LaserSoft Imaging

When scanning a 35mm negative with either Ai or HDR, the software can't seem to handle the color information. This negative is a photo of a green leaf, very close up, with a slight warm glow on one side. The software wants to "correct" the color so that it is not very green and adds a lot of red, so that the dark greens become black, some light background green becomes pink, and the medium green with the slight warm glow becomes gold. An odd thing is that if the frame for this negative is not selected in the prescan window that has many other frames for the prescan of 35mm film srtrips, the color of the leaf looks perfect. As soon as it is selected, the color goes out of wack as described above. I can correct it fairly well in curves with very radical reductions in the red and blue curves and boosting of the green curve, but the color of the frame when it is unselected still looks much better. Is this a problem with the software or is there anything I can do to have the color look correct without the radical curves adjustments that don't really work that well anyway.

I am using the latest versions of both Ai and HDR on an Epson Expression 1680 and Photoshop CS on Macintosh 10.3.5.

Dear Nick Jahn

perhaps you might to check the SilverFast options dialogue, especially the "Auto" panel.
There you can influence if, what and how the SilverFast image adjustment features shall influence the automatic image adjustment, and if you want to use it generally, on batch scanning process, a.s.o.

In short: If the automatic adjustment doesn't work for a specific case, you want to turn it off.

However, reading your description again closely, it might also be that the preferences of SilverFast have somehow been corrupted.
Please try if deleting the prefs folder (under /User/(your usernam)/Library/Preferences/LaserSoft Imaging/SilverFast/ ) does present a remedy to your problem.

Thanks for your help. Like I said previously, I can correct the prescan to get close to the true color of this extreme example where one color dominates the whole picture. But, the result is not as good as the unselected prescan, which matches a straight print of the negative perfectly. Silverfast is a great program which I have used since version 1, but some work needs to be done on it so that the software can allow for photographs that have one dominant color. By the way, I never use automatic functions if i can avoid it and I have trashed the Silverfast preferences. And I am not selecting a closeup within the frame, I am selecting the whole 35mm frame. What still mystifies me is that if the prescan frame is not selected the color is perfect, so Silverfast is able to scan this extreme one color photograph at least in the prescan phase and if it is not selected. As soon as it is selected for final scan, everything goes out of kilter.

Dear Nick

if you like us to investigate this issue thoroughly, please don't hesitate to contact LaserSoft Imaging support staff: http://www.silverfast.com/problemreport/en.html

I would appreciate if you could paste a fresh copy of the SF_Logfile in the problem report.
On a Mac OS X PC you will find the SF_Logfile in /Users/(your username)/Library/Preferences/LaserSoft Imaging.
On a Windows 2000 or XP system the SF_Logfile is placed within /Documents and Settings/(your username)/Application Data/LaserSoft Imaging.
If you haven't yet changed the standard setting of the Windows Explorer you won't see any folder "Application Data". You then want to open the folder options dialogue (from "Extras" the menu) and go to the "View" tab. There you can enable the Explorer to show you hidden and system files and folders as well as displaying the contents of system folders.

I also would need a file called "SF Statistics" which lists the details on the scan settings which seem to be problematic on your machine.
You can generate it from the (button on the horizontal panel in the settings window:) "Expert Dialogue" -> button "Output Statistics" [see a screenshot at: viewtopic.php?p=10289 ].

Please put a referenc to this thread into your support request and / or copy-paste the error description into your problem report, too.
Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

I have sent all the requested information to Lasersoft Imaging support staff (problem report). I would like to submit a couple of screen captures to illustrate my point. How do I do that? Thanks. By the way, I am on Mac OS 10.3.6

Dear Nick

don't hesitate to ask this question via the problem report form, as some supporter will gladly comply, answer via email and you shall know his email address then.

It is just for the sake of anti-spam action, we rather don't post email addresses on the net.
However, please note that at this very point of time, reaction time is slowed downed by maladies and holidays in the support department.
Thank you for your kind understanding.

Best regards
Sonny Noack
- tech support, LSI -

Dear Sonny,

I submitted a report about a week ago but havn't heard anything from them. Are you connected with them? Maybe you could find out if they are dealing with my problem. Thanks.

Dear Nick

thanks for your patience. I asked my American support colleagues to check this out, as I don't have access to their email system.

I am confident that either I and / or yourself shall be contacted soon.

Best regards
Sonny Noack
- tech support, LSI AG -

...responded to the customer via personal e-mail today.