LaserSoft Imaging

Hi,

My System: Mac 10.6, Silverfast Ai Studio 8 (lastest update), Epson V700

I am trying to scan old postage stamps. I put these face down on the glass and use a nice natural white paper behind.

I have most, if not all, the auto features off ... mainly just using the histogram. The problem that I'm getting is over exposing
and the data being slammed against the right side of the histogram.

Even if I reduce the exposure, it's just sliding the histogram to the left without actually scanning at a reduced exposure.

I cannot figure out how to get the scanner to scan and not get large areas (especially at the top of the stamp that the lamp illuminate first) to be blown out to 255/255/255.

Can someone offer some advice on how to adjust this? I do not want any of the stamp or background paper to be over exposed. I have spend HOURS working on this, and even tried to use my older Silverfast Ai 6, but results were worse in version 6.

I'd really appreciate some help/advice. I'm hitting a deadline for this project and not getting the results that I thought would be possible.

Thanks,
chadd

Dear customer,

Have you tried using the pipette tool to place the highlight on the paper?
This might be easier than trying to adjust the histogram.
Did you make sure the scanframe is placed exactly around the scan target?
Otherwise the histogram will not show the correct data.


kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn

Yes, I did have the frame around the stamp.

It seems that under the preferences Auto settings that highlight and shadow were affecting things a lot.

Using the pipette didn't seem to help. I did not want any data "blown out". But I still seemed to loose info. The top side of the stamp had the worse problem. I'll attached an image. You'll see at the top of the stamp the cupped part of the perforations basically blow out. Don't know if this is a problem with scanning stamps, the scanner or Silverfast. I was hoping there would be a way to scan and not loose any data.

Also, Can Silverfast 8 do a 'RAW' like scan? If so, how?

I guess the multi-exposure feature only works with negatives, right?

thanks.

I have loaded your image into SilverFast HDR and could not detect any blown out values.
All color information was well inside the colorspace definition.

To be honest I couldn't see any issues regarding the stamp.
(looks good to me)
But that might be because I do not know the original or maybe the image is too small to notice.

The edges of the stamp only seem a little out of focus.
If the material is not entirely flat this can easily happen as the focus of the scanner directly aims at the gals plane and can not be adjusted.

SilverFast can store the raw information the scanner delivers but that can only be processed by SilverFast HDR (Studio).
Other software can not handle the device colorspace embedded.

Multi-Exposure is a transparency function.
It wouldn't offer an advantage for reflective scans.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

Use a black microfiber cloth or possibly a back felt or velvet cloth. Cover the complete area around the stamp.
Place the stamp in the center of the scanner area and cover the entire platen with the cloth to eliminate stray light.
You may have to try several different fabrics to see which fully absorbs the light from the scanner lamp.
You should then be able to get a better exposure.