Silverfast and Lightroom

[Dieterrath]

Hi there,
I am using Silverfast with my Nikon 4000 ED Scanner to digitize slides. I am usually not using many of the processing capabilities in Silverfast, relying rather on LR to edit the TIFF files.
Has anybody experience in using the raw format in Silverfast (48 bit, storing as DNG files) and processing afterwards entirely in LR.
Is there any benefit compared to using the 48-bit Tiff format
Regards Dieter

 

[Johan Elzenga]

If you mean the ‘raw’ format from Silverfast, then the answer is that you cannot process it in Lightroom. That file format contains the infrared scan as a separate channel (meaning dust & scratches removal is not yet applied), but Lightroom can’t do anything with that.

 

[Dieterrath]

Good afternoon, Johan,
thank you for this fast and clear reply. I was tempted by the idea to get raw files, similar to my digital workflow, but didn't consider the IR-channel. Hence I will continue to use the more or (rather) less processed TIFF files from Silverfast.
Rgards, Dieter

 

[PhilBurton]

Good afternoon, Johan,
thank you for this fast and clear reply. I was tempted by the idea to get raw files, similar to my digital workflow, but didn't consider the IR-channel. Hence I will continue to use the more or (rather) less processed TIFF files from Silverfast.
Rgards, Dieter

Dieter,

Right now, I'm in the process of evaluating Silverfast. By the way, my scanner is a Nikon 5000 ED. One thing I have learned is that a RAW file from a scanner is not really a RAW file. The key difference is that a digital camera's RAW file contains the actual data values from individual RGB pixels. Then the software combines these pixel value to produce actual colors. With the Nikon scanners, and probably other scanners, the output is already the actual colors, so Lightroom can't really apply RAW adjustments.

 

[Pascal_G]

You must be very careful with Silverfast raw format, the problem is not only with Lightroom. For example if you change the date using Windows File Explorer it will corrupt the file and you loose the infrared information. !! I had some mail exchange with Silverfast about this problem but they say it's Microsoft fault ...
My guess is that Silverfast is using the TIFF format in an unconventional way, which makes it hard for other software to handle the format properly. I'm sure Silverfast would be able to encapsulate the infrared information in a way that other software would just copy the information without corrupting it, but I guess they don't care and want people to use their products instead. This said, I'm a big fan of Silverfast sofware, it's really great for scanning images.

 

[PhilBurton]

@shopping_1

Welcome to the forum. It's a great bunch of people, with all levels of experience. Unlike some other forums, we are always, always polite to each other.

Thanks for this warning. Out of curiosity, which version of Silverfast? Do you use the Studio add-on?

Once you process the RAW in Lightroom, why is the infrared information still needed? Instead of Windows File Explorer, have you tried something like https://exiftool.org/gui/.

If you still can't fix the date issues using ExifToolGUI, then send me a message and I'll send you the name and contact info for a very helpful guy in their Florida office.

 

[Pascal_G]

Thanks for offering your help. I use Silverfast 8 and after I had problems using windows file explorer I found other tools to change the date (exiftool is a good one too). But I’m not touching the original Silverfast raw files anymore. I process raw originals with Silverfast and save to new copies in Standard TIFF (without the infrared data). Then I can use Lightroom and any other tool without any risk with this copy.