Increasing brightness: gamma & exposure

[Mustavio Fantastico]

I am using Silverfast Ai Studio 6.6.2r4a, and I see four different ways
of increasing the brightness of a negative scan:

a) Changing gamma gradation from the standard value of 2.2 to something higher.
b) Using the "Brightness (Midtone)" control in "Picture Settings".
c) Using the "Exposure" control in "Picture Settings" which goes from -3.03 to +3.03.
d) Using the exposure control in NegaFix which goes from -3.0 to +3.0.

Which is the best option to use to make a scan brighter?

And what is the difference between the exposure control in "Picture Settings"
and the exposure control in NegaFix?

[LSI_Morales]

Hi Mustavio

a) Changing gamma gradation from the standard value of 2.2 to something higher.
b) Using the "Brightness (Midtone)" control in "Picture Settings".
c) Using the "Exposure" control in "Picture Settings" which goes from -3.03 to +3.03.
d) Using the exposure control in NegaFix which goes from -3.0 to +3.0.

Which is the best option to use to make a scan brighter?

a) The higher the gamma value the smaller the amount of shades. In other words by increasing the gamma gradation you are reducing the amount of image information, hence less details. I discourage you from doing this (unless you are going to print your pictures where paper has a lower tonal reproduction capacity)

b) This is the best option, in this case you are using the entire image information range and bending the mid-tone to modify the brightness value

c) and d) are explained in the next answer.

And what is the difference between the exposure control in "Picture Settings"
and the exposure control in NegaFix?

the NegaFix exposure is based on three curves ( normal exposure, over exposure and under exposure) created using special calibration targets for each emulsion.
These are relevant to negative material and regarding the orange mask detection.

The exposure control in Picture Settings is general to all types of images

[Mustavio Fantastico]

a) The higher the gamma value the smaller the amount of shades. In other words by increasing the gamma gradation you are reducing the amount of image information, hence less details. I discourage you from doing this...

Hello,

The problem I have (I made another post to ask about it but it has not been approved yet),
is that when I scan slide film with my Plustek OpticFilm 7600i scanner, my scans are so
dark, the only way to make them look close to normal is by changing the gamma gradation to 2.8
for example. Increasing the brightness or exposure alone is not enough - my scans are still too dark.
With most slide film photos, I have to set the gamma gradation to 2.8 and use an expose compensation
of +1.0 or +1.5 before my scans look good, otherwise they will be much too dark and useless.

But when I scan negatives, I leave gamma gradation at 2.2 and everything is fine. I do not have the
problem of dark scans with negatives. Very strange.

[LSI_Morales]

Dear Mustavio,

My colleage is dealing with the same question in forum thread:

http://forum.silverfast.com/post30158.html#p30158

Cheers