LaserSoft Imaging

e: Shadows and colours in slide film - Nikon Scan v Silverfast
by Steve K » Wed Dec 01, 2010 3:14 pm

Hi everyone !

I have just come across an article earlier this year started by 'Hellototo' in the Nikon scans section which dealt with issues scanning with the Nikon LS5000 using Nikon scan and SIlverfast!
He posted some very interesting scan comparisons illustrating same...

I must point out that I posted this message in the Nikonscans section but HelloToto and nobody else replied. If anybody has similar experiences I would love to hear from you please.

Anyway I am going through the same exasperating evaluation myself now and still haven't reached any conclusive decision!
After exhaustive scanning tests in excess of 100- amazingly it would 'appear that the Nikon software scans are nominally clearer with greater dynamic range I am scanning all types of E6 and Kodachromes. This is particularly evident in shadow areas...

As a wildlife photographer much of my work was shot at dawn and dusk- low light and so I have been using Nikon scans DEE extensively with a fair bit of success albeit with noise removal by Noiseware done post processing.

Should I splurge on Silverfast I wonder? So far after extensive tests using ai studio i just havent managed to produce better slides.
His 2 two images illustrated this too. v**s**n scans have been much too soft for my liking. Maybe it's due to the dust removal techology they use?

Further, I did further tests ( 100 odd ) to see just whether sharpening during scan on 'soft-ish' images would produce a better end result than post process sharpening. Post processing sharpening tests ranged from high pass, global edge and also Pixel genius excellent sharpening software.
To date I have been very impressed with nominal pre-scan sharpening just to elimant ethe certain softness my scanner produces.
Since my project is archiving I scan 16bit at the full dpi of 4000 producing anything up to 120mb files.

What version of SIlverfast should I be getting ?-It seems it's between AI studio or SE plus ?
Any help would be really appreciated,

Kind regards

Steve Knott
Bulls-Eye PhotographySteve K
Visitor

Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 3:01 pm
Private message

Dear Steve,

According to your description most of your work contains lost of details in the dark:

Steve K wrote:As a wildlife photographer much of my work was shot at dawn and dusk- low light and so I have been using Nikon scans DEE extensively with a fair bit of success albeit with noise removal by Noiseware done post processing.

It seems that Multi-Exposure and 48 bit HDR or 64 bit HDRi would be the perfect solution for you. Multi-Exposure will expand the dynamic range of your scanner, this will be more visible when generating 48 bit raw files of your pictures and getting the details back during the post production.

In this case you will need the Ai IT8 Studio Multi-Exposure (there is no SE version for the Nikon CoolScan 5000). You might want to take advantage of this year's promotion of Archive Suite which includes not only Ai IT8 Studio ME but also SilverFast HDR Studio which is our editing application, these offers you the perfect tools for your workflow.

Further details can be found on our online store

Cheers