Joanna I suggest small mid range adjustments ONLY for difficult film and usually only for color, as in working in a wet darkroom there are no absolutes unless every piece of film is perfectly exposed.
Yes, Silverfast has a steeper learning curve than either Epson's or Microtek's own software but once mastered it is much more powerful. There is one book available direct from Silverfast.
Yes. Unfortunately scanner software makes edits in the scanner space, which are not perceptually uniform. Also any settings change from those used to make the profile lower the usefulness of the profile as you note. If scanner software converted to a good working space of the user's choice, before the edits in the data path, a color managed workflow including tonal edits in the scanner software would be much more viable.Originally Posted by Joanna Carter
Tyler
Ted
The book is no longer available from Silverfast - and they in fact do not even recommend it (I was told that it was "completely out of date and likely a waste of time"). However, It is available as an eBook for about $30 (google will turn it up) and if anyone is going to seriously use Silverfast, I'd highly recommend it - it does a very good job of breaking down all the "hidden" functionality and reveals how to turn various functions on/off or otherwise. I personally found it of far more benefit that the good Doctor's endless QT tutorials...
Don, I agree about the value of the book. It is available again but only in German. Perhaps this is an update and an English version is coming:
http://www.silverfast.com/show/sf-of...-guide/en.html
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
Kirk
It would be great of there was an update on the way. I think the book in it's current form is about 4 years old.
I found the English eBook here: http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_di...asp?IID=272210 A quick search will locate a $5 coupon too.
If I may, I would like to share my impressions of the book, based on the preview chapter.
1. the example pictures are in B&W, even the ones demonstrating differences in colour!!!
2. the sample chapter deals with fine tuning colour using pipettes to sample colour points; this, IMO, completely undermines the point of using ICC profiles.
It is as if the book is trying to show you how to completely replace the profiled workflow !!!???
I'm sorry but I cannot see too much merit in moving from the comparitive simplicity of what I am doing now to spending hours faffing around with Siverfast - unless I am missing something in my appraisal of the book.
Don and Kirk,
About three months ago the Silverfast folks in Germany told me they were revising the book. My apologies for not noting it was only available as an eBook.
Joanna
A profiled workflow is only really useful for chromes. Silverfast does offer a package which includes a profiling tool which in my experience, works really well and is way simpler than attaching and converting back in PS (and it automatically generates the profile instead of having to do that with a third party utility). Silverfast also provides some excellent features and fuctionality with negatives. The book does a pretty good job of untangling all these features.
Ultimately, if you're using software and a "workflow" which works well for you, there's little reason to change it. I still use my old Minolta MF scanner with the very clunky Minolta software and profiles which I made for it. It just works fine and I see no real reason to change as a result.
I recently took a class with a very smart MFA RISD graduate. She told us that what is best to do is when you are scanning make minor curves adjustments with the preview scan, so when you do scan it, it is close to what you want. Other than that, everything else should be done in photoshop.
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