Step by Step Procedures for Scanning Film
*The EPSON 10000 XL scanner should have the transparency unit attached. If it is not attached, the user needs to turn off the power of the scanner, remove the regular cover, and attach the transparency unit. The transparency guide is not needed for scanning film.
1 - Put on white gloves when handling film to avoid fingerprints rubbing onto film.
2 - Take film out of canister and find the glossy side, which will need to be face down for scanning.
3 - Unroll film to find flight direction markings, which are usually at the beginning of the roll. If there are none, then use your own judgment on flight direction so film data is correctly oriented.
4 - Put film on roller that allows film to fed through scanner with the glossy side down and data correctly oriented, switch spindles if necessary. This can be changed if the user later discovers that the film is incorrectly oriented.
5 - Push bars of rollers together to a distance with the film right between them and then tighten the knobs of the rollers.
6 - Open Adobe Photoshop program and click on file, import, and select the Silverfast program.
7 - Roll the handle on the roller to feed film onto scanner. Film should be scanned at the top of the scanner. Rollers can be adjusted as necessary and scanner can be moved so the film is rolled across the top.
8 - When scanning portions of film that are not on the edge of the roll, attach the end of the film to the opening on the spindle of opposite roller.
9 - Once film is attached to spindle, use this roller to unroll and feed film through the scanner.
10 - After Silverfast opens, click on prescan button at lower left corner for visualization of imagery. This provides an initial view. Setting need to be changed to the following:
11 - Select the general tab and set the following settings
1 - Scan mode-normal
2 - Original- reflective
3 - Pos/neg- positive
4 - Frame-set- save
12 - Select the frame tab to control quality of scanning procedures and set
the following settings
1 - Scan type – 16-8 bit grayscale
2 - Filter – GANE, to maximize dust and grain removal settings
3 - Setting - save
4 - Image type – standard
5 - Name – untitled, user can add a title when saving image
6 - Original- this setting displays the width and height of area being scanned and can be changed by typing in values or clicking and dragging on perorated box in preview window.
7 - Scale – 100
8 - Q-factor – 2.5, maximizes quality of scan
9 - Screen – 480 lpi
10 - Scanning resolution is below screen and q-factor, but unlabeled, set to 1200 dpi
11 - Click pre-scan again for new view of imagery. Re-size window to include only the area of film that contains data.
13 - If desired, check additional options by clicking on options button at right corner to open extra options menu. These options do not need to be changed from default settings.
14 - If desired, check options located on top row of Silverfast menu, such as histogram and gradation curve adjustment and alter as the user sees fit to do so. The auto-adjust tool is also located on this row and can improve scanned imagery if needed.
15 - Click on Scan button at bottom of tab to begin scanning imagery.
16 - Scanned imagery is loaded into Adobe Photoshop, the user needs to name the file and save it to a folder of choice as a .tiff file.
17 - Continue rolling film as needed to scan imagery and repeat scanning process.
18 - When finished scanning, use the roller on the original spindle to roll the film back.
* When scanning aerial photography, the user needs to either place sheets of paper behind the film or put the cover back over the transparency unit glass portion. It is also possible that this process could improve scanning results of other series as well.
*Each roll of film tightens as the user rolls the film through the scanner and attaches it to the roller on the opposite side. Occasionally, this results in the film becoming very tight and resists laying down flat on the scanner bed. When this happens, the portions of the scanned image on the edge of the scanner bed become distorted. Unrolling some of the film on the receive roller relieves some of the tightness, but does not totally eliminate distortion from the image. The best way to eliminate the distortion is to select to not scan the area that is distorted during the prescan.
Comments and Problems with Each Platform
SEASAT
The SEASAT series provided some high quality scanned images, but some of the film produced scanned images that were not even salvageable. Four of the rolls in the SEASAT collection are printed on photo paper, which produces very high quality scanned images, as shown by scanning Rev 443. Geomorphic features and land use characteristics are easily identifiable in this imagery. The rest of the rolls in the SEASAT series are transparencies, which produced some high quality scanned images and some terrible ones. The scanning of Rev 580 had some bright streaks appear in a few of the images, but overall produced excellent images for identifying physical features. However, an attempt at scanning Rev 393 did not yield favorable results. This roll of film had wide black streaks running parallel to the remotely sensed data on the top and bottom of the roll of film. These black streaks absorbed light from the scanner and thus dark images were produced from each scan. Scanning of this roll was aborted after adjusting scanning settings did not improve the image. The main problem with the SEASAT series is its inconsistency, since there are at least three different types of rolls. The basic scanning procedures worked for two types of rolls, but not for the final type. Nevertheless, SEASAT imagery can provide valuable data at a high quality.
