How to obtain more detail in slides

[kramusica]

Hello,

After struggling with Silverfast AI for a few days I finally obtained a decent result.

On the following pictures you see the same slide. The left one was scanned in a lab and burned on a Kodak Photo CD a few years ago. The right one was scanned a few minutes ago with the Plustek 7200i scanner and corrected with Photoshop CS2.

As you notice the Silverfast scan (right) is washed out a bit, the Kodak scan (left) is more detailed. Although I understand that the Plustek 7200i is not a professional scanner I'd love to know if I can tweak Silverfast to obtain more detail out of a scan, to have it less washed out.

Thanks for your help,

Mark

<img src="/img/forum/chicascantest.jpg">

[EMaerkel]

Hello,

On the following pictures you see the same slide. The left one was scanned in a lab and burned on a Kodak Photo CD a few years ago. The right one was scanned a few minutes ago with the Plustek 7200i scanner and corrected with Photoshop CS2.

As you notice the Silverfast scan (right) is washed out a bit, the Kodak scan (left) is more detailed. Although I understand that the Plustek 7200i is not a professional scanner I'd love to know if I can tweak Silverfast to obtain more detail out of a scan, to have it less washed out.

It is a bit difficult to compare the results.

First, the scan quality is mainly determined by the scanner, the software can only improve it.

Second, after you have done post-processing with other software like photoshop, you cannot say anything about Silverfast - this would require to show the raw scan.

Details are difficult to see in the downsized images, however the right picture looks overexposured, especially on the dog's head; this always causes loss of details. In silverfast automatic mode, parameters determine how light areas are handeled. In order not to have a dark picture due to only very few light pixels, it ignores some as determined by the parameters (see manual for further explanation). Use manual settings for improved scanning. In Photoshop or other image processing software, contrast optimisation is a basic procedure for post-processing scans. Depending on the software and how you use it, results might be different, especially those of the automatic functions.

Eckart M?rkel

[degrub]

Check the color cast removal setting. It looks like 1) all yellow cast from the dogs hair was removed, or 2 ) the wrong point was used to set the white point in the image ( there may not be a true white and the auto adjust did the best it could).

[kramusica]

Thank you both for taking the time to answer. I'll experiment some more with Silverfast to obtain a better result later today.

Mark