Dear Silverfast...I use your software professionally with a Tango Drum scanner. There are many ways to adjust the colour in the silverfast software but some work better than others. I do not use the 'factory' set profiles as I find the colour not so good with most of them. So I use the profile maker in negafix set on the curve window. Sometimes I get amazing results..better than any scan I have had made for me before..but it is hit and miss..This could be such a great tool but I am sad to say that it is very clumsy and difficult to use and has limited control.
I feel that with one tool such as your negafix profile maker curve tool it should be possible to get nearly 100% colour accuracy..if it worked well. This would mean that the process of colour correction and profile making with one single tool could be very simple..taking away the need to split the process over many tools....but for the following reasons the tool does not work..it is overcomplicated by the fact that you have added so many things to it and it does not work in a way that most users have become accustomed to having used other software..such as photoshop etc.
1. Remove the need to use 'alt' to work with a single point..allow as default the ability to move a single point...as is the way in photoshop..use 'alt' to move multiple points instead which is a less used activity.
2. Remove the zoom facility and just have a larger window for the curve...or a separate button that sits next to the window so you can zoom...This would take away the very annoying jumping cursor change that has three different uses..zoom, selection and add point...it is too senstive to use with a wacom so ends up zooming when I do not need...plus when you zoom you cannot see the rest of the curve ....
3. Adjusting Colour : This is the biggest thing...I use curves in both photoshop and in the Imacon software as well...your profile maker curve tool from the three is the hardest to use..
...the reason is that in the others all movements to the curve do not effect other channels or the brightness on the curve..for example if I make a point in the red channel and pull that point it does not have an effect on the blue, green or overall channel. That means that I can get my density correct overall and then go into the channels and gently shift the colour until I have the correct colour. In the silverfast software this is not so..when I make a colour shift by pulling the curve in blue it has an overall effect in the other channels and even in the brightness. It is so hard to use. Maybe an idea is to have a "Luminosity" curve window only working on density (brightness) and then a second for colour which only changes the colour..this is a facility used in Photoshop that works well...4. If I add another point to the curve all of the channels magnetically jump to this point which throws the colour way off...this just does not work...
5. Adjusting the white points. In your curve the white point and black point are locked so in the channels it is not possible to remove a colour cast in the brighter and darker areas..nor is it possible to brighten or darken these points. I know that you have another 'curve' facility in the main part of the software but as I said before it over complicates the process by not being able to work in ONE very good intuitive tool.
6. Adjusting the points with a mouse or wacom pen can sometimes be a bit clumsy..the introduction of 'arrow' key use to gently nudge the points would be very useful.
For me this is the most important tool in the Silverfast software as it should allow the user to set and save accurate profiles but sad to say it is the one tool that is a struggle to work with. It feels like the design of the tool has been made by a someone who is not a photographer or maybe has not used curves in other programs such as photoshop.
Thanks
Paul Murphy
+44 7831 662 421
