Will Silver Fast work for me? A real newbie

[RebBacchus]

I have a problem... 6-8K slides that I want to convert to digital format. I just purchased a Minolta Scan Elite 5400 II (could I have asked for better timing?) and I don't seem to be able to reproduce what I see when I use a projector, digitally. I also own a copy of Photoshop 7 (full version) but I've never been able to use the color tools to fix it those sorts of problems. Anything beyond the very basic lightening or darking is a mystery to me.

All my scanned slides are scanning much darker than what I see using a slide projector. I'm amazed at the detail of the scanned file (and the 200Mb file size.) Still, it would seem that there ought to be a simple way to change the "starting point." The film negatives seem fine.

I've never used a darkroom or taken a course in photography. What can Silverfast software do to help me. Which version should I consider if I'm going to be converting 6-8K slide to digital format.

I also want to use the 16bit color option of the scanner and I would like to store the images in three formats (uncompressed Tiff, JPEG-minimum compression maximum size, and JPEG size that will display on current DVD players.) I'm converting these slides so they can be enjoyed by my grandkids someday thus I want to save as much detail as possible. At the same time, I want my children to be able to watch them on their current DVD players.

Last but not least, I'm a system's analyst and not afraid of complicated software. I think a general correction setting would work for most slides and scanning time is a factor. My computer is fast with 2Gb of fast RAM. Post scan corrections would save me time if that?s possible, and time is a factor in my purchase decision.

[LSI_Noack]

Dear Reb

16 bits per colour channel and JPEG don't go together. While you could use JPEG2000 to scan 48 bits of colour depth images, I doubt that most DVD players currently on the shelves to purchase are able to understand JPEG2000 format.

You can try a <a href="https://www.silverfast.com/sf-download/demo/en.html?product=519">demo version</a> of SilverFast to see what SilverFast can do for you yourself.

BTW, when batch scanning, you might want to check the > Option > Auto > Auto when ADF option to enable SilverFast's automatic image adjustment to optimise your scans for batch scanning, too.

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

[RAG]

RebBacchus,

SilverFast will allow you to do 16-bit color scans and save them as TIFF files, but you will need to use Photoshop or another application to create the various derivatives you mention. I have heard of Photoshop scripts that will help automate the derivative creation process, but there may also be other programs for this specific purpose.