Scanning negatives w/ Epson 2450

[Tim L.]

I'm new to scanning. I'm trying to scan 35 mm negatives using the film holder that came with the scanner. I'm using SilverFast 5.5 SE which is launched from Adobe Photoshop Elements. Somehow when I Prescan the negative, SilverFast gives me an image of the total area of the scanning surface (film holder and other areas outside the holder)instead of the individual frames on the negative. If I use Epson Twain to scan in the negative, I get the individual frames as separate "objects" so I can work directly with the frame I want. I'd appreciate your advice on how to scan in negatives the proper way with SilverFast.

[wptski]

You can grab that outlined box and move it to where you want. Pass your pointer over a side and you'll notice that it changes and you can adjust the size for your final scan.

I hope that this helps!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: wptski on 2002-02-25 05:32 ]</font>

[Watts Martin]

The problem he's describing, I think, is that the Epson TWAIN software can recognize the negatives automatically. If I load two film strips of four pictures each into the 2450's film holder and put it on the glass, then do an Import from the TWAIN driver in Photoshop Elements, I end up with eight separate images scanned at a fairly acceptable resolution. (It seems to assume you want to make a 4"x6" print or so of a 35mm negative, so when it claims to be scanning at 300 dpi it means something much higher, which is a little odd.)

I haven't played with SilverFast SE much (in fact, I've owned the scanner all of one night!), but there wasn't an *obvious* way to do anything like that. If I have to set the scan area manually for each picture, that'll really slow things down. Really. Really, really, really.