ChrisR
I'm a well known grump...
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Scanning is an important part of a hybrid analogue/digital workflow. About the only ways of avoiding it are to always get your film processed and scanned by a lab, or build a darkroom and stay away from the digital world altogether. Oh, there's also the "scan by digital camera" trick, but that can be quite a faff.
Many of us on here use Vuescan to scan our negatives and slides (and prints, etc, too). It's quite fully functioned scanning software, at a reasonable price, with unlimited updates available if you buy the Professional edition (which you'll need anyway unless you're only scanning prints). Current price is of the order of US$100.
RESOURCES:
Get your copy of Vuescan from https://www.hamrick.com . You'll need the Professional version to scan negatives and slides, but it's worth it when you consider it works with just about any scanner, and you get unlimited updates!
If like me you got your copy of Vuescan some time ago, it might be worth refreshing your mind with the Vuescan User's Guide, which has been updated fairly recently: https://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/html/vuesc.htm
Someone on here has recommended the Vuescan Bible. I was quite surprised, however, to see it at around £60! Rather than Amaz*n, here it is on Abebooks (though that's probably also owned by Amaz*n these days!): https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/...home-_-Results&an=&tn=vuescan+bible&kn=&isbn=
There are also a ton of videos on using Vuescan on y*utube, some of which contain useful information, though you'll often have to spend minutes going through the basic stuff you already know!
EDIT: I plan to edit this first post freely, so what you see is NOT what was originally posted!
Well, since so many of us use Vuescan for scanning, I thought perhaps we should have a thread to ask questions and receive advice from the wise members of F&C. And if it's not a good idea, no doubt it will rapidly languish onto page 16...
Q1: how much effect does the JPEG quality setting (in the Output tab) have, and what is an appropriate value? I'm currently using it at 95 or 96, and don't know whether I'm missing quality in the JPEGs as a result...
A1: see post #5 from @john-oh, who owns the Vuescan Bible: "The default is 90, lower will reduce file size but increase the likelihood of artifacts."
Q2 from @RaglanSurf: does anybody know if it's possible to batch scan medium format using Vuescan with an Epson 700?
A2 from @Strappy : It works ok for me but that's on a Canoscan 9000F so probably doesn't help much. According to the user guide, the option is only displayed when the scanner is capable of batch scanning; I've just tried setting it up with my scanner switched off (no options displayed) and then on (batch options available).
Q3:
Q4 from @ChrisR: most that I've read on scanning suggests some sharpening is required, and Silverfast includes a couple of sharpening options, although I've not much experience in using them. Is there a sharpening option in Vuescan? If so, I've missed it... If not, I guess some sharpening in post is needed (Aperture, in my case)...
A4 from @s162216 : There is an option for 'unsharp mask' in Vuescan under the 'filter' tab, but its way way too aggressive and unfortunately has no options to fine tune the level of sharpening that it applies. Whenever I've tried using it the result looks way too overshapened with halo's etc and the grain much more prominent. Do it in PP as you will get a much better result.
EDIT: Decided that the Q&A format doesn't really work, so hoping the thread will remain useful for general Vuescan discussion, but I'm not going to try to summarise any more Qs and As.
Many of us on here use Vuescan to scan our negatives and slides (and prints, etc, too). It's quite fully functioned scanning software, at a reasonable price, with unlimited updates available if you buy the Professional edition (which you'll need anyway unless you're only scanning prints). Current price is of the order of US$100.
RESOURCES:
Get your copy of Vuescan from https://www.hamrick.com . You'll need the Professional version to scan negatives and slides, but it's worth it when you consider it works with just about any scanner, and you get unlimited updates!
If like me you got your copy of Vuescan some time ago, it might be worth refreshing your mind with the Vuescan User's Guide, which has been updated fairly recently: https://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/html/vuesc.htm
Someone on here has recommended the Vuescan Bible. I was quite surprised, however, to see it at around £60! Rather than Amaz*n, here it is on Abebooks (though that's probably also owned by Amaz*n these days!): https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/...home-_-Results&an=&tn=vuescan+bible&kn=&isbn=
There are also a ton of videos on using Vuescan on y*utube, some of which contain useful information, though you'll often have to spend minutes going through the basic stuff you already know!
EDIT: I plan to edit this first post freely, so what you see is NOT what was originally posted!
Well, since so many of us use Vuescan for scanning, I thought perhaps we should have a thread to ask questions and receive advice from the wise members of F&C. And if it's not a good idea, no doubt it will rapidly languish onto page 16...
Q1: how much effect does the JPEG quality setting (in the Output tab) have, and what is an appropriate value? I'm currently using it at 95 or 96, and don't know whether I'm missing quality in the JPEGs as a result...
A1: see post #5 from @john-oh, who owns the Vuescan Bible: "The default is 90, lower will reduce file size but increase the likelihood of artifacts."
Q2 from @RaglanSurf: does anybody know if it's possible to batch scan medium format using Vuescan with an Epson 700?
A2 from @Strappy : It works ok for me but that's on a Canoscan 9000F so probably doesn't help much. According to the user guide, the option is only displayed when the scanner is capable of batch scanning; I've just tried setting it up with my scanner switched off (no options displayed) and then on (batch options available).
Q3:
Q4 from @ChrisR: most that I've read on scanning suggests some sharpening is required, and Silverfast includes a couple of sharpening options, although I've not much experience in using them. Is there a sharpening option in Vuescan? If so, I've missed it... If not, I guess some sharpening in post is needed (Aperture, in my case)...
A4 from @s162216 : There is an option for 'unsharp mask' in Vuescan under the 'filter' tab, but its way way too aggressive and unfortunately has no options to fine tune the level of sharpening that it applies. Whenever I've tried using it the result looks way too overshapened with halo's etc and the grain much more prominent. Do it in PP as you will get a much better result.
EDIT: Decided that the Q&A format doesn't really work, so hoping the thread will remain useful for general Vuescan discussion, but I'm not going to try to summarise any more Qs and As.
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