SilverFast 8 SRDx plug-in for Photoshop

[saiguy]

Scanning some old/dirty/fungus damaged slides. Kodachrome and color positives. The iSRD is working well on these but seems to not work on fungus issues. I think because the fungus damage is IN the film, not ON the film.

Will select the sky areas with the pen path tool in SRDx and apply strong or Max strength. You can add to the selection, but it will be at the same strength. Doesn't seem to a allow and second mask. If you export, close SF8 HDR, when you reopen it seems to remember the mask and won't allow a new one.

In the Ps plug-in I can select the foreground, apply less strength, and use a layer mask to paint it in using different opacities. I have tested on only one image but seems to do exactly what I had hoped for. Seems you can only have 1 path selection there also. It works like a healing tool and is much better than using Ps Dust & Scratches.

And Yes; I would recommend this product to a friend.

[saiguy]

I just referred to Mark Seagal's SF8 book on the SRDx section. The dialog shows that more than one mask is available. The latest version seems to have dropped that functionality. Also checked the Ps plug-in and seems only 1 mask permitted there as well.

But wait; there is a work around!

Opened a slide from 1885 shot in a studio in India. A stand up portrait. I do not know if this was duped to 35mm slide from another original, but this is what I scanned. The backdrop was vert non detailed. Used a pen tool selection of same at Max strength. It was in need of major clean up. I exported, [Processed] that and then deleted that mask, made a new one for the subject and used a less filter strength. In hind sight I probably could have inverted it.

There is a +/- brush in SRDx. You need to increase the Intensity slider to get the +, and decrease the intensity to get the minus effect. You paint either where you want. This has a similar effect of using the brush opacity in the Ps plug-in on a layer mask.

Exported that iteration. Opened the 2 via Bridge. Could not see a way to open as layers. Dropped 1 on top of the the other using the shift key and they were in perfect registration. So just layer masked out one of the 2.

This resulted in a very useable image. Especially since I am doing approximately 9,000 slide project. 4k scans so far.

There is some clean up that should be done at the mask intersection areas. With some practice that might be avoided. It would have taken me maybe a day to get a similar result using Ps cleanup tools.

[saiguy]

I used SRDx on a duplicated layer. Merged down that layer. Duped it again and was abled to run SRDx again with different settings. I find this very useful on the distressed slides I'm working with. So it can be used more than once in this fashion.