LaserSoft Imaging

and I'm bewildered by the amount of software and settings that I'm going to have to 'master'!

I have 2000, 35mm slides to scan, do I need to setup everything perfectly beforehand, or can I scan away and alter it later in Photoshop? It feels like it's going to be a while before I can get rolling, is this normal?

Also, how many dpi and colour depth should I be using? I have tried 4800dpi and 24 bit which gives me 65MB files!

I don't want to scan for any particular purpose (eg prints or web). I just want the best possible scans without getting ridiculous

Dear Pioneer,

most settings in SilverFast are problem orientated solutions.
You should take a look at our online manual and documents to get an idea what they do.
That way you know where to look when you hit a problem with one of your images.
the image automatic is a good point to start because it gives you an easy way to enhance your scans.
If you use a SEplus or AI studio you should take a look at the MultiExposure option because it can enhance the dynamic range of your scans.
Please remember that you will loose image information when you work in Photoshop.
It is always better to get an optimized scan than to fix a problem in photoshop.

The scanning resolution is an important part of your image quality.
Next to the input box where you choose your resolution dpi you will find a slider.
This slider stops at your scanner's hardware resolutions.
The only exeptions are the leftmost (always minimum possible) and rightmost (always double your scanner's maximum resolution) positions.
Please use this slider to choose your resolution as it ensures that no interpolation errors occur.
you can then choose your final scan size with the scaling or output size settings.
SilverFast will always ensure that the optimal scanning resolution is selected.
If you choos your max. hardware resolution there is no need to scale up as you would always enter a software resolution.

The resolution you choose for your scans really depends on the purpose of your images.
If you want to save maximum image information the maximum hardware resolution would give you that.
But those scans are very large as you experienced.
You should try to select a final size so you can get an idea of how large the image is.

kind regards
Arne Ketelhohn