath wrote: Plus, maybe I can get our new scanner to pick up the blues in the hanken!

Same advice, Leah. Do a variations adjustment to add more blue to the scan. Your scanner is probably shifting its exposure to far into the red and the blues are being muted as a result.
When doing a variations adjustment, start with the midtones, that'll make the biggest changes, usually. You can then tweak the highlights and the shadows if you find you need to. And if you're in doubt, you can always send me the original scan and I can try to tweak it myself to give you an idea of what I'd try to shoot for.

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:31 am

Thanks for the help 4_degree. I'll try the adjustments you recommended with Photoshop. Hopefully I'll have some new cel scans up by tonight.

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:46 pm

My fiance helped me out today with the scanner settings. I think this scan is the best we could come up with. The red tones are still just a tad to bright but the skin tones look pretty perfect.

Old scan from new scanner:

New improved scan from new scanner:

I may still do a little touching up on Photoshop unless everyone feels this scan looks perfect enough.

4_degree · Post by **4_degree** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:13 pm

Not bad at all.

Here's my take on it. I took your original jpg from the new scanner, applied a hue/saturation adjustment to the red channel (+5 yellow, -10 saturation, +5 lightness) and then lightened it by +3 with a brightness/contrast adjustment. All depends on what the actual skin tone is in the cel, though.

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:08 pm

4_degree wrote: And if you're in doubt, you can always send me the original scan and I can try to tweak it myself to give you an idea of what I'd try to shoot for.

I'll give your advice a try this weekend, and we'll see if it reduces me to tears.

But if you're bored in the meantime:
http://aernath.rubberslug.com/gallery/m ... esID=23075
Just click on the images in thier pages to get the large images.

And thank you so much for the advice!

I've got a lot to work on now!