LOL @ Liam

Philip - when you scan with Vuescan, set the Media type to "Image" - that will capture what you see in the slide best of all (if you tell it that it's slide film it will try and colour correct for you, trying to get the colour of the actual scene - which is probably not what you want from a slide )

You have to try the color options a bit. Generally I used "Neutral" as this didn't introduce colour shifts when a scene is mostly one colour (e.g. sunflowers).

The nicest thing was that you could auto-scan from insertion (on the Minolta Scan Dual II and the Nikon Coolscan IV). Scanning slides was a doddle - just shove them in and Vuescan does the focus, scan and save. It meant I could do a roll while doing something else - letting the scanning go on in the background.

Judging by the other threads on taking DSLR images off a slide, I reckon you'll get much better results from Vuescan and the scanner. Even with the Scan Dual II the results were fabulous - you could see the film grain.

Give it a whirl - www.hamrick.com
And Ed is always ready to help out with scanning advise and problem solving too. He's recently joined up with www.ephotozine.com - so there's a few of his articles and tips on scanning. Worth a look

Matt

Philip,
Have you tried Ed Hamrick's VueScan? I found it much more consistent, especially for slides.
Matt

You still go into Jessops?

Liam,
The red eye is the reflection off the retina at the back of the eye, so it has nothing to do with the iris colour on the front.
You need a couple of things for red eye -
1) An open pupil - this often happens in subdued lighting. If the person's pupil response is slow, their pupil may not close up in time.
2) A direct flash-to-lens angle. The wireless flash on the *ist-D is a great help in reducing this (when you turn off the popup in the custom menu). Increasing the flash to lens distance reduces the risk of getting a "direct hit" on the retina.

There could be more to it, but that's what I know at the moment
Matt

Apparently FireFox 3 now supports colour profiles
www.getfirefox.com


EDIT: It must be enabled See this link: http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2007/08/color-management-support-added-to-firefox-3/

Matt

Simon,
No!
Open Photoshop (or Elements) and create a new image and fill with pure white.

If it's "gleaming white" then you may well find your monitor is turned up too bright! There have been a few here who have had LCD panels with stonking backlights that have thrown things. To be honest, you are still better off with a Spyder/Huey etc
(Especially the ones that measure ambient light levels - you'd be surprised at how low the ambient lighting should be for good colour management )
Matt

Lilly,
That's a good link, but DO be aware that Adobe Gamma doesn't hand LCD panels too well
If you're on a tight budget, then WiziWYG should give a good enough solution (you'll have to search hard because Praxisoft went under, but it's still available for download in various places).

Better results are obtained with a Pantone Huey or Spyder 2 (I've used Spyder and Spyder 2 Pro).

One thing that always gets people is that your ambient lighting should be low. So low that you'll think it's almost night-time
Matt

Golfdiesel - it depends.

If you get strange colour renditions when trying out D50, rather than D65 then you may either done something wrong, or the monitor is a bit odd. I have seen some cheaper LCDs that I can't even correct with a Spyder because they're so unstable colourwise. The Spyder2 has been better.

As with all things - you get what pay for (generally). Buying a cheapo second hand monitor and even running a Spyder2 on it is never going to make it perform like a £3000 Eizo If you have a cheap monitor and use a profiler on it (even WiziWYG), then it will be more accurate than the cheap monitor without profiling. But your images may not look "better" - perhaps because the monitor is straining to display the colour rendition.

The difference between D50 and D65 should mainly be brightness. Most LCDs in laptops can't get the 6500K temperature because they can't achieve the brightness needed for the whitepoint. Often D50 is more achievable. But it shouldn't be a great colour shift - D50 should appear slightly warmer than D65 too.

With any colour calibration you need a rock solid reference point - like a physical calibration print. You can never go on the premise that "images look good on this monitor" - because how do you know if both the monitor and the images are wrong?!

And don't forget that there are still differences between calibrated monitors - the colour gamut and brightness are usually different. Oh yes, and LCD backlights get dimmer as the unit gets older

Matt

Andy,
1) There's no contrast on DVI. Actually there's not even really a brightness, but a control of the backlight. (The Spyder2 Pro takes this into account). With DVI LCDs (as with laptops) you're generally ok with the brightness/backlight full on.

2) Make sure you set your LCD to factory defaults - especially the colour settings. Your LCD should have a "Normal" colour setting, or "sRGB" - use that.

In WiziWYG you should pick the "Generic LCD" type. Actually, when picking the gammas for each colour, you are better off with bad eyesight! You want to see it blurred so you can't see the lines around the outer edges. (In fact, it might be an idea to look through the camera with the focus off a bit)

Use the keys (not the mouse) for adjusting the sliders - it's much more accurate. If you can't tell where they are the same, then work out the upper and lower limits of where you can see the difference - then set the slider between those limits.

For checking - there's a few online references:
e.g. http://www.photobox.co.uk/popup.html?name=colourzoom

If you have Capture One (or the trial), there's a colour checker "PhaseOne-CMS checker.tif" in the installation directory. This is in the AdobeRGB colourspace

Matt

Peter,
Adobe Gamma does not handle LCD displays

To be honest, WiziWYG does a very good job - and that's comparing it to a Pantone Spyder 2 (which is better, but for general work, not by much). And how are you comparing it? You certainly can't go by the maxim that "my images look better when I use one" - you have to have a fixed reference, like a test chart, or calibration print.

It all comes down partly to how you set up the gamma - where you try and get the red, blue, and green matching the stripy background.
Best way is to use the Tab key to get the keyboard focus on the sliders, squint hard, and use the up/down arrows to get it matching.

And, yes, a hardware calibrater is often the best (though I've had some problems with certain LCDs). FWIW, www.ephotozineshop.com have a Huey in their mail-order returned section

Brian - glad to help

Matt