Workflow with Plustek scanner and Silverfast

[singram]

I just purchased a Plustek 7600 ai scanner. I am comfortable with the whole hybrid darkroom, since I hopped along the digital path as a photojournalist in the 90's as we moved from scanning negs to shooting digital. So I am no stranger to neg scanners.

I am looking for a good work flow with Silverfast. To be honest, the interface on Silverfast is rather complicated. It is a bit wonky too, with sliders that move almost a bit too far one way or another when you are trying to make subtle changes.

Does anyone have a good workflow with Silverfast and the Plustek worked out? I am scanning B+W negs btw.

So far I am scanning them in the 48>24 Bit Color setting at 7200 DPI, and then downsizing them a bit before saving and working in Photoshop. I use a film setting I like (Kodak Plus-X mode seems to work ok) and scanning them flat and doing curves/levels etc mostly in photoshop in post.

I found this has been the best way to capture the negative data so far.

If anyone out there has any advice, I would be glad to hear it!

steve

p.s. This is one of the first negs I scanned while testing out the scanner. I really like it!

 

[pellicle]

and its a nice shot too

the only thing I'd say is you didn't set your black and white points as well as you may have. Perhaps thats because you let the software do it, I don't know.

I don't use silverfast so I have nothing to say on that, but I'd have set my scan a little differently and then used curves a bit more.

(since you asked for input)

 

[snay1345]

I use the same scanner and switched to Vuscan. I think it is a much better program. I got so annoyed with silverfast and its gui that I couldn't take it anymore.

 

[brianentz]

Funny, I had a different experience. With vuescan I have a very hard time getting the color right, but silverfast nails it easily.

 

[P C Headland]

When I used SF the other day to scan a B+W test image, I got the best results by using the HDR (RAW) option. You then get an unadjusted scan, which you need to invert and work from there. Just another option to consider.