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I2e help please.

Lupus RexLupus Rex Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
edited February 12, 2009 in Finishing School
Hello all,

This is my first time posting on Dgrin as I am new here.
I found Dgrin while trying to find some information about I2E.
I am a professional photographer and have recently taken on an increasingly large personal project. I am seeking to digitize my extended family pictoral history.
I discovered I2E when i decided that I had to adopt a new workflow for this project.
All has worked fairly well untill I started running my print scans through I2E. The range of print quality is everything from 1 hour lab prints to heirloom civil war prints.
I would be happy to digitize the images without improvement, but the problem is that I have been totaly unable to find any good literature on the use of I2E.

My biggest problem thus far is noise being generated in the shadow areas. I have played with all of the controls and can achieve acceptable results with much effort.
Untill I know what all of the controls do, I will not be able to create channels for bulk auto enhancements.
Just as an example, I2e has two noise reduction controlls (Edge Preserving and Local) and I have not been able to find out what the difference is.
Any help or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
I am glad I found this site. This looks like my kind of place.


~Lupus

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    PupatorPupator Registered Users Posts: 2,322 Major grins
    edited February 11, 2009
    wave.gif Welcome to Dgrin - you will like it here. nod.gif


    I'm an I2E user as well, but it certainly doesn't win any awards for intuitiveness.

    Noise removal removes detail, plain and simple. Some detail can afford to be lost but some would result in images that lack sharpness. Edge-preserving noise removal, in my experience, attempts to identify objects (based on their edges) in your photo. It is less aggressive at removing the noise from the edges of those objects as to keep them sharply defined. This means that for a persons face it would be aggressive in removing noise from the center of the face and less aggressive around the edges (identified by different HSL values, I think).
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    Lupus RexLupus Rex Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited February 11, 2009
    I read the basic information the have on their website. And the edge preserving noise removal is one of the thing that attracted me to the program.

    The words auto enhance/levels/sharpen or any other auto words are like fingernails on a chalk board to me. I have never been happy with any automated enhancements. However I must admit that I have been happy with the I2e results, with the exception of the prints. It does a decent job on images scanned from negatives or slides. When it comes to prints, it fails.

    I was just hoping that there was a book or tutorial available.
    I never scan a print unless the negatives are unavailable. And in this case, I am dealing with a possible 300,000 pictures (maybe more) and 40% to 60% are prints.

    I bought a print scanner that can make the scanning process go very quickly, but it does not utilize color management. So I had hoped to rely heavily on I2e, but untill I know what slider or setting does what, I cant make a channel to batch process them all. And given the quantity I cant adjust each image.

    I am planning to scan a reflective IT8 target and to use Vuescan to build a profile for I2e, however, since the images are not being color managed by the scan software, I'm not sure what will happen. Unfortunately my trial has expired and I cant experiment anymore.
    This is why I had hoped that someone knew of a good source of information about I2e.

    Thank you for your help.


    ~Lupus
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    Lupus RexLupus Rex Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited February 11, 2009
    I didnt mean to say 300k pics. What i meant to say was 30k pictures.



    ~Lupus
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    PupatorPupator Registered Users Posts: 2,322 Major grins
    edited February 11, 2009
    Lupus Rex wrote:
    I didnt mean to say 300k pics. What i meant to say was 30k pictures.



    ~Lupus

    Can't hurt to e-mail the developer and ask where you can get info on each of the settings. They've been responsive to my e-mails in the past.
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    Lupus RexLupus Rex Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited February 11, 2009
    Pupator wrote:
    Can't hurt to e-mail the developer and ask where you can get info on each of the settings. They've been responsive to my e-mails in the past.



    Yes, thank you. I have been looking into who is the right person to contact, and from what I have read on the forums it looks like Frank Grossmann is the right person to ask. If I am mistaken, please let me know.


    ~Lupus
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    DavidEgolfDavidEgolf Registered Users Posts: 13 Big grins
    edited February 11, 2009
    Lupus Rex wrote:
    Yes, thank you. I have been looking into who is the right person to contact, and from what I have read on the forums it looks like Frank Grossmann is the right person to ask. If I am mistaken, please let me know.


    ~Lupus

    Yes Frank is the person to contact, but I would strongly suggest getting a color manage scanner to save allot of grief. Epson Perfection 4490 photo is a good scanner making sure it is the photo model. This matches well with the output of epson printers of the 4880 class.

    David Egolf
    David Egolf CafePress Svcs.
    1890 Beaver Ridge Circle
    Norcross, GA 30071
    W : 678-405-5500 ext 5620
    C : 678-790-4553
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    Lupus RexLupus Rex Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited February 12, 2009
    DavidEgolf wrote:
    Yes Frank is the person to contact, but I would strongly suggest getting a color manage scanner to save allot of grief. Epson Perfection 4490 photo is a good scanner making sure it is the photo model. This matches well with the output of epson printers of the 4880 class.

    David Egolf


    Im gald to hear that you like the 4490. I have 3 of them. I decided on the Kodak 1320 wich was originaly made for document scanning, but has been adopted by many for image scanning. I am interested in the speed of the scanner.
    The 1320 is capable of spitting out 300 dpi scans like a copy machine. I have seen it in action and have been impressed.
    I am hopeful that if I scan a reflective target and buid a profile, I can tell I2e where the black mid and white points sould be.

    We shall see.


    ~Lupus
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