Nikon Scan, Silverfast or Vuescan for Coolscan 5000

[MattKing]

Can someone answer my post#39.

Kino did.

 

[Kino]

Kino did.

I'm probably on ignore; wouldn't surprise me...

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Did you read KINO's post #40 and the link he provided?

I just want to know if I should embed the ICC profile in the resultant TIFF image file or not when I scan and then use in Lightroom or another post processing program.

 

[MattKing]

I just want to know if I should embed the ICC profile in the resultant TIFF image file or not when I scan and then use in Lightroom or another post processing program.

Probably not.
You would most likely want to if you were working with a customized ICC profile - say one that was particular to a certain printer or type of display - and you were sharing your files with other users and you wanted users of the file to be able to access that customized profile, rather than the generic profiles that they already had on their equipment.
A practical example: The RA4 printers that Costcos around here use have publicly available ICC profiles. If I wanted to share a file with a friend who I knew was going to have the file printed at Costco, but didn't have the profiles on his system, I might embed that profile in the file. That friend could then edit the file - say crop it - and then send it to Costco with the profile intact.
I know that you like to make up digital "slide" shows and share them with friends. If that means using a digital projector, and that projector has a customized ICC profile, it may help everyone if they use and embed that same profile in the shows they provide - more consistency of appearance.
I expect embedding is much more important in the publishing industry.

 

[KenS]

Hello all!
I'm new to this forum and wonder if someone can help me out deciding what to do next. I bought a Nikon Coolscan 5000 to speed up the scanning process of my regular 35mm work. I have a slow Imacon 343 that I will keep for scanning MF. This scanner is connected to an iMac with an Eizo graphic screen. Since the Nikon Scan software is not supported by the newer generation Apple computers, I don't know what is best.
Some 5 or 6 years ago I had a Nikon LS-4000 and back then I bit the bullet and bought the terribly expensive Silverfast software. It was a disaster. The program crashed many times and when I found a solution with the help of the support team, it would crash again once the OS updated. I stepped over to Vuescan and this proved to be a more stable solution. However, I didn't like the interface.
I believe the best software to use all of the functionality the LS-5000 is offering would still be the old Nikon Scan software. I just read on the Lasersoft site that Silverfast has 'better' solutions for some of the functions, but somehow I doubt that. I am looking for the best image quality at the highest speed possible. Am I better off buying an old apple computer with an older OS and use this as a dedicated Nikon Scan station, or can I achieve the same results (or better?) with Silverfast or Vuescan? And if an older computer is advicable, what model should I look for? I use computers as an operator, but in my heart I am utterly analog, so please not too digitechnical...
Many thanks!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Probably not.
You would most likely want to if you were working with a customized ICC profile - say one that was particular to a certain printer or type of display - and you were sharing your files with other users and you wanted users of the file to be able to access that customized profile, rather than the generic profiles that they already had on their equipment.
A practical example: The RA4 printers that Costcos around here use have publicly available ICC profiles. If I wanted to share a file with a friend who I knew was going to have the file printed at Costco, but didn't have the profiles on his system, I might embed that profile in the file. That friend could then edit the file - say crop it - and then send it to Costco with the profile intact.
I know that you like to make up digital "slide" shows and share them with friends. If that means using a digital projector, and that projector has a customized ICC profile, it may help everyone if they use and embed that same profile in the shows they provide - more consistency of appearance.
I expect embedding is much more important in the publishing industry.

This is all very confusing. First off after editing it in lightroom, I save it as a jpeg with sRGB so everyone can see true colors normally. But the colors are way out of whack after the scan. They need major editing. How does setting the ICC or not effect what I'm doing? I don't send the image right out of the scan to anyone.

 

[runswithsizzers]

This is all very confusing. First off after editing it in lightroom, I save it as a jpeg with sRGB so everyone can see true colors normally. But the colors are way out of whack after the scan. They need major editing. How does setting the ICC or not effect what I'm doing? I don't send the image right out of the scan to anyone.

It is confusing. So much so, that you are not likely to get answers about color management that are both simple and satisfying on a discussion forum like this one.

I have spent many hours trying to learn about color management, but I do not pretend to really understand all of the settings, profiles, tags, and color spaces and how they all work together. But I'm pretty sure the fact that the colors of your scans need major editing in Lightroom will not be affected, for better or worse, no matter whether your scanner's generic ICC profile gets embedded in your images, or not.

If you really want to go down the rabbit hole of color management, be prepared to devote some time reading various websites dedicated to that subject. And then re-reading them. Recently I gave the topic another go at <this website>. I kinda liked the way he explains things (note: some of his Photoshop/Lightroom screen shots are of French versions of the software). But if you are not preparing your images for high quality prints for picky viewers, and if you are happy with the way your edited images look on your screen - then you can probably save yourself a lot of time, expense, and aggravation by mostly ignoring the whole topic of color management.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

It is confusing. So much so, that you are not likely to get answers about color management that are both simple and satisfying on a discussion forum like this one.

I have spent many hours trying to learn about color management, but I do not pretend to really understand all of the settings, profiles, tags, and color spaces and how they all work together. But I'm pretty sure the fact that the colors of your scans need major editing in Lightroom will not be affected, for better or worse, no matter whether your scanner's generic ICC profile gets embedded in your images, or not.

If you really want to go down the rabbit hole of color management, be prepared to devote some time reading various websites dedicated to that subject. And then re-reading them. Recently I gave the topic another go at <this website>. I kinda liked the way he explains things (note: some of his Photoshop/Lightroom screen shots are of French versions of the software). But if you are not preparing your images for high quality prints for picky viewers, and if you are happy with the way your edited images look on your screen - then you can probably save yourself a lot of time, expense, and aggravation by mostly ignoring the whole topic of color management.

Thanks. I'll just leave it as I found it with the ICC Embed checked. If it ain't broken, why fix it?

 

[MattKing]

Thanks. I'll just leave it as I found it with the ICC Embed checked. If it ain't broken, why fix it?

That may make your files larger than necessary.
And if you are working in sRGB, there really is no benefit, because everyone has sRGB, so there is no need to send it along with your files or store it with your files.

 

[Kino]

As a friend says, "Color Management manages to drive me crazy..."

As Runswithsizzers says, it just doesn't matter unless you are publishing, creating exacting ink jet prints or making 4K cinema packages for Netfix (or somthing similar).

The vast majority of computer users have the equivalent of a Curtis Mathis TV setting on their desktop, so don't sweat it...

 

[Richard1985]

Hello everyone.

I recently purchased a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED film scanner with Nikon Scab 4. I am using the scanner on a laptop running Windows 7 64 bit. Yes, I tricked my Windows 7 laptop into running Nikon Scan 4.

I would like to run Nikon Scan 4 as a third party application through Photoshop CS6 but I do not see Nikon Scan 4 in the 'Import' section in the 'File' menu of Photoshop.

Can anyone show me how to run Nikon Scan 4 from Photoshop CS6? The Nikon 5000 User's Guide and reference manual do not show me how to acquire Nikon Scan 4 in the Import list.

Many thanks.