A note on the context of this document

This is the international version of an article published on the German ColorNeg web site. Some navigational elements will therefore take you to pages that are in German. Menu entries you do understand will usually take you to other English pages though. You're quite welcome to look around. You can always use your browser's back button should you go astray. Finally you may want to go to the international ColorNeg web site.

Creating linear scans with Hasselblad / Imacon FlexColor

FlexColor seems to add in an uncalled for "compensation" when a straightforward adjustment of gamma back to 1.0 (linear) is specified. This thoroughly distorts the shadows in a scan, yielding terrible results as ColorNeg inverts these shadow distortions to spread through the entire image. To solve this problem you have to use the *.fff (3F) RAW format. To open such *.fff files in Photoshop, you must have the Imacon 3f.8bi plug-in installed which registered Hasselblad users can download for free from Hasselblad's web site.

It has come to our attention that the image data created by the workflow described hereafter is not linear when the 3F file is being imported in Photoshop. The 3F files created using this workflow still are well suited for processing with ColorNeg after they have been linearized with our auxiliary plug-in Scantique which comes with the ColorNeg package. For a completely PC based workflow we could ascertain that you need to use Scantique with a Gamma value of 2.2 to linearize the 3F data before processing it with ColorNeg. In the past a credible source had provided the information that such 3F files actually contained linear image data. Whether an alternate 3F.8bi Plug-in exists / existed that allowed importing the data linearly in Photoshop or whether things are different on Mac OS X is currently unknown to us. With Os X it is conceivable that a Gamma value of 1.8 might be required to linearize the imported data with Scantique. We ask FlexColor users - especially those using the Mac platform - to contact us so that we can aswer these questions.

Saving the basic settings as a profile

To prepare for creating linear scans you will once have to define a suitable setup. Save this as 'Raw linear scan' or something similar and use the following settings.

General tab

• Mode: RGB 16 bit
• Descreen: 0
• Adaptive light: 0
• Film type: Positive
• Enhanced shadow detail: Off

Contrast tab

• Contrast: 0
• Brightness: 0
• Gamma: 1.0
• Shadow depth: 0

Texture tab

• All: Off

CC tab

• Active: Off

Auto tab

• All: 0 / Off

ColorSync / ICM tab

• Embed profile: Off
• Convert: Off

Scanning a color negative

Like detailed above the scans must be created in 3F format. To do so select "Scan 3F" from the file menu which will bring up the 3F Scan control window. In this window set the film type to Positive and set Setup to 'Raw linear scan' or whatever name you used for your setup created in the steps above. Turn off Auto Levels, set the desired resolution in percentage of your scanner's maximum resolution and click Scan which creates your 3F file.

ATTENTION: The scans you create via this route might not be opened linearly in Photoshop but might rather be Gamma encoded to Windows' System Gamma of 2.2. Prior to converting negatives with ColorNeg you will have to reverse this encoding using our auxiliary Plug-In Scantique which comes with the ColorNeg package. This will create a suitable linear image file. We did not test FlexColor on Mac OS X but it is conceivable that Gamma 1.8 is used there instead upon putting out the data.

FlexColor can be used in combination with Hasselblad's so called virtual drum scanners Hasselblad Flextight X1 and Hasselblad Flextight X5 as well as with older models such as Imacon Flextight 949, Imacon Flextight 848, Imacon Flextight 646, Imacon Flextight 343, Imacon Flextight Precision II and Imacon Flextight.

To conclude we'd like to thank our user Andrew McIntyre cordially for providing the screen shots used here.