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22 PHOTO LAB MANAGEMENT

Film Scanner Jack and Sue Drafahl

Rasterization Photostyler.

JANUARY • 1992

ONE OF THE most difficult deci-sions lab managers will have to makein the next few years is just howmuch they want to get involved withelectronic imaging. No matter howmuch you see and hear at the photoconventions, making investmentsover $100,(XX) for non-traditional labequipment is really a tough decision.This article is part of a continuingseries covering the new equipmentflooding the market.

One alternative to making the mas-sive investment mentioned abovewould be a less expensive systemthat could supplement your lab ser-vices. We'll focus here on the KodakRapid 35mm Film Scanner—one an-swer for smaller labs.

This "introductory" system in-cludes a high speed computer, theKodak Rapid Scanner, and an out-put device such as the Kodak XL-7700 color printer or high resolutionfilm recorder.

What can this new scanner do foryou? The most obvious answer isthat it can scan in slides and nega-tives and output them to printersand/or film recorders. This would beespecially handy for labs that do nothave the ability to produce printsfrom slides. Instead of sending theslide to a larger lab or making an in-terneg, you can simply scan the slideinto your computer and output itdirectly to a color thermal printersuch as the XL-7700. You could alsooffer black and white print servicesfrom color negatives, black and whitenegatives, and color slides. Usingthe scanner software, you could fixscratches and restore old photos.

How Does the Scanner Work?

The scanner is about the size of aslide projector and is usually situatednext to the computer that will beused to manipulate the images. Com-munication between the scanner andthe computer is with an SCSI (SmallComputer System Interface) cablethat connects the scanner to SCSIhardware located in the computer.

(Continued on page 24)23

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Kodak 35mm Film Scanner. Scratch repair side by side edit.

Repair of cut neg Photostyler. Emboss filter Photostyler.

Kodak 35mm Scanner(Continued from page 24)

sive memory to store these images.You can select the lower resolutionsif you are going to use the images ata reduced size along with other pho-tos or graphics.

Full resolution images take about4 megabytes of disk space, and havea resolution of 1312x1024. Scan timefor a full resolution slide or negativecan take from 25 seconds to 4 min-utes, depending on the speed of yourcomputer. Macintosh FX and IBM386/486 computers will give the fast-est scan times.

If you want to preview the imageone last time before the scan, you26

can select the "Preview" functionand it will make a low resolutionscan so you can make any final ad-justments. Once you make your finalpreview, select the "Scan" function.The scanner will then make green,red, and blue exposures through yourimage, and display the high resolu-tion final image in the edit portionof your scanner software. From thereyou can make dozens of adjustmentsto the image before it is output toa printer or film recorder.

Scanner Software Editing Controls

Once the image has been scannedinto your computer system, you canalter the image using a variety of

creative and technical methods. Thetechnical controls allow you tochange exposure, gamma, contrast,color balance, cropping or file formatfor saving the image. Some of thecreative controls take advantage ofvarious software tools that allowyou to change the color of skies, re-move scratches, add text, re-attachphotos that are cut apart, or justabout anything you can image.

Lab Applications

So, now you're halfway convincedthat this scanner has potential. But,you still want to know just what itcan do for you. Here are a few ideas:

(Continued on page 28)PHOTO LAB MANAGEMENT

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Image Manipulation Photostyler.

J-O SpaUal Effects

Split RGB True Color to GrayscaleIndexed 16 ColorIndexed 256 Colo

Image Enhancements Printer Screen.

Kodak 35mm Scanner(Continued from page 26)

1) If a customer brings in damagedslides or negatives, you can use a va-riety of software tools to repair thedamage. The most common repair isfrom scratches deep in the emulsion.Using the airbrush, smudge or filltools, you can quickly fill in thescratches, even if they cross severallevels of color and exposure.

2) Old and faded color slides canbe scanned in and corrected for ex-posure and color. Once these correc-tions are made, a new slide can beimaged on a film recorder or a printcreated on a thermal printer.

3) Customers who want to addtext, logos or symbols to their prints

See us at PMA Las Vegas—Booth L-135

can have you scan in their photos,then add the text extras using graph-ics software programs and output afinished print.

