Silverfast newbie here, am I in the right group?

[Doug Haeussler]

Hello all,

Before I start posting I'd like to know if I'm in the right discussion group, or even if I'm in the right forum. I got here by Googling "silverfast" and "discussion".

I'm brand-new to digital photo scanning and I'm not a photographer (unless owning a $150 Fuji digital camera counts). But I recently inherited a large amount of very old family photographs and slides so I did some research and bought a new Epson Perfection 4990 scanner; it seems to be able to do reflection & transmission originals quite well.

Learning Silverfast is my goal and the learning curve is quite steep - am I in the right place to ask questions? If I'm not, can anyone here point me in the right direction? I already printed out articles found here: http://luminous-landscape.com/tutori...scanning.shtml, and here: http://www.rbarkerphoto.com/scanning-tutorial.html. So far that, and just playing around with it practicing with non-critical photos, are all I have to go on.

Thanks in in advance for any help.
...Doug

[Ralph Barker]

Hi, Doug. This may or may not be the best forum for you, as we are oriented to the use of large format cameras (mostly 4x5 and larger). The digital sections here also relate to digital techniques used in conjunction with large format. Thus, your objectives might be served better on a more general forum like www.photo.net.

[Doug Haeussler]

Ralph,
Thanks for the pointer. Hmm, maybe this group is a little too specialized for me...although a lot of the family photos I'm trying to scan are 8x10 or so.
I'll try over at photo.net and over here for a few days and see how it goes.

Thanks, and mucho respect,
Doug

[Ralph Barker]

No problem, Doug. You're thinking print size (enlargement), whereas the "large format" bit relates to the size of the original negative (the film size).

[Brian Ellis]

There probably is a better group somewhere, maybe a Yahoo group devoted specifically to Silverfast or at least just to scanning. I remember participating in a scanning group for a while but unfortunately I don't have an address for it. However, as long as you're here and I'm here - you're right about Silverfast being a steep learning curve. I was greatly helped by buying a book called "Silverfast - The Official Guide" for about $30 on Amazon. It isn't a quick read but it does thoroughly explain the program and, more importantly, what the purpose of the many options is. I didn't think the instruction booklet that came with Silverfast was very useful.

I assume you have Silverfast SE, the basic version that comes with the 4990. Many people consider an upgrade to Ai and Studio to be worthwhile though if all you're doing is copying and editing old photographs I'm not sure that's the case.

[Mike Boden]

Aside from the user manual, you have several other sources of information at your disposal.

You can go to the following Yahoo user group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scanHi-End/

Also check out the following link for a brief overview:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...scanning.shtml

And then, of course, you can always go to Silverfast's website and seek help through their support forums:

http://www.silverfast.com/forum/

Best of luck!

[Gordon Moat]

One of the best ways to learn SilverFast is to download all the QuickTime movies of the various functions. These short explanation movies will visually guide you through many of the functions and settings. Other than those, it really just takes time with SilverFast to get familiar with the application. Best of luck.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat

[Brian Ellis]

'One of the best ways to learn SilverFast is to download all the QuickTime movies of the various functions'

Only if you can stay awake listening to the droning monotone of the narrator. : - )

[Ted Harris]

One more pointer. Learning Silverfast doesn;t have to be complicated if you stick to some of the basic function, and they may be all you need. One book that we recommend to our workshop participants is "Real World Scanning and Halftones" which walks you through the basic scanning steps regardless of the software you are using.

See my email on workshops.