Silverfast workflow

[cortlander]

Hi:

I just bought an Epson Perfection v850 scanner that came with Silverfast SE Plus and i1|Scanner software. The goal is to scan old 35mm film negatives/slides that have lived for a long time in shoeboxes, process them in Capture One 10/Topaz, and make 17x22 prints with an Epson Surecolor P800. I went through the documentation, and Mark Segal's excellent review of the v850. I did make profiles for transparencies and reflective media using the i1Scanner targets, reference files for those targets (which got a bit involved) and EpsonScan. All this is new to me, and I have questions.

1. I can set the scanner profile in Silverfast's Preferences/CMS settings, but they are greyed out for Negatives because they use Negafix. So is Negafix the recommended way to go for negatives?
2. With Silverfast SE Plus, I can scan at 48 bits, but output only at 24 bits unless I want to go through the pain of converting negative orange images or upgrade to the Ai Studio version? How big is the difference in output between 24bits and 48 bits?
3. Am I better off doing sharpening and noise reduction in Capture One/Topaz deNoise instead of using the tools Silverfast provides? What about Dust and Scratch removal (seemed to do a decent job in my test samples)?
4. I had created some icc profiles, added them to Library/ColorSync/Profiles in my iMac, then deleted them. Yet they keep on showing up in the color profile dropdown in Silverfast's Preferences/CMS dropdown for input profiles. Where does Silverfast store the icc profiles?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Best,

[Mark D Segal]

(1) For negatives, use Negafix to convert them to positives, in which case scanner profiles do not apply.
(2) 48 bit output (16 bit per channel) gives you more assurance of smooth tonal gradations than with 24-bit (8 bit per channel).
(3) Do dust and scratch removal in SilverFast at the scanning stage using iSRD, and leave sharpening and noise reduction to post-scan processing. While the sharpening and noise reduction tools in SilverFast are OK, I think it is better not to bake these particular settings into the scan, because if you don't like the result after the scan stage, you would need to rescan.
(4) SilverFast stores ICC profiles in Library>Colorsync>Profiles. I'm not aware of them being stored elsewhere as well.

As all this is new to you, not to toot my own horn, but you may wish to look over the Table of Contents and first 21 pages of my SilverFast book (free downloads from the LSI website) to see whether you think this book may be useful to you.

[cortlander]

Mark, thank you so much for taking the time to respond. This is indeed very helpful. Based on what you write, I should upgrade to the Studio version to obtain 48 bit output since I want to put in the effort to process further.

I have downloaded the chapters of your Silverfast book and have started reading it. There is a lot there.

Thanks again,

Best,

[Mark D Segal]

You are welcome. I hope it all works out well for you.