A newbie's question on IT8 calibration

[ralbrux]

Hi one & all,

I have just acquired an EPSON Perfection V700 Photo and will be (trying) using it to digitize a rather large collection of prints, slides & negatives.

The Epson came bundled with SilverfastSE, but after playing with Epson's soft and SE & reading much material, I think I will well advised to upgrade to Ai 6.5 which if I have understood info on the web site comes with a 5x7" Fuji reflective IT8 target for colour calibration.

Having read through the Ai manual and some other docs I can't get clear on exactly what I need in the way of IT8 targets for the task I have set myself.

Can I use this one IT8 target supplied with Ai 6.5 to calibrate my scanner for use with both prints & slides (I seem to have read in the forum somewhere that calibration is not necessary for negatives) or do I need a seperate target for slides as well?

Many thanks in advance for any assistance anyone can give this newbie who is trying to get off the ground in the right way.

Richard

[degrub]

slides can be helped with a IT8 target based profile. Most slides are E6 process ( Ecktachrome) or similar . If you are scanning Kodachrome you will need a target specific to it, Last i saw availible are at B&H Photo. You are correct, there is no way to profile (IT8) negatives.

For reflective media (prints) , the reflective target provided by SF should be fine.

[ralbrux]

Dear Degrub,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

Indeed, the overwhelming majority of my slides are Kodachrome, so your tip on a target for them is very helpful to me.

You say "slides can be helped with a IT8 target based profile". I am assuming that you are saying this relative to the Fuji reflective target. Is that correct?

All of this brings up another uncertainty for me in my first encounter with serious scanning of film and slides.

If I have done one calibration done with the Fuji reflective target, another with a B&H target for Kodachrome, and no calibration for negatives, does Silverfast Ai preserve (save) these various calibration settings and allow me to choose which setting to use as I switch back & forth between the media I'm scanning?

Best regards,
Richard

[degrub]

What years are your kodachromes from ?

Relctive targets will not help for slides. You need a slide target for slides and a reflective target for prints. Two very different animals

The results of the IT8 profiling are stored in a file that is availible to any color managed system application. You will find the profiles with file names that have the extension ICC or ICM in windows.

i would suggest going to these websites and reading the tutorials:
SF and CMS
www.computer-darkroom.com

and
CMS and photography
www.luminous-landscape.com

and
basic scanning
www.scantips.com

[ralbrux]

Dear Degrub,

Thanks once again for your assistance.

My Kodachrome slides were made between 1982 and 2002 more or less.

I will be checking out the websites you mentioned. Yesterday I spent a good amount of time on the web looking around left and right for further info. I did find some some useful stuff, but not really that much beyond what I already had (good tips for a newbie like me in 2 reviews on the V700: photo-i.co.uk & imaging resource).

Btw I came across some mostly positive but somewhat mixed reviews of a book by Sascha Steinfoff entitled "Scanning Negatives & Slides. Digitizing your Photographic Archives" which was published by Rocky Nook in Febuary of this year.

Do you, by any chance, know this book and have an opinion on it? If so, I would appreciate your judgement.

Best regards,
Richard