LaserSoft Imaging

Hi, sort of a newbie/self taught when it comes to scanning. I've read around the web, taken online courses at Moderskeppet.se and Lynda.com, still confused about a lot of the settings and stuff.

I've got a Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II, and scan using Silverfast AI Studio 8.8. I scan family photos and negatives, some from the last handfull of decades, some from pre and just after 1900. I scan for archiving the pictures, so they are safe for the future. For (non destructive) restoration I use Photoshop CC.

Then comes the question; in Silverfast, what are the optimal settings for the scans? 48 Bit HDR RAW? Or 48 -> 24 Bit with a bit of tweaking of color correcting and histogram? And then there are the resolution preset setting and the resolution setting. Is 600 preset and 1200 (which seems to be the highest nominal) resolution the optimal?

And then there is scanning black and white photos and negatives. Some places it says scan in color, some says scan in grescale. Any thoughts?

I'm thin on the top already, and trying to figure this all out... I'll be bald before Easter if I can't figure this all out.

Dear user,

If you want to further edit the images in Photoshop you should use the 48 Bit format. (Not one of the HDR RAW formats).
The resolution really depends on how large you need the images to be and how much details the originals provide.
You should test different resolutions and check which gives you best details in 100% (1:1 or HQ) view without only providing a larger image.

If you want to use Photoshop for further processing I would rather suggest using 48 Bit then 16 Bit. Also it depends if you want to keep any characteristics of the original or true greyscale. many B&W films show greenish or blueish casts that some users like to keep and others want to discard.


Kind regards,
Arne