This is a more general answer to your question about the plumeria image. This is my basic workflow after about a year of scanning.
Pre-visualize the image. This step is important because it lets you determine where you want the lighting most emphasized on the subject and that in turn dictates how you place the subject and how you weight it.
Clean the scanner bed thoroughly with a lens cloth and lens cleaning fluid.
Place the subject for the lighting you want and weight it accordingly. I use washers, beans and lentils for this - smile
Run a preview pass in Vuescan.
Adjust the subject placement and weighting. Iterate with previews until you get what you want or until you decide to give up.
Once you've got the placement you want, set the Vuescan settings for the subject. I spend most of my time dinking around with the black and white points and the color sliders. Like the lighting, it helps if you've played with post processing enough to be able to visualize what the processing will do/needtodo, based on the settings you make. I tend to try and keep the image as dark as possible but without giving up detail I want to keep. That way I have a better idea of what the lighting will actually look like at the end of the post processing.
When you've got the scan you want, (I always use the DNG format but may set the resolution inversely to the subject size.) import the image into lightroom.
Adjust the clarity setting in LR proportionately to the amount you intend to darken the image. I almost always darken the image because the scan itself rarely gives me the emphasized lighting I want. Reducing the clarity will pull the midgreys in the image lighter. If you skip this step, when you darken the image, you end up with dark points in the image that make the colors burned and dirty looking.
Load the image into PS and use the NIK suite to darken the image. (I typically use Viveza or the Low Key option in Color Efex.) This is a gross adjustment for the overall image and you can tune it as needed later but the idea is to get the light looking the way you want.
Depending on how much detail I want in the image, I usually use the NIK sharpening tool to bring out structure at this point. If I want to emphasize texture, I'll also introduce local contrast at this point.
Save the image back into LR. Adjust the levels, color luminosities, white balance and vibrance/saturation.
Take the image back into PS and tune it with selective adjustments for the particular feature in Color Efex or Viveza that lets you finish the image as you'd like.
Re-tune settings in LR based on the prior step. I tend to iterate here repeatedly between PS and LR. This is probably where I have the most fun in the process.
Convert the image to JPEG to post. I almost always use Andreas Resch's sharpening script for the conversion to JPEG.
This is my basic workflow after nearly a year of experimenting.
Pat:
I appreciate you writing this up and sharing your experience with the scan. You attention to details from the scan through to the very controlled pp is reflected by the very high quality of images you produce.
I also find that the most challenging step is keeping the glass clean and getting a nice composition. I just use the generic Epson scanning software and do not use Vuescan. It looks to me that Vuescan gives you much more control over the scanning process so may be I should invest in that too. What does Vuescan control compared with the generic software?
You also seem to go back and forth between PS and LR quite a bit. Do you import LR as an object into PS and move back and forth or do you save into tiff before opening the file in the other program? I tend to do most of my processing in PS with Viveza plugin and TK luminosity and saturation masks.
When I bought the scanner, I did a web search and at the time Vuescan seemed to be the best choice. I think one of the scannography sites/blogs I'd read suggested it and I didn't even bother to try the Epson software. So I'm sorry but I can't tell you what the differences are because I have not done this without using Vuescan.
I press command E from Lightroom and my LR tiff image automatically opens PS, if it's not already open and imports the image into PS. I then press the 'F' key in PS to make the image full screen and I start working it - usually by opening either Color Efex or Viveza to create the brush I want. When I select save in PS, it automatically creates a copy of the psd PS image into LR and transfers to it. Consequently, my intermediate steps are saved and I can go back to one, if I want. You can save the layers in LR, if you don't compress before doing the save but I tend to flatten the image before saving it and only do one step at a time usually.
I don't like PS much. It has never seemed intuitive to me whereas both LR and the NIK suite of products do. I do use PS for any cloning work I do.
I'm very pleased with Vuescan but having done software development in some capacity for over thirty years now, I enjoy playing with software and trying to figure out what's actually happening under the interface. I also enjoy a well designed interface.
Pat:
I do not have LR so I use ACR. There is a Viveza version for ACR and I think there is also one for LR. Would it be easier to do all the lighting adjustments opening Viveza in LR?
>Would it be easier to do all the lighting adjustments opening Viveza in LR? <
Gary,
I could install it as a plugin in LR but the reason I don't is the layers in PS and other plugins that I already have set up in PS. While I use very few of the PS features, I do think of it as a sort of a mini operating system for other plugins and actions. For instance, I occasionally do my selections using Fluid Mask. Or I do occasionally want to use Alien skin filters, PhotoMatix, Mr. Contrast, TK's luminosity masks, Andreas sharpening script, the OneSoft suite of plugins - pretty much anything I see that I want to try integrates with PS and I can then easily accomodate it in my workflow. Then, I also do cloning from time to time and Orton effect or gaussian noise. Also PS is the defacto std for image processing. Anything I want to do, I know I can do in PS and I also know I can find something on the web that explains how to do it. As much as I dislike many aspects of it, I couldn't get by without it. (smile)
Discussion
4 repliesThis is a more general answer to your question about the plumeria image. This is my basic workflow after about a year of scanning.
