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EPSON 4990 & Silverfast 6SE - Major Color Problems

PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2006 8:08 pm
by Fuenteguy
I scan photo's daily. I was very happy with my Epson 2450 photo & Silverfast 5.5 in Photoshop CS using windows XP pro. However since upgrading to the 4990 photo and Silverfast 6SE I noticed several major probems.

First of all, everything I use Photoshop CS, Silverfast, my HP 5000ps, etc. is set to Adobe RGB. I also did a scan of the same photo before and after installing the new scanned and software. The major problems I have are,

1) My colors are way to saturated when I use auto adjust.
2) Color cast removal always peg's out at 100%
3) Colors are usually off, blues and greens are not even close.

I also noticed when Silverfast previews the white background was never white so I scanned a pure white piece of paper with both the Epson software & Silverfast. When I auto adjust with the EPSON software the white is an acceptable off white however when I auto adjust with Silverfast instead of white I get a very very deep dark purple/blue. BTW, I tried all three whiteness settings in the Options, Off, light and dark.

This can't be right! If Silverfast can't even get close to white how will it get close to any color?

I'm hoping that I completely missed something that's a no brainer. Does anyone have any suggestions before I return my 4990 and Silverfast 6SE and go back to my dated equipment & software?

Thanks in advance.

PostPosted: Sat May 20, 2006 6:57 pm
by RAG
Did you follow the directions for setting the CMS options in SilverFast before doing any of these scans, or did you merely install the program and scan?

Take a look at Iyan Lyons's tutorial http://www.computer-darkroom.com/sf5-ne ... f5_cms.htm on setting SilverFast color management.

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 6:16 pm
by Fuenteguy
RAG wrote:Did you follow the directions for setting the CMS options in SilverFast before doing any of these scans, or did you merely install the program and scan?


Yes, as I said in my original post everything I use, computer, monitor, printer etc. is set to adobe RGB 1998. Silverfast 6-SE only has one box under CMS settings and it has 3 options, None - Adobe RGB (1998) and sRGB. I did try the other settings in my origianl tests but they did not help at all.

Thanks again

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 11:17 pm
by degrub
Are you scanning negs or slides or prints. It sound like you may have selected negs instead of positive.

PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2006 12:58 am
by Fuenteguy
degrub wrote:Are you scanning negs or slides or prints. It sound like you may have selected negs instead of positive.


As I said in my first post, I scan photo's daily.
I have the program set to:
scan mode = Normal
Original = Reflective
pos/neg = positive

PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:30 am
by degrub
did you uninstall SF 5.5 ? and delete the prefs ?
At least try deleting the prefs file.

Seems to solve many issues.

Otherwise turn in a support form.

BTW, is the 4990 any better than the 2450 ? i had heard there were minor differences.

PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2006 12:55 pm
by Fuenteguy
degrub wrote:did you uninstall SF 5.5 ? and delete the prefs ?
At least try deleting the prefs file.

BTW, is the 4990 any better than the 2450 ? i had heard there were minor differences.


When I uninstalled 5.5 I also manually removed the file folders & prefs from the Doc & Settings folder before I installed 6.

Can't tell you if the 4990 is any better beause I haven't been able to get a decent scan with Silverfast 6. I'm only glad I moved the 2450 and 5.5 to another machine or I would be screwed.

PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 9:16 pm
by RAG
One thing you might try if the option is there for you is to change the scanner profile to the one shown in the screen capture below. When I first got my 4990 I found the SilverFast scans did not compare very well to those from Epson scan. Then I changed the scanner profile in SilverFast to match the one in Epson Scan.
<img src="/img/forum/profiles.gif">

PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2006 1:43 pm
by Fuenteguy
Thanks for tryng to help RAG.
Are you using Silverfast 6AI? The SE version I have does not have the "ICM profile window" that you posted. I do have a "CMS" window which only has the "Internal" option and I have that set to Adobe RGB "1998"

PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2006 2:55 pm
by RAG
What you might do is download a trial of SilverFast SE Plus, AI or AI Studio to see if you are able to do what you want with one of those versions.