Multi-Exposure question

[dwhitebread]

I just installed SE Plus 6.5 and was eager to take advanage of the Multi-Exposure feature. From my first tests on black and white negatives, I really can't see a difference. I was hoping it would bring some more detail into some overexposed highlights, since it is supposed to improve shadow detail from positives. I was also puzzled that I only get one image file. The documentation does a good job of explaining the advantages of ME, but not how it actually works and the best way to use it.

So some questions: Am I doing it right? I am using 16 bit HDR Greyscale mode on a Minolta Dimage Multi Pro. The multi-exposure button changes to 2 and I can hear it scanning twice.

If I am getting one image compiled by Silverfast from both scans, the software is controlling the exposures and how they are combined. Is there a way for me to control this?

If I use Silverfast HDR Studio, what does it do with the image and how is that different than what Photoshop would do?

[LSI_Noack]

Dear dwhitebread

I suggest you want to download and install the latest update release of your version of SilverFast from our website. You might experience that this already does solve your problem.

If not, please don't hesitate to contact support: https://www.silverfast.com/problemreport/en.html
How to help support staff to help you: https://www.silverfast.com/faq/1058/en.html

Please note that the purpose of the imaging forum is not to provide personal support. It is intended to serve as a platform for imaging professionals for exchange of experience and communicating ideas [ viewtopic.php?p=9763&highlight=9763 ].
Therefore LSI staff will only provide limited support in the forum.
Thank you in anticipation of your kind co-operation.

Best regards
Sonny Noack
- Manager Technical Support, LaserSoft Imaging AG -

[dwhitebread]

Thank you for your reply, two months after my original question. I do have the most recent version, so I am still frustrated.

The reason I posted the questions here was because I got little or no response from tech support. First I waited for weeks to get a response, so after two re-sends I called the Florida office. They must have made some calls, because I got two responses, but they were to "play around with it" and explore the web site. At no point would anyone actually answer my specific questions, including your response here. There is a lot of information in the manual and on the web site about the advantages of ME, but nothing about how it works, proper settings, or under what conditions it should work best. Photographers and computer users like to know these things.

So now I have spent three months trying to get answers to questions that could likely have been resolved in a ten minute interactive phone call, if that was an option. I hope as tech support manager you might be in a position to improve this.

[jheinzl]

Well actually you may get better results from scanning B&W negatives as colour positives and than, perhaps after playing with the colour channels, converting it to grayscale.

For ME -- with some scanners you can set the brightness of the lamps o. LED lines manually and so basically do what ME does which BTW is something that has been done in the past by people already.

You do get just one file with SF since SF combines the results for you and no, you cannot change any parameters.

ME works best for squeezing a wee bit more out of darker areas while, like in the darkroom, overexposed areas often tend to be a lost case.

The whole idea of ME is to get one image with a dynamic range adjusted, or compressed, such that it fits into the range that can be represented by the colour space one uses which is, more often than not, Adobe:1998.

But it being late here in my time zone you may find more by searching for the keywords "Zone System" and "High Dynamic Range".

Oh and of course the result depends on your hardware, too and for instance even without ME I could get details out of a B&W slide (Agfa Scala) where all seemed to be black by a 16x scan with my LS9000ED which is pretty top notch while results I can get with my flatbed are, depending on the raw material of course, at times visibly better when using ME.

In short though IMHO one may almost state "Overexposed: forget it" and "Underexposed: worth a try".

Oh and BTW there is nothing really related to ME which you could do with PS aside from combining, or with CS3 letting PS combine, several scans with varying brightness settings.

Well and last but not least keep in mind that what you want at the end of the day is a print you may need to make even more adjustments lest to end up with only black in shadows and "washed out" areas in brighter areas, but how to deal with that is another story.

Anyway, hoping I'd be of help a bit at least but there's more to say about all that, really and English not being my first language and me being a bit in a hurry to get to bed at last certainly doesn't help, either 8-)