Do you scan your negs ......

[TheFlyingCamera]

The results are limited by the scanner hardware and its dMax. You can't get blood from a turnip.

Epsonscan (that I use), Silverfast and the other scanner software programs are just post-scan editing programs that edit during the scan. Scan "flat" with no adjustments, and do it all afterward in your favorite editing program and you'll get the same results.

Yes, if you scan flat, and turn off all corrections, then you'll end up with basically a "raw" file from the scanner, and you do all your adjustments in Photoshop. But if you allow your scanning software to do some of the things it is capable of doing, I have found I get far superior results from SilverFast, especially when working with color images. And I also find the range of controls it offers to be superior. I could not compare it to VueScan, which a lot of people seem to like, because VueScan will not let you evaluate its capabilities in demo mode (it seriously caps the resolution it will scan at, and then watermarks the hell out of each scan so they're unusable). Far better to allow you to do full-featured scans but cap it at 5 or 10 scans before it goes Kaput.

All I can tell you is that in my experience, the current version SilverFast AI 9, was able to provide me with better results than I remember from the past. I'm not saying that it made my scanner have a higher bit-depth or density range, I'm saying that it appears to produce a better result from the data sent from the scanner. It could also be something in Photoshop, or a side-effect of my upgrading my other hardware from a 2011 iMac with 16gb to a 2020 iMac Pro with 64gb RAM. Regardless, I perceive (rightly or wrongly) that I am getting better scans than I was in the past.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

I get rid of the blue and red channels in PS, not at the scanner.
Image - Adjustments - Channel Mixer. Click on the monochrome box,( bottom left). Zero out the red, and blue channels. Put Green too 100%.

Actually, the blue channel has more spatial information than the red or green channels. It's not night and day more, but since blue is a shorter wavelength, more spatial information gets through the lens system onto the sensor. Every little bit helps.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Yes, if you scan flat, and turn off all corrections, then you'll end up with basically a "raw" file from the scanner, and you do all your adjustments in Photoshop. But if you allow your scanning software to do some of the things it is capable of doing, I have found I get far superior results from SilverFast, especially when working with color images. And I also find the range of controls it offers to be superior. I could not compare it to VueScan, which a lot of people seem to like, because VueScan will not let you evaluate its capabilities in demo mode (it seriously caps the resolution it will scan at, and then watermarks the hell out of each scan so they're unusable). Far better to allow you to do full-featured scans but cap it at 5 or 10 scans before it goes Kaput.

All I can tell you is that in my experience, the current version SilverFast AI 9, was able to provide me with better results than I remember from the past. I'm not saying that it made my scanner have a higher bit-depth or density range, I'm saying that it appears to produce a better result from the data sent from the scanner. It could also be something in Photoshop, or a side-effect of my upgrading my other hardware from a 2011 iMac with 16gb to a 2020 iMac Pro with 64gb RAM. Regardless, I perceive (rightly or wrongly) that I am getting better scans than I was in the past.

As long as the colors are right at the end of editing whether with your scan program or post-scan editing app, what does it matter? Of course, I shoot chromes and BW negatives, not color negatives, so maybe there's an issue there. What's better about the data sent from the scanner that you couldn't create using a "raw" scan and editing in let's say PS or LR? What tools does SF, Vuescan or Epsonscan have that couldn't be done in post?

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

As long as the colors are right at the end of editing whether with your scan program or post-scan editing app, what does it matter? Of course, I shoot chromes and BW negatives, not color negatives, so maybe there's an issue there. What's better about the data sent from the scanner that you couldn't create using a "raw" scan and editing in let's say PS or LR? What tools does SF, Vuescan or Epsonscan have that couldn't be done in post?

I'd rather do less work in post if possible.