Vuescan DNG problem

[jaapb]

Thank you Bart and Mark for going into the effort of trying to help me out.
The scanresolution I can choose from is only 300 dpi max. (VS 9.0.23 64bit on Mac)
I did some testing myself with ExifTool. Apparently my copy of Vuescan is somehow stuck in looking at the embedded preview of the VS DNG only instead of the full res data, because the dimensions of the DNG preview (reduced resolution image in ExifTool) are an exact match to the dimensions VS is reporting on the output status in the lower right corner.
I have no clue why this is happening.
Again thank you very much for your efforts.

Regards,

Jaap

[Mark D Segal]

Maybe you should trash the program, make sure all the preferences are deleted, download it afresh from Vuescan's website, re-install and see whether that solves it. Otherwise, try a demo version of SilverFast and see whether you have a better ride.

[jaapb]

I ask these questions because I was trying to replicate your problem and couldn't. I scanned a slide using the output settings I describe above, it opened in ACR, in the ACR Workflow Options menu described above I selected ProPhoto, 16 bit, 240 PPI, opened the image in Photoshop, and sure enough the ProPhoto profile was embedded, the 16 bit depth was recognized, and so was the file resolution.

Mark,

In these steps it is essential to also apply edits in ACR and then open the file in PS. Once the xmp is written a new 1.3 spec DNG is also written which is 35% smaller in file size compared to the original Vuescan DNG which is, according to ExifTool, a DNG 1.1. This newly created DNG 1.3 only opens in Vuescan as its preview.

Regards,

Jaap

[Mark D Segal]

Jaap,

Stop torturing yourself with this - I say this in a friendly way - and forget Vuescan once you've made the scan, and forget this DNG business, it's largely bogus anyhow. Scans are not raw files. There is no such thing as "raw scans" - only scans which have had no adjustments applied to them, and you can easily do that without DNG. Use Vuescan for making a TIFF with as many or as few adjustments as you like, then open the image in Photoshop and finish the editing. End of story and end of problems. I would only suggest you use the infra-red feature in Vuescan for cleaning-up the image as part of the scanning process, make sure you have the colour management settings right, and make sure you aren't clipping highlight and shadow detail you wish to retain. Everything else in Photoshop. You'll be fine.

[digitaldog]

Stop torturing yourself with this...
Use Vuescan for making a TIFF with as many or as few adjustments as you like, then open the image in Photoshop and finish the editing. End of story and end of problems.

My thoughts exactly. The idea of a ‘raw scan’ of rendered RGB data in a DNG container seems like a marketing idea aimed at users who don’t know better. Both the term raw and DNG in the context make no sense. If you have a good scanning module or app, do all the heavy lifting there to get idealized global color and tone, then move onto Photoshop for localized work if necessary. Saving out a ‘raw’ scan (a scan not optimized), in high bit was a technique we used in the old days only when the scanning software was so poor, we had to resort to Photoshop. Good scanning software should provide all the tools necessary to create optimized global data, saved out as a TIFF.

[jaapb]

Mark, Andrew,

I already use the TIFF route for some time now no need to convince me. My worry is the catalogue of older scans erroneously saved out as DNG's that may have to be rescanned because of the reasons we all agree on.
Let's just leave it at this point.
Thank you all for participating.

Regards,

Jaap

[digitaldog]

My worry is the catalogue of older scans erroneously saved out as DNG's that may have to be rescanned because of the reasons we all agree on.

Just “render out” a TIFF, save and you’re set.

[Mark D Segal]

Mark, Andrew,

...................... My worry is the catalogue of older scans erroneously saved out as DNG's that may have to be rescanned ................
...............

Regards,

Jaap

Jaap,

Rather than "leave it at this point", I just wanted to see for myself again whether I could replicate a general technical problem. So I opened one of these DNGs I scanned in Vuescan for you the other day, and I made some rather large adjustments to it in ACR, then exported that adjusted ACR-affected DNG to Photoshop, where it opened as it was instructed to do -  a 66MP file at 240PP resolution, exactly as it should. Therefore, if you scanned in enough resolution at the scanning stage in Vuescan, you should be able to open those DNGs in ACR, do the adjusting you need there, and then open them into Photoshop and save them as TIFF or PSD with no data loss. If it can't work this way for you, there is something else which happened at the scanning stage - whether application error or pilot error - that remains unexplained.