Silverfast Preview

[RedRebel]

Hello,


I own Silverfast Ai Studio for a few weeks now for use with a Canon 9950F scanner.

Without going into details about colour management settings, I wonder if your Silverfast preview has the same colour & expoure as the output when viewed in Photoshop CS2.

When I scan my negatives and make some white balance adjustments in Silverfast, the final output viewed in PhotoShop CS2 is always a bit warmer/more yellow/greenisch. These differences are especialy visable in white and gray tones. The internal and embedded profile in Silverfast is the same as the Working space RGB profile used in Photoshop CS2.

I use the Monaco Optix XR monitor calibration tool and I am pretty sure that it is also working...

So I wonder if anyone else has the same problem and knows what to do about it...

I also dropped the question at Lasersoft, but until now I have no idea what's wrong...

See for examples: sample images

Images 1,3 are previews and 2,4 is output


Thanks

[Ray]

RedRebel,
Your sample images look perfectly matched on my CRT monitor which is calibrated with Coloreyes and an X-Rite DTP-94 colorimeter.

The only preview/output matching issue I have with SilverFast is with regard to the ProPhoto color space when scanning color negatives. The output image seems to have Adobe RGB numbers applied to the ProPhoto space, which tends to make everything too saturated. However, ProPhoto is okay with slides.

[RedRebel]

Thanks Ray,


But I realy don't understand this. So you are saying that al 4 images look identical to you?

When I view these images, image 2 and 4 have yellow/geen colour cast, especialy visable in the white and grey concrete.


If your are right, then something should be wrong with my monitor calibration    ?


To be honest, currenyl I am viewing the images on a very simple LCD monitor at my work -not at home where I do my scanning etc..- and I also cannot tell the difference between them. But at home there is a huge difference between the preview in Silverfast and the output. The screen dump I made from the Silverfast preview looks identical to the real preview. I made the screen dump using ALT + PrintScr and pasted the result in Windows Paint.

[Ray]

Perhaps I shouldn't have written 'perfectly matched'. There are slight differences, but nothing that I would personally worry about. When preparing an image for printing, I see far greater differences when toggling between Proof Colors on and off, using a custom setting for my paper profile and 'simulate paper white' on. There's even a greater difference clearly apparent when switching between the different rendering intents in Proof set-up.

I would say in general you have a pretty good match in those sample images.

[RedRebel]

I think I am quite close to the cause of the problem (the colour difference
between SF's preview and the final output in Photoshop CS2, when scanning
negatives).


It has nothing to do with my monitor profile, but with the way Silverfast
uses the "Profiles for ICM->Scanner (Transparency/Reflective)" profiles.

When I scan a print there is NO visable difference between the SF preview
and output in Photoshop (assuming correct use of colour space etc..). But as
soon I scan negatives, the trouble starts.

When I scan reflective materials, SF has different profiling options:
Colour management:
- Input - Internal: Image Colour Matching (ICM)

Profiles for ICM
- Scanner reflective: Canoscan 9950F Reflective (W)
- Internal: Adobe RGB(1998)

However when I scan Transperant negatives, SF disables the options:
Colour management:
- Input - Internal: None grayedout!!

Profiles for ICM
- Scanner reflective: Canoscan 9950F Negative (W) but grayedout!!
- Internal: Adobe RGB(1998)

I am pretty sure this is the problem, because when I set the "Colour
management->Input - Internal" option to "none" when scanning reflective
materials, I get the same difference between the preview and the final
output.

So the remaining questions is, why does SF disable the "Colour
management->Input - Internal" option as soon I wan't to scan a transparent
negative. Even when setting up a transparent positive scan, the "Colour
management->Input - Internal" is active and the "Canoscan 9950F Positive
(W)" can be selected.

I don't think it has anything to do with IT8 targets, because al named
scanner profiles are the default profiles (Canoscan 9950F Reflective (W),
Canoscan 9950F Positive (W), Canoscan 9950F Negative (W))..... so why should
SF accept all manufacturer profiles except the one needed for negatives?



I just noticed this afternoon that there is NO difference in colours between
the preview and the final output when scanning reflective materials
(prints).

I don't understand why the options "Colour management -> Input-Internal" &
"Profiles for ICM->Scanner (Transparency)" are always grayed out as soon I
wan't to scan negatives.


I dropped this problem at Silferfasts support...

To be continued...

[RedRebel]

Today I got a confirmation from Silverfast, that the could reproduce my problem in the testing center and that they are working on a sollution.

An upgrade will be available soon.