I made the change to VueScan...

[Jehu]

After taking advantage of the "free" upgrade of VueScan by promising not to upgrade my Silverfast, I've been learning the differences. As near as I can figure, I may have given up a lot of features that I don't really use. The workflow of VueScan is much simpler. There are a few hidden tricks like adding a '+' to the filename so it will just increment numbers as it adds batch scan files to the folder.

The only real problem that I seem to be having is contrast on BW scans. Everything is coming out very low contrast. Has anyone else experienced this with VueScan?

[SW Rick]

Chris Crawford has some good information on his website re. this with Vuescan (http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/technical/scanning), and he says what you seem to be getting is what he gets; I get the same. Adjust in LR/PS.

[Jehu]

The link seems to be 404 Rick

[patrickjames]

That low contrast is called information! Actually it is one of the reasons to like Vuescan. If you want to adjust the contrast during the scan, under the color tab there is a "curve low" and "curve high". The default for these is .25 and .75 respectively. As those numbers move inward towards .50 the contrast increases. I have found generally that .30 and .70 produce a more normal look. It sounds as if you may find that as well. These two sliders have more effect on the way the image looks than nearly anything else. Play with them a little and you will see. A good scan doesn't need much adjustment in Photoshop.

[Peter Mounier]

I always work in the "manual" mode for color balance under the color tab. If your whites are gray, increase the value for "white point" under the color tab. If your blacks are muddy, increase the value for "black point". It's better not to actually have a "black" point in the scan, but rather almost black. Same with the white point, so they don't get clipped. You can further adjust the contrast with the brightness tab, and tweek the results using the "curve low" and "curve high" adjustments. It may help if you can post a pic of your result and include a screen capture of the "color" drop down menu.
Btw, the link doesn't work because there is a parenthesis at the end of it that shouldn't be there. Also, a .php needs to be at the end... http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/technical/scanning.php

Peter

[sully75]

The scans in that link are super duper contrasty, quite a bit past my taste. I'm not positive but I think the scan it in flat and then drag it out philosophy ends up producing overly contrasty results (read: doesn't really look like film photography to me, or at least, the stuff I want it to look like).

I've seen other people recommend the scan as negative and then invert philosophy too, and find the results equally unconvincing. My method: futz around with it till it looks about right in Epson Scan and then hope for the best. Not particularly satisfying either but I think it works about as well.

[D. Bryant]

After taking advantage of the "free" upgrade of VueScan by promising not to upgrade my Silverfast, I've been learning the differences. As near as I can figure, I may have given up a lot of features that I don't really use. The workflow of VueScan is much simpler. There are a few hidden tricks like adding a '+' to the filename so it will just increment numbers as it adds batch scan files to the folder.

The only real problem that I seem to be having is contrast on BW scans. Everything is coming out very low contrast. Has anyone else experienced this with VueScan?

You may wish to take a look at The Vuescan Bible by Sasha Steinhoff.

I got a free Kindle download from Amazon.com.

[Brian Ellis]

I used Vuescan for several years, also used Silverfast for several years. I never found a major difference between them in terms of the final output. Silverfast had more options and so more control but it was a little more complicated to learn if you wanted to take advantage of all the options (though I didn't think Vuescan was all that instinctive either). Silverfast's customer service was better in my limited experience with both - Silverfast always responded to questions though it could take a little time, the Vuescan guy responded sometimes and other times didn't.

The best thing about Vuescan when I was using it was that it was transferable from one scanner to another at no cost, with Silverfast you had to buy it again if you wanted to use it with another scanner. I'm not sure the same policies exist today with either of them, today I use the Epson software.

[Brian Legge]

I switched to VueScane about a year ago from the CanonScan plugin. It really took me a while to adjust to it. I settled on a workflow that looked about like this:

// Set the lock exposure color, first time scanning a series of negatives from the same film/development run.

1) Insert first negative of a series
2) Uncheck the 'lock exposure' option from the front tab
3) Preview
4) Select part of the negative outside the frame
5) Preview
6) Lock

// Scan a negative

7) Preview
8) Crop
9) Adjust color (usually I start with the white / black values set to 0/0.1, down from the default 0/1 to get as much info as I can). Curves left in normal place
9a) Adjust the white/black values to higher numbers if I want to lose detail in part of the negative
9b) Occasionally adjust the high / low values
9c) Occasionally adjust brightness.

I generally scan with the expectation that I'll open the photo afterwards in image editing software to fine tune it. I do the contrast adjustments there. I just want to be sure I have as much information to start with that is useful to me for a given scan leaving VueScan.

It took me a good month or so using VueScan before I found my rhythm. Until then, I felt like I was bumping into bugs and quirks all the time. Most of that was me failing to understand exactly what was going on with it. Definitely be patient with yourself while learning to use it.

Edit:
Oh, and on the 'color' tab, I set the film to 'Generic Color Film' for both black and white and color scanning. There is no 'generic black and white' option. I think this was one of the pages I used when figuring all of this out: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ishootf...7608204093047/. If I am scanning color film, I usually do the 'lock film base' step as well though I'm less confident I have all of that figured out yet. I usually have to do some color correction after the fact.

[Jehu]

You may wish to take a look at The Vuescan Bible by Sasha Steinhoff.

I got a free Kindle download from Amazon.com.

I checked on that. It's $9.99. If it helps, I'll spend the $10. The reviews indicate that it's mostly a "getting started" level book. Has anyone else benefited from this book?