Prepare and execute picture scan

Here are some steps to take before scanning.

If you deal with a slide/transparency.

 * 1) Insert transparent part / film leader in the holder and custom white-balance camera by that frame with some level of underexposure. If there is no transparent film left - custom balance your camera by shooting diffuser with 2 step underexposure. That should produce uniformly-lit gray frame. If it's not gray and uniform - tweak the light source, move parts, etc. until it's done.
 * 2) Set camera for neutral of faithful (don't know exact difference),  turn off sharpening, etc. The goal is to remove any interference of the camera software. Raw files will have the complete data regardless of the camera settings, but jpeg will be processed per the options selected. Take your best slide or color pattern and start focusing camera manually. You best bet is having camera in "Live View" mode with the magnification set at ~ x10. That allows for precise focusing "on the grain".
 * 3) Mask off any ambient light. Mask off any parts of original you are not capturing.
 * 4) Make a capture. Review the histogram. Make sure histogram is completely withing the grid. For negatives this is of paramount importance.
 * 5) Have camera tethered or use a remote control.
 * 6) If you don't use tether have camera connected to an external monitor/TV - that will make controlling sharpness much easier.
 * 7) Just in case do some bracketing. Advance film, replace slide. Check for sharpness - take a picture and repeat.
 * 1) Just in case do some bracketing. Advance film, replace slide. Check for sharpness - take a picture and repeat.

Desktop processing

 * 1) Take card of camera and transfer images to the desktop.
 * 2) Have desktop monitor profiled and calibrated using any device available on market.
 * 3) Open images in you favourite photo editor.
 * 4) For Raw files you may do initial import.
 * 5) Review images in regards of histogram and color.
 * 6) Keep in mind that if your capture is significantly off compared to the originals it may make sense to tweak you rig, lightning, etc. rather than trying to fix colors in a photo editor. Even for raw files you have only so much in latitude and you may notice very soon that you are making pictures even worse.
 * 7) Of course if you are dealing with the negatives you task order of magnitude more complex than capturing transparencies.

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