LaserSoft Imaging

1. This may be basic, but I could not find the answer in my distracted searches. Were photos ever taken with the sepia or light brown hue? Or are all of the ones I see due to fading? I have asked at antique shops and they do not really know either so I thought someone here must know. I have been scanning each pic twice, once with the sepia just in case, and then in silverfast, pulling the saturation all the way down and working with the shadows and such. It still scans as a 24bit color pic, but without any saturation.

2. I have Silverfast 6 AI, with and Epson 4490 and wanted to know to what extent or how far you all go (if you use software like this) to correct colors, scratches and such before scanning both color photos, and older sepia faded pics, and even some slides.

I feel like I am doing a lot of my corrections in Silverfast (curves, levels, selective color and scratches) before even getting it to Photoshop CS2 and my filters.

I always figured that if I could startd with a good foundation in PS I would be better off. for example, removing a magenta colorcast from poor development at the lab. But I am afraid that I am spending the energy in the wrong software as I try to get the colors and contrast so perfect in silverfast as opposed to waiting and doing that in photoshop.

Any Advice is welcome.

fazools,

In answer to your first question there are older pictures that have a sepia tone due to the developing processes used at the time. One example is the so called tin type.

Your second question is one that is debatable. There are those who feel the more you can do at the time of scanning the better, and those who feel it is best to capture everything and then manipulate the image data in Photoshop.

SilverFast is a powerful scanning application that helps to address many problems during scanning and provides high quality results. This reduces the amount, but does not always eliminate the need for manipulation of images in Photoshop.

I'm sure you will get many opinions, but in the end I'd say go with the combination that you feel most comfortable with and that works the best for you.