4) Undoubtedly you will encountera customer who needs a compositephoto of two or more negatives. Sim-ply scan in each negative and com-bine them using the scanner soft-ware. You could even add text beforeproviding the customer with the fin-ished composite print.

5) More and more photographersare getting involved in desktop pub-lishing. They need to have their im-ages transferred to files that can beimported into their own computersystems. You can provide that scan-ning service.

(Continued on page 30)

PHOTO LAB MANAGEMENT

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Kodak 35mm Scanner(Continued from page 28)

6) Customers involved in produc-ing audio-visual shows will love whatyou can do with their images. Multi-image effects can be accomplishedby scanning in several images andplacing them in various positions inthe film frame. When the imagesare projected, the effect simulatesmultiple projectors. The special ef-fects are only limited by the extentof your imagination.

Testing the Kodak Scanner

Installation was very easy for usand it only took a few minutes to putthe scanner into operation. The scan-ner software took more time to un-derstand, and we recommend thatit be reviewed before ever startingyour first scan.

We found focusing a little difficultat first, but solved this problem bymaking coarse adjustments with aKodalith image of a line grid. Wefound we rarely needed to re-focusan image using our grid focus slide.

The "Optimize" function of thescanner software is outstanding. Thecolor balance and exposure valuesdetermined for each image werealways perfect. We tried Scotch,Konica, Fuji, Kodak and Polaroidnegatives, using only the correctionsdetermined by the "Optimize" func-tion. It certainly does its job well-every image looked great!

We really wanted to see just howwell the edit portion of the softwareworked, so we took drastic mea-sures. Looking through our negativefiles, we found an excellent colornegative of hot air balloons. Thenext step was to take a graphic artsknife and run the blade across theemulsion so flakes of cyan, magentaand yellow fell on the floor. The de-stroyed image was scanned into thecomputer, and in three minutes thescratch was repaired using the selectand smudge tools.

Finding this a bit too easy, we tooka pair of scissors and cut throughanother negative and scanned eachpiece back into the system, rejoinedthem and made a new image fromthe two halves. The biggest problemwith having all these controls is thatyou become so wrapped up in alter-ing images, you forget the reasonyou originally scanned the photo.

Conclusion

The Kodak Rapid Film Scanner isdesigned to work fast and efficiently.This scanner was targeted for theone hour labs, desktop users, oraudio visual houses. Because itshighest resolution is 1312x1024 lines,it may not be satisfactory for high-end users.

The scanner's versatility is excel-lent. It allows almost any 35mm im-age to be scanned, manipulated,modified and improved before it isoutput to a variety of devices. Withthis dynamite tool your creativejuices can go into overtime. The skyis the limit, and even that can bemanipulated to a brighter blue!

If you are thinking of taking theplunge into electronic imaging, checkout your options carefully. Followingare the specs for the Kodak Scanner:

Power: 120 Volt 60HZ or 220-240Volt 50/60HZ

Warm-up Time: noneResolutions: 1312x1024 pixel area.

Subsamples down to 1/64 areaFilm Type: Color negative, slide and

B&W negativeColor Levels: 256 levels per colorColor Separation Method: CCD

area array sensor, RGB filter wheel,Xenon strobe

Computer Interface: SCSI (SmallComputer System Interface)

File Size: 4 megabyte at full color,1.3 megabyte at full B&W

Size: 12.38 in. wide x 16.62 in. longx 7.62 in. high

Weight: 21 Ibs.Price: $6,995

Kodak info number: (800) 445-6325.

Aldus PhotoStyler ($795)Aldus Corp.411 First Ave. SouthSeattle, WA 98105

Adobe PhotoShop ($895)Adobe Systems, Inc.1585 Charleston Rd.Mountain View, CA 94039

Jack and Sue Drafahl own and operate a full-service commercial photo lab just outside Port-land, OR. Services include audio visual produc-tions, computer graphics and stock photography.The Drafahls are also contributing editors toPetersen's Photographic, and specialize in photolab procedures.

PHOTO LAB MANAGEMENT