How to Implement IT8 Color Management When Scanning Film with a Digital Camera?

Digital Camera Scanning
1

Both SilverFast and VueScan support IT8 color management for traditional scanner workflows.

However, I would like to implement IT8 color management when scanning film using a digital camera instead of a dedicated film scanner.

Does anyone here have experience with this?

1. Proposed Workflow

This is how I understand the process of implementing color management when scanning film with a digital camera.

The workflow should function almost identically to using the ColorChecker Passport Photo 2 from Calibrite in:

  • Adobe Lightroom Classic

  • Adobe Bridge (Camera Raw)

  • Adobe Photoshop

  • and other compatible software

The key difference is that instead of using a ColorChecker target, you use an IT8.7 Scanner Calibration Target together with software from:

Alternatively, you can use:

Does anyone have practical experience with this type of workflow?

2. IT8 in SilverFast

SilverFast provides IT8 color calibration as described here:

3. IT8 in VueScan

VueScan also supports IT8 color calibration:

4. Suggested Implementation Steps

Here is the proposed method for implementing IT8 color management in a digital camera scanning workflow:

a)

Photograph an IT8.7 Scanner Calibration Target, for example from:

http://www.targets.coloraid.de, SilverFast, or another IT8 manufacturer.

b)

Convert the image to Adobe DNG format.

c)

Using ArgyllCMS or Lumariver, generate a profile in .dcp format.

Example: fujichrome-sensia.dcp

d)

On macOS, save the file in the following folder:

/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

Example:

/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/fujichrome-sensia.dcp

e)

If Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, or Photoshop is open, restart the application(s) so the new profile loads properly.

You should now have implemented color management in Adobe products in essentially the same way as when using the Calibrite ColorChecker Passport workflow.

The only difference is that you are using an IT8.7 Scanner Calibration Target instead of a ColorChecker target.

5. Compatible Software

This workflow should work with:

  • Adobe Camera Raw

  • Adobe Lightroom

  • Adobe Lightroom Classic

  • DxO PhotoLab

  • Skylum Luminar

  • RawTherapee

I would greatly appreciate any feedback, corrections, or real-world experience with this approach.

2

Welcome to the forum. I think that you’ve got it right but for most people, including myself, having to use Lumariver or ArgyllCMS to create your own colour profiles with an IT8 target is a step too far. If you do this yourself it would be great if you could go through the process.

Another point of view might be that it isn’t in any case worth the erffort and that instead simply using modern software techniques to make the best of the slide might be a better option. Linear profiles can help a lot here which is why NLP can be so useful for slides as well as negatives.

Have you seen this thread?

3

…and maybe this one:

5

You don’t need any of this, and for best results with NLP I would avoid it all. The reason is that colour management is already looked after for you under the hood using a camera in two respects, which are sufficient. Firstly, your camera, if a supported model, is already profiled in Lightroom, such that when you use the WB eyedropper to neutralize the orange mask, the result will be largely correct if you’ve followed the instructions carefully. Secondly, once opened in NLP, NLP does its own image analysis and produces a decent quality conversion which usually needs some finishing edits, but then that’s it, you’re done. A camera + Lr + NLP has made colour management of film scanning so much easier - don’t re-complicate it.

6

Perhaps we’ll never know but my reply was based upon the presumption that the OP was looking for a protocol for scanning slides/transparencies. NLP 3.1 now has the capability to work with positives but I don’t think that is designed to create an ‘accurate’ and consistent reproduction of the slide or batch of slides. That would surely only be possible by utilising a workflow based around profiling with an IT8 or similar.

That said this recent YT video from Magnum Photos might be of interest.