Newbie questions re 2450 and Silverfast 6ai

[williamconifer]

Greetings!

I am brand new to this forum and I have some "newbie" questions. I am running Win2k with an Epson 2450, Silverfast 6ai, photoshop elements.

I am trying to batch scan negatives using job manager. I went throught the start of Ian's tutorial and got to the "We now want to create a palette of thumbnail images" part and the button that does this (overview button) is greyed out. What am I doing wrong. Please tell me that I can batch automate negatives using silverfast and my 2450.

Thanks for any and all input.

jack

[LSI_Flyvbjerg]

The overview dialog is useful for SilverFast HDR and SilverFast Ai for film scanners only. That is why you can?t open it in the Epson version.

To batch scan your negatives, you have two possibilities:
1. Select a scan frame around of each of your negatives and change the scan mode to "batch mode" or "batch mode (file)" in the general panel. Each scan frame can have individual settings.
2. Select a scan frame around of each of your negatives and add these frames to the JobManager.

Eric.

[williamconifer]

Thanks for the response. First off I had thought that SFAi for Epson 2450 would allow me to automatically batch scan the frames from the negative as the Epson Twain does. I understand the 2450 is no Nikon 8000 but it does scan negatives and the auto batch scan/job manager combo is the feature I bought this program for. I would hope this can be added at some time, lord knows there a bunch of 2450's out there.

I do have another question. I did figure out how to create a frame set (12 frames that sit near where the neg. frames should be) to save but how can I get the image correction/auto sharpen and dpi set so I can open the frame set and just scan? Also I find that the name reverts back to "untitled" when I start up and even when I change the first frame's name the other frames are "untitled". Using the Job Manager I thought I could create an filename indexing construct so I don't have to worry about copying over a past scan that is named "untitled". Am I missing something regarding naming the scans during a JobManager batch scan? I will most likely be using a file renaming utility after the scan. I just need to make sure it gets saved properly.

I need to construct a work flow that can be dumbed down so I can hire someone to do alot of scanning. I need to make templates and presets optimized for this process. The Job Manager is what drew me to upgrade to SFAI 6. I am making my way through the manual but I am still trying to get my head around this program's logic.

Thanks
jack

[LSI_Flyvbjerg]

When you save a frame set (frame-set popup in the general panel), you save all the frames with their corresponding rectangles and with all their correction parameter.
Loading one of the saved frame sets from the same popup, displays all the saved frames with the parameters that were valid at the time you saved the frame set.
Saved parameters are (f.x.): gradation, histogram, color correction, scan mode, scan type, pos/neg, frame position, resolution, frame name ......


Eric.

[williamconifer]

Saved parameters are (f.x.): gradation, histogram, color correction, scan mode, scan type, pos/neg, frame position, resolution, frame name ......

Thanks for the response. So this leads me to the file name SF creates when batch scanning with the job manager. How do you set it so it will automatically index the file name (file001.jpg, file002.jpg.....etc)? And can you tell the JM to change the nomenclature of a new batch so it does not overwite a previous batch? (fileX001.jpg, fileX002.jpg....etc).

I just want to know if what I am asking for is achieved in some other way or if this software is not ment for this type of application.

thanks again
jack

[LSI_Magnussen]

If a frame has no frame name (untitled frame) it will get a default name followed by an index (0001 - n).
There is some difference between JM and "normal" batch scanning to file (Process mode popup -> Batch Mode (File)). When doing a batch scan to file, a "Save as" dialog comes up where you can choose the default name (in your example "file" or "fileX") and where you can decide, if the index should always start at 1 (Counter: Reset for every batch scan) or if the counter should start with a given number, where the number SilverFast offers per default is the index of the last scanned file plus one.
When doing a JM batch scan, the JM takes the default name the user has entered when doing the last "normal" batch scanning to file, the index starts always with 1 - the JM doesn't show the "Save as" dialog (maybe it should). There's some room for optimization...
I would suggest to use the "normal" batch scanning to file; it should offer everything you want.

Ralf