Greetings, Yesterday (after some searching), I found some studio portraits and decided to scan the negatives. I learned many things ... (a) dust scans *very* well (b) after removing the dust from the negatives, some dust (or odd defect) will always still remain (c) Photoshop lets me see more defects than the scanner preview does (d) the software _likes_ to go back to some defaults that *it* has chosen for me Wash, Rinse, Repeat!! Enough with the background ... here's the question ... In the scan preview, I see a huge shift in color values and luminosity depending on the selected image area ... and since "what you see is what you get" ... I would like to have better control of this ... or get the scanner HW/SW to stop _helping_ me with artistic matters in areas where it has no competence. Does anyone have an idea why this is happening? The side by side comparison was obtained by using "Print Screen" and MS Photo Editor ... "Print Screen" -> "Edit" -> "Save as New" -> "File" -> "Save As" ... [some details about the scanner] The scanner is an HP Scanjet 3970 digital Flatbed Scanner -- 8.5 x 11.7 inches; 2400 dpi optical resolution; 48-bit color; TMA handles 35mm strips or slides. BTW, I bought it as "Factory Reconditioned" from geeks.com for about $25 plus S+H. [in closing] Sorry that I haven't visited as often as I would like -- I guess the other distractions were more powerful -- not better ... just more powerful. LOL MGD

I am not a geek but some problems are fixed with an updated driver(software package) for the device. The latest for your scanner is apparently 2.2. You might want to check if you can find it to see the driver version on your scanner. Here are two locations for the 2.2 version, the first I don't know anything about the website: http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/hp-3970.html This is from HP:http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?locale=en_US&taskId=135&prodSeriesId=298547&prodTypeId=15179&pnameOID=298549 These are large downloads, about 200mb and apparently the full software package, not an update(?) Drivers generally are NOT the problem unless things just aren't working and gliches in communications, etc, "not responding" etc. If this is a newer driver it likely has some bugs fixed. Tom. Someone else will have to answer the real questions on color, etc! : )

@TomDart > I am not a geek ... neither am I. LOL However, If you happen to go to the Computer Geeks web site at geeks.com you will see the True Geek Test (TM). They show their visitor count in 3 number systems: Hexadecimal, Decimal, and Octal. IMO, I doubt that anyone could be more geeky than that. Thanks, that was a very good suggestion about D/L a new driver and/or application software package. AFAIK I seem to already have the latest. MGD

Ther should be a way to change the default settings.

There seems to be two controls, that interact in some manner. Under"Preferences""

and under "Lighten/Darken" at the right.

The exact manner of interaction remains somewhat a mystery.

...hmm... guess the Forum doesn't let you Edit (replace) a File Attachment with a smaller one. Sorry...

MGD, you are fortunate folks are here with responses direct to your questions. My scanner is a few years old, an HP Scanjet 7400. I have changed the defualts on this scanner since having the scanner go in "auto" mode to correct color, sharpness and resolution are not what I want. I can do better with that in a dedicated image program like PSP or Photoshop or others. This scanner does allow for bitmapped images or "scalable" images(vector?) but the methods the scanner software uses are not clear. I do try to get a fine resolution and that often does not have to be really high for good results. You might play with that part a little and see. Dust will sometimes show up under the glass. This will be very little dust but will likely be right in the image! Murphys law of scanners..LOL. I use a 3m "high performance cloth for electronics" and sometimes an antistatic spray of something like Kensington Dust Guardian to clean the glass. Best clean before the lamp warms up everything to avoid liquid or spray cleaners from drying before a gentle wiping removes all residue. So, I can provide some simple non-geek advice! Good scanning to you. Tom.

@Misha883 > ...hmm... guess the Forum doesn't let you Edit > (replace) a File Attachment with a smaller one. Wouldn't "[Delete Image]" be somewhat helpful?

@TomDart > you are fortunate folks are here with responses direct > to your questions. That is why I like both this forum and Renderosity ... there are some many people willing to help. > My scanner is a few years old, an HP Scanjet 7400. I have no idea if any of these would help ... but if you go to http://www.geeks.com ... they have 3 scanners for sale at $53 to $142 with 48-bit color and 2400 to 3200 dpi. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they also had an inexpensive film/slide scanner for $120 -- PrimeFilm PF1800AFL http://www.scanace.com/en/product/1800afl.php Optical Resolution: 1800 DPI x 1800 DPI; Data Conversion: 42 bits per pixel (color mode) 14 bits per pixel (grayscale mode); and batch scanning of uncut 35mm film. About 30 seconds per image and only a USB 1.1 interface. WARNING: I saw some negative reviews for this particular product. ... and some even lower prices. HTH, but YMMV ... MGD

Looks like Misha answered you question pretty well. Good luck with your scanner explorations and beware the default settings! It took me a while to figure out that whenever I selected an area, the scanner software was auto balancing the levels. I had to go back and scan a whole bunch of images over again. 8'/