Vuescan problems

I have downloaded Vuescan 9.2.11 and two problems emerged (for now). First, it doesn't recognize frames so it scans a lot more than that 35mm frame and second (which I think is in correlation with the first one) is that histogram is really off. I can adjust it in PS but it comes with the price of detail loss in both light and dark parts...

you need to manually crop what needs to be scanned.

Yes, but even when i crop it manually it seems to do what it wants, in other words, my guides are useless because it does what it does. Tried reinstalling the program, maybe download some other version?

Try scanning at 16bit, rgb and output to dng. The histogram you are showing indicates to me that you have captured everything and all that is needed is to adjust the high and low ends, set the density (create a midpoint and move up or down) and contrast (create a quarter point and adjust up or down-- opposite the density for more contrast in the same direction of density for less). I would use the curve tool over the histogram tool. When you are done if you've scanned it as 8bit or only grey than your histogram will look like a comb (the comb of death), but this has less to do with vuescan than it does with the scanner and mostly the scanned bit depth.

I'm scanning at 16 bit gray. There seems to be another thing that confuses me - while going through frame numbers, when selecting frames 1-6 i get all of them black and when selecting 7-11 (12 is appearing to be lighter) I see the photos but leveled the way I showed in the first post.
I must be doing something very wrong...

See this link for basic Vuescan setup. It helped me.

Ken Lee Gallery - Scanning Tips (with EPSON and VueScan Software)

What scanner are you using? Try turning batch scanning off and then selecting a single frame. Make sure your holder actually has film in that frame. To be safe load all of the frames in the holder with film. Also, try setting the crop size to one of the 35mm selections in the crop tab. You can still adjust the crop after you preview. If the frame is too dark or too light, you can lighten/darken the frame using the Brightness setting on the Color tab.

When I set up for scanning, I turn on my scanner first, wait until it completes it's initialization sequence, and then start Vuescan. If I start Vuescan first, sometimes Vuescan behaves oddly.

Scanning is not nearly as simple as many make it out to be. With VueScan, you have a lot of power, but also many areas where things can get whacky if they are not properly noted. If the scans don't look right, I always reset to the default options and start again. It's amazing how often that gets me back on track to a good scan.

parkersmithphoto said:

Scanning is not nearly as simple as many make it out to be. With VueScan, you have a lot of power, but also many areas where things can get whacky if they are not properly noted. If the scans don't look right, I always reset to the default options and start again. It's amazing how often that gets me back on track to a good scan.

Click to expand...

I agree. To avoid digging myself in too deep. I save my settings and don't try to use all the tools available. I limit what I do in vuescan to only scanning the most information I can get and worry about color, density, contrast in photoshop.