Alternative scanning software for Epson V550

sirch

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I'm really not getting on with the software that came with my V550 so I've done a bit of Googling but apart from a few really old threads I can't find much about alternative scanning software, I might just be Googling the wrong thing. Has anyone got any experience of alternatives?
 
As far as I am aware there is SIlverfast and Vuescan.

Silverfast is very powerful and takes a fair bit of reading to make it work and get the best out of it, however it is very expensive and will only licence for one scanner.

Vuescan is used by most of use on here, I think, has a lot going for it but if you get it it is worth reading around because there are fair few options you can use to get the best out of it. Advantage over SIlverfast, easier to use, cheap (one man band from Florida, I think) if you but the Pro version then it will work with many scanners, I run 3 off the one I have.

Other than Epsoms own software those are the only ones I am familiar with.
 
Silverfast for me and a copy came with my Epson Scanner (although I have upgraded).
 
I'm pretty sure there is a free version of Vuescan you can try, although it may have Vuescan inscribed over the photo, or is it $ signs? It should still allow you to play with it and see if it suits you, so It's certainly worth trying. I bought the Pro version several years ago for lifelong (presumably Ed Hamrick's life?) free upgrades and have used both an Epson V700 and a Minolta Scan Dual 3 35mm scanner successfully in the past few weeks. Vuescan also doesn't seem to care which version of Windows you use, but I've no experience with Mac or Linux.

EDIT: Scarily enough, I've found one that I did during the trial and shows the $ signs. It's a sneak shot of my mother as she hated getting her photo taken, even before she had to rely on a walker.
vuescan-3-tp.jpg
 
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Thanks all, that's good to know. I'll try Vuescan
 
Thanks all, that's good to know. I'll try Vuescan

You should get Vuescan Pro rather than straight Vuescan. It's now quite a bit more (he's updated his pricing a lot) but IIRC it unlocks more options and as mentioned gives you lifetime updates. Ed Hamrick also answers emails himself.
 
Another vote for Vuescan here - it's lasted me through two laptops with no fuss :)
 
VueScan for me as well - I've been using it since at least August 2006 according to the date stamp on my oldest version and documentation. For me, the big plus point at the time was that you could keep the raw scan data and change settings to your heart's content until you got the scan right. In those far off days of Win2000 and 512MB RAM my 5x4 scans took 4 hours a time, and if I wanted to improve the settings - well, without VueScan I wouldn't have bothered. I don't know if other software has caught up, but I found VueScan easier to use than EpsonScan and SIlverfast.
 
Well...

I finally got around to downloading the trial version of Vuescan and I must be doing something wrong, the scans are terrible. I've tried working through a number of settings but the scans seem to be out of focus and it is almost impossible to get anything like a sensible white balance. I assume other people are using it with an Epson V550 and it is working OK. Attached is one of the better efforts
 

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I've just checked my first Vuescan scans, and they were terrible too. You do get better at it as you work out what the various options do and settle on parameters that work for you. However... I've not been very happy with quite a few of my scans of my modern C41 films, so I get these processed and scanned by a lab. It's a bit odd really, as I scanned thousands of old negatives using the same scanner and Silverfast 6 SE, and they mostly look acceptable. Of course I can't compare the colours I get with the scene from 40 years ago!

Of course a lot of this comes down to how the orange mask is handled in the inversion process. If you really want to get this right, the generally accepted notion is to scan your negative as a positive (ie, pretend it's a transparency), unadjusted TIFFs, and pass that via Photoshop (or Elements) to Color Perfect. This has really good inversion capabilities with a huge database of films. However, it's a bit more expense and disk space and a much more complicated workflow, so I've very rarely actually done it.
 
I do find that the Negafix capability in Silverfast is very good at handling the different masks within films. However, the selection of film types is not exhaustive, but generally the automatic colour cast removal works well. For Vuescan, as Chris says, you do have to play around a bit more to get a decent profile as there are a limited number of film types.

Still not managed to get a decent scan of my Velvia photos from any software, although it might be the limitations of the scanner rather than the software.
 
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Thanks for the tips, that was on Ektar and Vuescan has an Ektar profile, I'll keep on playing with it.
 
My copy of SilverFast SE Version 8.8 (dedicated to my film scanner model) cost 49 Euros. I consider it easier to use than Vuescan, good with colour negs and far better than Vuescan at getting the colours right without any farting about.

Even more, to my mind if you're going the somewhat laborious route mentioned of exporting a colour neg scanned in Vuescan as a positive to Photoshop for inversion, surely you might as well just use the 'free' Epsonscan that came with the scanner?
 
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literally 10 minutes with Silverfast ...

View attachment 120385

I think I know which I'll be going for

Interesting isn't it! Compared to Vuescan, it looks like Silverfast has over-exposed the melon and under-exposed the background boards. I'm presuming you've gone with SF?
 
