Using capture sharpening on large files

[Andy C]

Dear Team, I'm scanning 35mm on a Minolta 5400. At optical res the file sizes are about 200mb. Should I downsample to the desired print size and then use at that point capture sharpening to save on the processor speed. Obviously at 200mb+ it takes an age! Any advise would be great.
Andy C.

[MiltTaylor]

My first question is do you really need to scan at that resolution? Even at 16bits per channel that's a big file for a 35mm image. Unless you're needing to print very large it's probably unnecessary?

Having said that, I'm scanning 6x7 at 3200ppi and end up with 340MB files. I capture sharpen using the 6x6Pos capture sharpener. Yes it takes a little while, and my hardware is a bit on the slow side.

Capture sharpening should be done on your original scan in lieu of USM in the scanner. The effect is subtle.

--Milt

[Andy C]

My first question is do you really need to scan at that resolution? Even at 16bits per channel that's a big file for a 35mm image. Unless you're needing to print very large it's probably unnecessary?

Having said that, I'm scanning 6x7 at 3200ppi and end up with 340MB files. I capture sharpen using the 6x6Pos capture sharpener. Yes it takes a little while, and my hardware is a bit on the slow side.

Capture sharpening should be done on your original scan in lieu of USM in the scanner. The effect is subtle.

--Milt
Milt
Thanks for the reply. I have since realised that at 5400ppi is way too large and I now only scan for a A2+ print(the max of my printer). Cheers
Andy

[John MacLean Photography]

Andy,

You may still want to scan at 5400. If you ever want to outsource for larger prints then you'll have to do the Photoshop work all over again, since you no longer have full res master files. See this article: www.westcoastimaging.com/wci/page/info/articles/scanonce.html It says "100mb of data for 35mm originals", but they're referring to 8 bit.

[Andy C]

John
Thanks, I've had a look at the link. Even though I've got a G5 2.0 Dual it takes an age to Capture Sharpen at 5400. Looks as though I'll have to make lots of cups of coffee!
Cheers
Andy.

[Bruce Fraser]

John
Thanks, I've had a look at the link. Even though I've got a G5 2.0 Dual it takes an age to Capture Sharpen at 5400. Looks as though I'll have to make lots of cups of coffee!
Cheers
Andy.

FWIW, the 35mm capture sharpens ar optimized for anything in the range from 4000 to 8000 ppi.

I scan 35mm at 8000 ppi, with the very clear goal that I'm never going to touch that piece of film again. Once I've got the capture sharpen where I want it (which is the default about 80% of the time, small tweaks to the mask in Capture Sharpen Expert for the remaining 20%), I flatten the file to keep things managable!

[Andy C]

Bruce and Co
Thanks for all your advise
Cheers
Andy
N.B I've also asked a question about soft Olympus E1 raw files and how anybody gets the sharpness back, a common problem with E1 files?