How to make proof scans efficiently...

ChristopherCoy · Feb 17, 2021

I have an Epson 4990 and Silverfast 8.

I'm going to preface this question and say that I know next to diddly about scanning. I have only a passing knowledge of dpi/ppi and resolution.

What I'm looking to do is use my scanner to make proof images that have minimal file sizes, but large enough that I can import into a LR catalog for preliminary edits for estimation of prints. I am NOT interested in scanning files that can be printed.

I'd also like to put an entire roll into the film holders and have them automatically scanned without having to go back after each one and adjust the frames or settings.

Can anyone lend some advice, or setting choices, and help me develop an efficient process to do this?

shutterfinger · Feb 17, 2021

ChristopherCoy said:
I have only a passing knowledge of dpi/ppi and resolution.

Silverfast has a strange way of setting the scan resolution, its set at a print size of 300ppi and I think you can select 150ppi for large prints. I suggest scanning for the print size you will make if its a negative you want to print.
The more information you have in the file the better the adjustments you can make without getting digital artifacts. Silverfast SE and SE+ will scan at 16 bits per channel but save at 8 bits per channel, full Silverfast will scan and save 16 bit per channel files. Scan B&W at 16 bit greyscale or 48 bit RGB and color film at 48 bit RGB. Once edited and evaluated move the files to a external drive for storage.

Les Sarile · Feb 17, 2021

ChristopherCoy said:
I'd also like to put an entire roll into the film holders and have them automatically scanned without having to go back after each one and adjust the frames or settings.

I am not sure what you mean putting a whole roll of 35mm film into the holder - 24 frames, or do you mean to lay out a roll of 36 frames onto the glass directly and do a quick scan as I did below?

This one of Fuji Astia 100 inside the clear plastic strip holder. Gets cutoff.

This one of Kodak 100UC bunched up on the glass. Still got cutoff but I could have overlapped it more to fit I suppose.

grat · Feb 18, 2021

Typically, I use the "detect frames" function to find all the frames-- they may need tweaking, or not, depending on how well Silverfast detects them.

Then I edit (click on) the first frame-- set the resolution (300 PPI would be reasonable for you, although 150 PPI would work as well), apply the negafix settings, turn everything else off-- no GANE, no ICE, no multi-exposure (if you have the plus edition), no sharpening-- literally the only things selected in the stack on the left should be negafix. You'll have a couple other docked windows like Densiometer, but that's informative, rather than editing.

Then use the "Copy settings to all frames" option, and do a batch scan to JPG.

ChristopherCoy · Feb 18, 2021

shutterfinger said:
Silverfast has a strange way of setting the scan resolution, its set at a print size of 300ppi and I think you can select 150ppi for large prints. I suggest scanning for the print size you will make if its a negative you want to print.
The more information you have in the file the better the adjustments you can make without getting digital artifacts. Silverfast SE and SE+ will scan at 16 bits per channel but save at 8 bits per channel, full Silverfast will scan and save 16 bit per channel files. Scan B&W at 16 bit greyscale or 48 bit RGB and color film at 48 bit RGB. Once edited and evaluated move the files to a external drive for storage.

you might as well be speaking Greek, especially when it comes to bits. I’ve never understood 8/16/48 bits.

ChristopherCoy · Feb 18, 2021

Les Sarile said:
I am not sure what you mean putting a whole roll of 35mm film into the holder - 24 frames, or do you mean to lay out a roll of 36 frames onto the glass directly and do a quick scan as I did below?

What I mean is put the negative strips into the black film strip holder that came with the scanner, start the program, and have it scan each individual frame into a file of perhaps 1mb, and dump it into a pre-created folder for that one particular roll.

Although I’ve often thought of doing exactly what you did, scanning a whole sheet and printing contact sheets digitally instead of in the darkroom. I’ve just never figured out how to do it.

ChristopherCoy · Feb 18, 2021

grat said:
Typically, I use the "detect frames" function to find all the frames-- they may need tweaking, or not, depending on how well Silverfast detects them.

Then I edit (click on) the first frame-- set the resolution (300 PPI would be reasonable for you, although 150 PPI would work as well), apply the negafix settings, turn everything else off-- no GANE, no ICE, no multi-exposure (if you have the plus edition), no sharpening-- literally the only things selected in the stack on the left should be negafix. You'll have a couple other docked windows like Densiometer, but that's informative, rather than editing.

Then use the "Copy settings to all frames" option, and do a batch scan to JPG.

Thanks, I’ll try that this morning.

Alan Edward Klein · Feb 18, 2021

ChristopherCoy said:
What I mean is put the negative strips into the black film strip holder that came with the scanner, start the program, and have it scan each individual frame into a file of perhaps 1mb, and dump it into a pre-created folder for that one particular roll.

Although I’ve often thought of doing exactly what you did, scanning a whole sheet and printing contact sheets digitally instead of in the darkroom. I’ve just never figured out how to do it.

Chris: That can be done with Epsonscan which is free to download. Use the 35mm strip holder. The software can frame each picture automatically and set the exposure so you get pretty normalized results. Then each picture would automatically be labelled with an incremental number and get filed into a single folder in your computer. I'd try 600bpi to see if that acceptable to work with for preliminary review in LR. The end picture fo 35mm would then be around 600x 900 pixels. Set on 8 bit No ICE (dust removal) will speed up the scan. File as Jpeg; you don;t need tiff at this point.

Of course for the final scans of the ones you want to print or whatever, you have to change all the settings. Good luck.

ChristopherCoy · Feb 18, 2021

This is what I don't understand. I have it set at 150ppi, but underneath it it says 1600? What's the difference?

ChristopherCoy · Feb 18, 2021

Oh wait... is that 150ppi x 9.38in = approx 1600ppi?

Alan Edward Klein · Feb 18, 2021

ChristopherCoy said:
Oh wait... is that 150ppi x 9.38in = approx 1600ppi?

I'm not familiar with that scanning program. Maybe the prescan scan is 150 but the main scan is 1600?

Wallendo · Feb 19, 2021

I believe that the 150 dpi is the output resolution, not the scanning resolution. The slider at the bottom controls the scanner resolution.

I general idea is that if you are scanning to print, you can pick the print size and printer resolution and let the software determine scanner resolution.

How to make proof scans efficiently...

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