Problems scanning B&W in Silverfast Ai/4870

[Jeffrey Sipress]

I've been struggling with this software for most of the year I've had it. I shoot 4x5 b&w negs, and cannot get a scan with full tonal range. I am using a Stouffer 21 stepwedge xparency to test, and regardless of any settings I've tried in SF (latest version), I always get the full top third of the scale to be pure white. I tried all film types and brightness settings in the NegFix window, usually ending up with just the 'monochrome' setting, as all the other film type settings give even worse results. Interestingly, I recently scanned the same test strip using the Epson 4870 scan software and got a beautiful tonally even scan across all ten stops just using the default settings! SF is doing a fine job on my color chromes, although I'm now wondering if they are suffering the same issue and I just haven't noticed yet. How the heck do you scan B&W negs with this thing? BTW, I am quite experienced in digital imaging, and use a G5 Dual 2.5 loaded with ram and the current OS.

[William Barnett-Lewis]

I can't help you with your specific issues - in fact, I've faced them and the only solution I found was buying a copy of VueScan. Perhaps there are other alternatives, but I never found them. I just can't get silverfast to work... :(

Good luck and good light,

William

[Kirk Gittings]

I have no problems as you are describing and have no idea what you are doing wrong. But there is obviously some clipping going on in the high values. Check the histogram after prescan vefore the final scan and make sure the high values are not being clipped. I use SF exclusively on a number of different scanners including 4870 and 4990 and Microtek 1880f. I love it. Have you tried scanning it in RGB then discarding all but the blue channel in PS? That is what most of us are doing anyway to reduce noise and get the sharpest scan for b&w.

[Kirk Gittings]

If nothing else works you may need a global reset of the settings. You may have actually set something up inadvertantly wrong. Let me know if you need the instructions for doing this. it is not a big deal.

SF is used and recommeded by many of the top people in the country so it does work.

[Denis Pleic]

As Kirk said, you should reset all values to default. My other suggestion is to try a HDR scan, if you have Silverfast AI.

I've tried my first B&W 4x5 negative scans with other settings, and all were poor...
But, when I tried a HDR scan - WOW!
So, try a HDR scan - you get a negative image with no adjustments, 16 bit grayscale, and work from there in Photoshop - I usually just invert the scan, apply some level adjustment (very minor, if the negative is OK), and the final scan always looks great! - well, to my untrained eye, anyway :)

The richness of tonality, detail, sharpness - I never saw anything like it working for almost a year with B&W scans in Silverfast from 35mm and 6x6 formats (Leica and Rolleiflex). But then, I usually didn't use HDR setting.

[John Hoenstine]

Scan as a negative. Click on the little guy with the graduation cap in the negative box. Use the expansion tab not the curves tab - pull the bars on all three colors until they are just past the ends of your histogram. Then use the histogram control on the main panel to adjust your mid tones using the "N" slider. I agree with Kirk from his previous post that the closer you can get your scan to your final result with the scanning software the better you final result will be.

[Brian Ellis]

I use Silverfast Ai for b&w negatives and it works fine. The software is complicated, not very intuitive, and the instruction book that comes with it isn't a whole lot of help. However, it does a really nice job for me with both color and b&w. I bought the book "Silverfast - The Official Guide" by Taz Tally (about $30 from Amazon) and it's been a big help in understanding all the nuances and features of this software (though in truth I got just about equally good scans with Vuescan). I think the main advantage of Silverfast compared to Vuescan is the added control it gives you for getting everything as close to right as possible in the scan rather than waiting to get it right in Photoshop. Some people prefer to just make a raw scan and rely on PS for most of the editing, others prefer to get things as close to right in the scan as possible. If you're in the latter group then I'd suggest that you buy the Tally book. If all you're trying to do is make a raw scan Vuescan will do that as well as Ai for a lot less money plus it has standard features thaat cost extra on Vuescan (multi-pass scanning and calibration with an IT-8 target come to mind).

Apart from that, I think Kirk's suggestion is a good one. Go back to the beginning and start over. Unless there's a problem with your scanner (which seems unlikely if your color scans are fine) you must have some setting wrong because the program is certainly capable of making excellent b&w scans.

[Jack Brady]

I would suggest that IF you give up on the Silverfast, take a serious look at the Aztek DPL Pro. I've switched to it for my Howtek HiResolve 8000 scanner and I'm very pleased with the results. (I have NO connection to Aztek, other than a satisfied customer.)