LaserSoft Imaging

I am scanning 35mm color slides with SilverFast Ai Studio v6.6.1r1b and the Epson Perfection V700. I would like to scan in an "express batch mode", which is:

Load 12 slides
Press Prescan
Press Scan (If there are no fixups)

My problem is that I cannot find a way to auto adjust the exposure based on the prescan. I have to go through each frame and select "Image Type" (Even if it is the same as previous scan). That sets the "Picture Settings" exposure histogram based on the prescan slide instead of the previous scan. Otherwise the entire scan uses the previous exposure settings.

How can I have it set the exposure for all slides automatically from the prescan?

Thanks,

Dear bikeoid,

I guess what you want to do is to apply automatic corrections to every single frame.

In that case you have to open the options dialogue and select the "Auto" tab, afterwards you will have to mark the options that you want to perform automatically over the selected frames. See next picture


Cheers

Alejandro,
I selected Auto Highlights and Shadows in the "Auto" tab, but it made no difference.

I next selected Auto Contrast, but this did not help. Also, selecting "Auto Contrast" resulted in random hung scans with the message "Image Auto-Adjust". It stayed at that screen for 30 minutes with no progress. It was necessary to terminate the program and restart.

Because of the hang, I tried deleting the 'prefs' directory, then manually re-entering all scan frames and settings.

But still the prescan uses the previous scan histogram. This seems to be an error; when would it ever make sense to apply the previous slide settings to a prescan?

Let me know if there is anything I can try.

Thanks,

Dear bikeoid,

I believe you are being confused by what you are watching on the screen. Normally when you are having multiple images on the screen and you select one of the frames, you will see how all other images appear to change, it is because the frame you have selected contains the histogram only for that portion of the entire scanning area, all other pictures "appear" to be having this histogram.

I say "appear" because in reality is not like that, every image has its own selection and own histogram. In other words, when scanning in batch mode, it might appear to you as though the last histogram you have seen have been applied to every single picture, which is not true, every single image is being scanned using its own histogram.

You might want to try deactivating all automatic corrections (deactivate all options you have activated before), make your batch scan, then activate the auto corrections and make the batch scan again, you will be able to see the difference.

Also if you open the resulting files with your photo edition program you'll see how the histogram of every picture is different and most likely corresponds to the histogram of the individual selections during the preview in SilverFast.

Cheers

Alejandro,
Thank you for your reply.

>it might appear to you as though the last histogram you have seen have been applied to every single picture, which is not true, every single image is being scanned using its own histogram.

The situation I am referring to is for an individual frame, where the previous slide was an evening scene followed by a daylight slide for example. The prescan view of the daylight slide is completely white because the old histogram was used. If I re-select the pulldown for an image type of "Standard", the actual current histogram is used and I can then see the slide and if it needs any manual adjustments.

I will try a scan with the auto adjustments selected to see whether it does indeed apply auto adjustments on the scan, even if it did not apply auto adjustments on the prescan.

Regards,

Dear Bikeoid,

Please let us know if my suggestions worked

cheers

Alejandro,

I tried with a scan, and the auto light / shadows adjustment works.

So now it's a minor inconvenience, in that some slides are too light or dark after the prescan and I have to select "Image Type" for them to see if I need a fixup before scan. But I can live with that now because it's only 1 or 2 per group.

Thanks for your help!

Dear Bikeoid,

I am glad things are now working.

have a nice day

Cheers