Aircraft Radar
The aircraft radar series has a higher spatial resolution than the SEASAT series and thus produces very detailed images. Three rolls of positive aircraft radar were scanned, from flights 143, 144, and 145 of Panama. Geomorphic features, particularly mountains and coastal areas, are displayed well in these rolls of film. However, aircraft radar did have its share of problems with scanning. The most obvious problem was that tape was used in some parts of the rolls to keep the film together. During a scan, scanner light shines through the crack where the tape holds the film together. This produces a very bright area on the image where the tape is located. Another problem with the scanning is a result of the data on the film. On scans where there is contrast between water and land and water is dark and land is bright, the distribution of light is deterred. This can cause streaks of light to appear in dark areas of an image that would represent water, as well as make land areas that would be bright appear too dark. Further scanning of this series is needed to explore the other formats of aircraft radar, such as x-polar positive and negative, black & white positive, color, positive transparency, negative film, and positive print.
Skylab
The Skylab series presented many potential problems in scanning the film. The first problem is that there is no identification of the geographic location of the area on each film. Skylab film has the smallest roll size in height, and the length of each roll is rather long. Skylab also uses frames, which are totally black, to separate each image on the roll. However, the black frames did not totally absorb scanner light, which was surprising. Three rolls of the Skylab series were scanned. All were positive, but one was a color positive roll of film. The two black and white positive rolls produced high quality scans in which land and water are easily distinguishable. Skylab imagery has a very low spatial resolution, so each image displays a large geographic area with out much detail. The color positive roll of film did not produce the same favorable results as the black and white rolls did. Black and white scanning settings were used for the scanning process to maintain consistency with the other rolls of film. Many scans came out very dark on this setting. Color scanning settings were applied sparingly to attempt producing a higher quality image. These settings did produce a slightly higher quality image; however, color scanned images have a file size of approximately three times larger than black and white images. Another problem with the color positive roll of film was that it was taped together in many spots, allowing light to pass through and distort the image. Further scanning of the Skylab series is needed to investigate scanning techniques for the color IR, 35 mm film, and 70 mm film formats. Skylab offers a very distinctive low spatial resolution view that allows the researcher to view a large geographic area. Matching up the locations of the imaging with the rolls will make this series very useful.
Aerial Photography
The aerial photography series provides high quality scanned images without many problems in the scanning procedure. Determining the proper setting for aerial photography was tricky though. The rolls of film seem to be more opaque than those in the other series. The first attempts of scanning this series produced terrible results, as light from the scanner streaked across the images and also highlighted scratches on the film. Attempts to change settings in the Silverfast AI program did not improve the scanned images. However, by placing sheets of paper behind the film, the scanned images became much better, basically with no flaws at all. Three rolls of aerial photography were selected to be scanned. The first roll was black and white aerial photography of Alaska. This roll had the lowest spatial resolution of the three selected; however, it provides excellent views of glaciers, lakes, and drainage patterns. There was a long black strip above the images on the film that the user has to deselect in the preview scan window. The next roll to be scanned was color positive aerial photography of the Little Rock-Pine Bluff area in Central Arkansas. This roll was much wider than any other roll of film scanned thus far. The spatial resolution of this imagery also is also the highest of all the film and provides exceptional views of farmland, rivers, and urban areas. Even though this film is color, black and white scanning settings were used to maintain consistency with previous scanning procedures. The final roll of the aerial photography series is color infrared imagery of Southwest Arkansas. It is also wide, like the Little Rock-Pine Bluff roll of film. Scanning has not begun on this roll yet. Aerial photography is unique in the views it provides and also in the geographic areas covered in the series.
SIR-A
The SIR-A series provided many high quality scanned images with plenty of useful data, but there were a few potential problems. This imagery provides a spatial resolution view similar to that of SEASAT. Geomorphic features, drainage patterns, and land use characteristics are all distinguishable in the scanned images. Three rolls of SIR-A imagery were scanned, spanning the geographic areas of Central America, Europe, Asia, and the Central United States. Two of the rolls were positive transparencies and the other was a negative transparency. Orbit 31 of Europe and Asia has place names written on the film, which is very helpful in determining the geographic area on the film. There were a couple of small problems with scanning SIR-A imagery. One problem was that much of this imagery was scratched and the scratches showed up on the scanned images. Adobe Photoshop can be used to eliminate these scratches, but produces distortion in the grayscale of the image. Another problem arises from the land-water distribution on the imagery. On some images, land areas appear exceedingly brighter than the land appears on the actual film. There are scanned images in which the bottom half of the image is considerably darker than the top half even though land-water distribution is consistent throughout the image. This distortion needs to be eliminated for use of the imagery, so researchers do not make incorrect inferences about a particular area. The SIR-A series also contains positive prints, which should provide excellent scans, similar to the SEASAT printed rolls. This series contains geographic coverage of geographic areas such as Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia that the other series do not, so SIR-A would be very useful for researchers interested in those areas of the world.