Processing negatives in Silverfast HDR

[Anthony Lewis]

I am not incredibly proficient at Silverfast as yet, but this is my process. I mainly shoot negatives, Delta and Porta 160. I scan them in Silverfast Ai in HDR mode, and covert them to positives in Silverfast HDR. However when I import my scanned negatives into HDR they are all very dark. I have read this is normal but there is no information on what to do next.

I have read that Silverfast Ai should be set to Gamma 1 - and this actually does appear to work very well. Some people tell me that Ai should be left in negative mode for best results, but is this true? Should 'HDR for output' box be ticked or not. Everyone says something different.

I tried to put a post on Lasersoft forum about this but the moderator rejected it saying it was a technical support question. But it is not, it is all about the correct settings. If Lasersoft had a movie or tutorial about the optimum way for this process then I wouldn't have any problems.

Can anyone enlighten me as to the settings that should be put into both these programs to achieve optimum results?

[Tyler Boley]

I am not incredibly proficient at Silverfast as yet, but this is my process. I mainly shoot negatives, Delta and Porta 160. I scan them in Silverfast Ai in HDR mode, and covert them to positives in Silverfast HDR. However when I import my scanned negatives into HDR they are all very dark. I have read this is normal but there is no information on what to do next....

Do you mean how to work with Negafix? There are various tutorials floating around on the internet, and of course the manual. One old one, but still useful, is here-
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/sf5_contents.htm

...
I have read that Silverfast Ai should be set to Gamma 1 - and this actually does appear to work very well. Some people tell me that Ai should be left in negative mode for best results, but is this true? Should 'HDR for output' box be ticked or not. Everyone says something different...

Th problem here is that there is no "correct" settings, and you'll have to just experiment. I have never found a gamma setting of 1 useful, but I don't do much HDR work that then goes to Negafix. The ColorNeg plugin seems to want gamma 1, but profiled positive work tends to like higher settings. If you want to play with that setting, and are making HDR scans for later Negafix processing as you describe, you must select 'HDR for output' or your setting is not being applied to HDR scans anyway, only non HDR scans. If it is unchecked, gamma is just native with HDR scans, no curve applied.

... I tried to put a post on Lasersoft forum about this but the moderator rejected it saying it was a technical support question. But it is not, it is all about the correct settings. If Lasersoft had a movie or tutorial about the optimum way for this process then I wouldn't have any problems...

This has been a problem for some time. I've found their response to technical support issues great, and bug fixes quick, but responses on the forum barely short of insulting... but then I've been accused of being a little testy... lil' bit...

Tyler
http://www.custom-digital.com/

[Anthony Lewis]

Tyler,
Thanks for your reply. No my problem is not how to use Negafix - that's easy. If I scan my neg in Ai in HDR mode (normal gamma setting of 2.2), then bring it into Silverfast HDR for Negafix conversion, then it comes in very dark. I've been told this is normal - but nobody knows what to do next.
I've read that I should set Ai to a gamma setting of 1, and this does seem to work. When scanning in Ai in HDR mode you can set it to negative scan mode or positive scan mode. The resulting scan is always negative, but I've been told you get better results if Ai is left set to negative mode.
It all seems to be trial and error and hearsay. Lasersoft gives no information as far as I can tell. Hopefully someone has some good reliable information on how to get optimum results in scanning negatives in HDR mode, and then converting to a positive in Silverfast HDR.