LaserSoft Imaging

I am completely new to SilverFast and scanning. I want to learn the basics, but already I have scanned lots of negatives with much better results than I got from a lab. Great software.

Here is a few questions, I hope I can ask about them all in one thread. One question about NegaFix adjusting the exposure of the image.
It doesn't seem to work. When I decrease the exposure, the image gets darker a bit, but when I decrease even more, it goes back to lighter. It works only when I increase the exposure, then the picture really becomes ligther and lighter up to 3. Why doesn't it work also the other way?

Another thing I don't understand - why do I have to save changes to curves in NegaFix, whenever I change them? I often
work with the curves but usually I do a new adjustment for a new picture so I don't need to save it all the time. But that is no big deal.


Is there a way how to see how the negative looks itself before making any adjustments? I would love to see which pictures on the negative I overexposed or underexposed to be a better photographer. I am afraid what I prescan is already different from the original thanks to all different settingsin Silverfast.

And I can't make the SilverFast work full screen. This is no big deal, and I must have missed some instructions in the manual.

Thanks for the help.

ryunin wrote:I am completely new to SilverFast and scanning. I want to learn the basics, but already I have scanned lots of negatives with much better results than I got from a lab. Great software.

Here is a few questions, I hope I can ask about them all in one thread. One question about NegaFix adjusting the exposure of the image.
It doesn't seem to work. When I decrease the exposure, the image gets darker a bit, but when I decrease even more, it goes back to lighter. It works only when I increase the exposure, then the picture really becomes ligther and lighter up to 3. Why doesn't it work also the other way?

What you experience is probably what we call burn out.
this happens when you over adjust an image.
In such a case you lose too much color information.

ryunin wrote:Another thing I don't understand - why do I have to save changes to curves in NegaFix, whenever I change them? I often
work with the curves but usually I do a new adjustment for a new picture so I don't need to save it all the time. But that is no big deal.

Negafix adjusts it's settings to the Histogram of each new image.
If you want to work with fixed settings you have to deactivate the "auto" checkbox in the negafix dialog.

ryunin wrote:Is there a way how to see how the negative looks itself before making any adjustments? I would love to see which pictures on the negative I overexposed or underexposed to be a better photographer. I am afraid what I prescan is already different from the original thanks to all different settingsin SilverFast.

The Negative can be looked at when you switch to "positive2 mode.
This gives you a view at the image unaltered by NegaFix.

ryunin wrote:And I can't make the SilverFast work full screen. This is no big deal, and I must have missed some instructions in the manual.

SilverFast does not have a full screen mode.