Nikon LS-3500 - LS-3510 - Manual (Page 58)

6-8 Using the Windows Scanner Plugin
Software Reference for Scanners
Color Adjustment Controls
Fig. 63 Digital Controls
In Digital mode, the controls are brightness, contrast and red, green and blue
tint. These controls are superseded by the tools in PhotoStyler for the LS-3500 and
eight bit LS-3510AF scanners. For twelve bit LS-3510AF scanners, however,
these controls offer a range of manipulation not available once the data is brought
into PhotoStyler. They perform moderate alterations to the image data before that
data is converted into eight bits per color.
Fig. 64 Twelve Bit Scanner Detected
A message will be displayed if a twelve bit scanner is detected.
Fig. 65 Analog Controls
In Analog mode, the controls are exposure, black level and color balance. The
black level will shift the voltage level that comes from the CCD array, in effect
lightening or darkening the entire image slightly. This can be used to increase
detail in the range of darker areas of a slide where the scanner is more susceptible
to detail loss. If no value is specified, the value determined by the last
autoexposure is used.
The exposure and color balance controls directly affect the time that the CCD
is exposed to the film. The base value is 50, and any change is a direct ratio of the
value to 50 (50/50 = 1). For instance, an exposure of 100 is twice as long as 50
(100/50 = 2) and 25 is half as long (25/50 = 0.5). In photographic terms, doubling
or halving the exposure time is equivalent to one f-stop.
You cannot shorten the exposure time to be less than the minimum exposure
determined by prescanning. This is very often ~40. You may also find that the
CCD can oversaturate on specular highlights when the exposure time is increased
beyond ~100. The best application of these controls is to greatly alter the densities
and color balance of a scan. For example, if an image is too green, the green
exposure for a color positive can be decreased. Another way to counteract the