Pre-visualize the image. This step is important because it lets you determine where you want the lighting most emphasized on the subject and that in turn dictates how you place the subject and how you weight it.
Clean the scanner bed thoroughly with a lens cloth and lens cleaning fluid.
Place the subject for the lighting you want and weight it accordingly. I use washers, beans and lentils for this - smile
Run a preview pass in Vuescan.
Adjust the subject placement and weighting. Iterate with previews until you get what you want or until you decide to give up.
Once you've got the placement you want, set the Vuescan settings for the subject. I spend most of my time dinking around with the black and white points and the color sliders. Like the lighting, it helps if you've played with post processing enough to be able to visualize what the processing will do/needtodo, based on the settings you make. I tend to try and keep the image as dark as possible but without giving up detail I want to keep. That way I have a better idea of what the lighting will actually look like at the end of the post processing.
When you've got the scan you want, (I always use the DNG format but may set the resolution inversely to the subject size.) import the image into lightroom.
Adjust the clarity setting in LR proportionately to the amount you intend to darken the image. I almost always darken the image because the scan itself rarely gives me the emphasized lighting I want. Reducing the clarity will pull the midgreys in the image lighter. If you skip this step, when you darken the image, you end up with dark points in the image that make the colors burned and dirty looking.
Load the image into PS and use the NIK suite to darken the image. (I typically use Viveza or the Low Key option in Color Efex.) This is a gross adjustment for the overall image and you can tune it as needed later but the idea is to get the light looking the way you want.
Depending on how much detail I want in the image, I usually use the NIK sharpening tool to bring out structure at this point. If I want to emphasize texture, I'll also introduce local contrast at this point.
Save the image back into LR. Adjust the levels, color luminosities, white balance and vibrance/saturation.
Take the image back into PS and tune it with selective adjustments for the particular feature in Color Efex or Viveza that lets you finish the image as you'd like.
Re-tune settings in LR based on the prior step. I tend to iterate here repeatedly between PS and LR. This is probably where I have the most fun in the process.
Convert the image to JPEG to post. I almost always use Andreas Resch's sharpening script for the conversion to JPEG.
This is my basic workflow after nearly a year of experimenting.
pat
I appreciate you writing this up and sharing your experience with the scan. You attention to details from the scan through to the very controlled pp is reflected by the very high quality of images you produce.
I also find that the most challenging step is keeping the glass clean and getting a nice composition. I just use the generic Epson scanning software and do not use Vuescan. It looks to me that Vuescan gives you much more control over the scanning process so may be I should invest in that too. What does Vuescan control compared with the generic software?
You also seem to go back and forth between PS and LR quite a bit. Do you import LR as an object into PS and move back and forth or do you save into tiff before opening the file in the other program? I tend to do most of my processing in PS with Viveza plugin and TK luminosity and saturation masks.
When I bought the scanner, I did a web search and at the time Vuescan seemed to be the best choice. I think one of the scannography sites/blogs I'd read suggested it and I didn't even bother to try the Epson software. So I'm sorry but I can't tell you what the differences are because I have not done this without using Vuescan.
I press command E from Lightroom and my LR tiff image automatically opens PS, if it's not already open and imports the image into PS. I then press the 'F' key in PS to make the image full screen and I start working it - usually by opening either Color Efex or Viveza to create the brush I want. When I select save in PS, it automatically creates a copy of the psd PS image into LR and transfers to it. Consequently, my intermediate steps are saved and I can go back to one, if I want. You can save the layers in LR, if you don't compress before doing the save but I tend to flatten the image before saving it and only do one step at a time usually.
I don't like PS much. It has never seemed intuitive to me whereas both LR and the NIK suite of products do. I do use PS for any cloning work I do.
I'm very pleased with Vuescan but having done software development in some capacity for over thirty years now, I enjoy playing with software and trying to figure out what's actually happening under the interface. I also enjoy a well designed interface.
pat
I do not have LR so I use ACR. There is a Viveza version for ACR and I think there is also one for LR. Would it be easier to do all the lighting adjustments opening Viveza in LR?
Gary,
I could install it as a plugin in LR but the reason I don't is the layers in PS and other plugins that I already have set up in PS. While I use very few of the PS features, I do think of it as a sort of a mini operating system for other plugins and actions. For instance, I occasionally do my selections using Fluid Mask. Or I do occasionally want to use Alien skin filters, PhotoMatix, Mr. Contrast, TK's luminosity masks, Andreas sharpening script, the OneSoft suite of plugins - pretty much anything I see that I want to try integrates with PS and I can then easily accomodate it in my workflow. Then, I also do cloning from time to time and Orton effect or gaussian noise. Also PS is the defacto std for image processing. Anything I want to do, I know I can do in PS and I also know I can find something on the web that explains how to do it. As much as I dislike many aspects of it, I couldn't get by without it. (smile)
pat