Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: Alexis Alvarez on August 01, 2009, 07:03:03 pm

Title: Scanning -- getting past the basics
Post by: Alexis Alvarez on August 01, 2009, 07:03:03 pm

I got a Nikon 8000 for a song on eBay (and it works!), and am pretty decent on scanning basics, but would really like to deepen my knowledge/understanding.  I'll be scanning 35mm and 120mm, as well as transparencies, from the last 10 years of shooting, mostly for web use, but also for printing.  

Can anyone recommend books that will help me get past the basics?  (Also using CS2, and considering upgrading to CS4/purchasing LR.)

Thanks.

Title: Scanning -- getting past the basics
Post by: situgrrl on August 03, 2009, 06:22:31 pm

Bump!  I could use an answer to this - Silverfast is horrific to understand.

Title: Scanning -- getting past the basics
Post by: Pete_G on August 04, 2009, 08:46:39 am

Quote from: situgrrl

Bump!  I could use an answer to this - Silverfast is horrific to understand.

Take a look at VueScan, I think you can download a demo. It is very powerful and supports an enormous number of scanners. You will have to seach out the help files on the site and fully aquaint yourself with the software, which does have a bit of a learning curve, but it is worth it. It is better than Silverfast IMHO and much cheaper. If you decide to buy it I suggest the Pro version. I'm afraid there is no simple answer to scanning, it does require a lot of work to get good results. As for books, I can't help you but there's a ton of help on the web via Google.

Title: Scanning -- getting past the basics
Post by: Kumar on August 04, 2009, 09:33:57 am

Vuescan is indeed very powerful, and the Pro version is a bargain.  Don Hutcheson (http://www.hutchcolor.com/index.html) has extremely good information. Look at Scantips (http://scantips.com/) also.

Kumar

Title: Scanning -- getting past the basics
Post by: TimG on August 04, 2009, 04:56:19 pm

Oh Please! Silverfast is no more difficult to understand than Photoshop.

Do you understand Curves?
Do you understand Levels?
Do you understand Color Management?  

If you answered "no" to any of these, then you are not yet beyond the basics, and you'll have a difficult time no matter what software you use.  

However, if you answered "yes" to all three, then you know all you need to know to use Silverfast, Vuescan, or any other scanning software package.

Ian Lyons published an excellent set of tutorials on working with Silverfast on his website, The Computer Darkroom:
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/home.htm (http://www.computer-darkroom.com/home.htm)

The most important thing to understand is how to correctly setup Color Management in Silverfast.  Ian makes this easy as pie.

Title: Scanning -- getting past the basics
Post by: JRSmit on August 04, 2009, 05:11:14 pm

Quote from: TimG

Oh Please! Silverfast is no more difficult to understand than Photoshop.

Do you understand Curves?
Do you understand Levels?
Do you understand Color Management?  

If you answered "no" to any of these, then you are not yet beyond the basics, and you'll have a difficult time no matter what software you use.  

However, if you answered "yes" to all three, then you know all you need to know to use Silverfast, Vuescan, or any other scanning software package.

Ian Lyons published an excellent set of tutorials on working with Silverfast on his website, The Computer Darkroom:
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/home.htm (http://www.computer-darkroom.com/home.htm)

The most important thing to understand is how to correctly setup Color Management in Silverfast.  Ian makes this easy as pie.

Second this, i use SF and once used to it and color management done, it is a very good scanning solution.

Jan R.