Interesting isn't it! Compared to Vuescan, it looks like Silverfast has over-exposed the melon and under-exposed the background boards. I'm presuming you've gone with SF?
Haven't actually stumped up for either yet, I'll mess with both over the next week or so. IIRC I pulled back the exposure in the Silverfast scan and pushed the contrast because I was trying to get closer to the look I wanted, the thing is I know how to correct that, in Vuescan I tried for over an hour to get a decent colour balance and just couldn't, also Silverfast effectively has "live view", change the settings and it rescans the preview with those settings and does that for a single frame if that is what is selected.
 
Silverfast effectively has "live view", change the settings and it rescans the preview with those settings and does that for a single frame if that is what is selected.

VueScan can do that without rescanning, unless I'm mistaken. It certainly seems to when I change the settings.

I should perhaps admit that I'm a black and white photographer, but equally I've had no problems with VueScan and Fuji Velvia, Kodachrome and Fuji NPS160 negative film so far as colour casts are concerned.
 
@sirch did you decide which one to go for? I’m wanting to use a new programme instead of the Epson software, but undecided still
Shaun the horrible truth is that choice is personal - there is a subjective component to these things. So only you can decide which you prefer, or indeed which you can stand. Alternatively, one might give up altogether. Luckily at least, you can usually run a free trial, and this is the way to find out!
 
@sirch did you decide which one to go for? I’m wanting to use a new programme instead of the Epson software, but undecided still
I haven't decided yet, still messing with the demos of both. As @droj says to some extent it is a personal thing but as is so often the case with niche software they all have good features and annoyances. Based on my limited experience so far I think the Epson software is best for simple scanning at a click of a button. Vuescan seems better than Silverfast frame detection and handling multiple frames, Silverfast seems to me to be more intuitive for working on a single frame.

So it depends on how you work, currently I'm thinking that a quick scan of a roll with the Epson software (e.g. analogous to a contact sheet), identify the keepers and then work on those more with Silverfast. But the best advice is probably to download the demos and have a play with them yourself
 
I find the inbuilt film profiles in Vuescan to be terrible in my experience. Much better to have it on standard and set the colours etc yourself
I leave mine on the generic settings too, The the film settings always leave a lot to be desired imho.
 
I leave mine on the generic settings too, The the film settings always leave a lot to be desired imho.

That's interesting! I now scan black and white on Vuescan with the generic colour setting! Seems to get me a scan with better contrast...
 
I have been using Vuescan since 2001 It works with everything.
I find it far simpler than any other scanning software, and extremely easy to adjust for tones and colours. with some scanners like my Minolta Dual scan you can adjust the focus on any point in the image
Most flatbed scanners, are take it as it comes, focus wise. Which is a scanner limitation not a Vuescan one.

This is a scan of a shot I took some 25 years ago on neg colour film it was a doddle on vuescan.

2017-09-06-0005web by Terry Andrews, on Flickr
 
I am beginning to wonder if some software works better with some scanners than others, there are so many variables.
 
I am beginning to wonder if some software works better with some scanners than others, there are so many variables.

Most of the software that comes with scanners is a cut down version of some propriety software. and it usually works well enough, but rarely brilliantly. They almost never update it over time.

Vuescan is constantly updated, often several times a year to keep up to date with Operating system changes, and to add new scanners. It is for this reason that it is the most used scanning software by professionals.

As with all complex software there is a learning curve, but if I can cope with it anyone can. Once you have sorted yourself out it is extremely easy.
If you are having focus problems, that is almost always down to the flatness of the film or original. If your scanner has the ability to focus, Vuescan will be able to use it.

It is generally best to make major colour adjustments with the software, and only make minor tweeks later in Photoshop, or the like. That way you will be throwing away the least data.
 
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It is generally best to make major colour adjustments with the software, and only make minor tweeks later in Photoshop, or the like. That way you will be throwing away the least data.
I've always applied this principle to tonal range as well. Some scanner software might have an auto function for this, but I would normally get there manually with a curves / levels function - and this per frame, I never batch anything. Maximise bit depth, too.

A nice result above from Vuescan, Terry.
 
Sorry to jump on your thread sirch

I’ve just tried vuescan and when I click preview, nothing happens, literally left it 5 minutes and nothing. Any ideas?

Scanner not connected? Not turned on?
 
Sorry to jump on your thread sirch

I’ve just tried vuescan and when I click preview, nothing happens, literally left it 5 minutes and nothing. Any ideas?
I've had that once or twice with vuescan, try closing vuescan, plugging the scanner into a different USB port and restarting vuescan
 
Cheers sirch that worked. I’ve tried both vuescan and Silverfast and the images are terrible
:LOL: I know the feeling. I had a another faff around with Vuescan yesterday and got something half decent from it but I'm not confident I know what I did to get there. I agree that Silverfast looks a bit confusing but as I said above I got into it quite quickly but that probably says more about me than the software :geek:
 
Cheers sirch that worked. I’ve tried both vuescan and Silverfast and the images are terrible

Impossible to say what you are doing wrong but it will not be the software.
 
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