Best Scan Settings

[Sorbz62]

Hi guys,

Although this is not a strict LR question, it relates to how I use LR to archive and work with my photos.

I have about 4'''+ negs in many formats (some of my dad's really old large format stuff from D-Day!!) which I am slowly scanning in as digital images with my Epson rx62' flatbed which has a neg scanner attachment.

My workflow was:

1. Open CS3.
2. Scan using the Epson scan software at original size, 12''dpi and optimised per image for exposure etc. This gave good results and I have used such images to print up to 8x1' without artifacts.
3. Save to good images into my year dated folder structure on the HDD.
4. Synchronise the folder in LR to add the new images

I have just downloaded the trial copy of Vue Scan and found that I can scan the negs as DNG files, which look like negs, ie inverted colours. On inverting them back in CS3, they are so much more vibrant than before and I can adjust them better for exposure, colour etc.

My questions are:

1. Are these DNG files a RAW equivalent and pure CCD data?

2. I am now scanning at 24''dpi giving a file size of ~25Mb. Is this a good archiving size and what size print could I get off these?

3. Is it worth scanning in DNG rather than TIFF?

4. Is VueScan a good scanning alternative?

Thanks in anticipation,
Jim

 

[Brad Snyder]

Jim, Welcome to LR Forums.

While scanning is definitely not my forte, I'll take a crack while we're waiting for an expert to drop by.

1. I doubt it. I expect this is a DNG conversion of TIFF/JPG data from the scanner. I'm pretty sure your scanner doesn't use a Bayer matrix CCD sensor.

2. Don't know, no opinion

3. In fooling around with LR conversions of TIFF to DNG, we've uncovered a substantial lossless reduction in filesize. Although hard-drives are cheap, you'd have to be the judge of that. For the near term, TIFFs are going to be more compatible/portable.

4. Seems like it, from your description of image quality. Is that from Hamrick Software?
I've had very good luck with his other stuff over 1'-15 years of use.

I know this isn't too specifically helpful, but it probably worth at least the 2 cents you paid for it ...

 

[Sorbz62]

4. Seems like it, from your description of image quality. Is that from Hamrick Software?
I've had very good luck with his other stuff over 1'-15 years of use.

I know this isn't too specifically helpful, but it probably worth at least the 2 cents you paid for it ...

Thanks Brad,

Yes it is from Hamrick. I am still undecided as to whether to buy it as there are some restrictions on the trial copy.

Jim

 

[Brad Snyder]

I think I tried it a while back, and clearly I didn't buy it. Can't remember why or why not, tho'. My scanning needs are simple, maybe it was overkill, or too expensive to just play with. I have made a note to look at it again, thanks for that.

 

[Bruce J]

I'll weigh in on VueScan. A few years ago I spent a lot of time scanning all of my slides, 35mm negatives, etc. (about 28,''' images). After trying several different scanning software options, including the Nikon software that came with the scanner, I settled on VueScan. Never regretted it. Still use it occasionally and still like it. I did scan straight to tiff and filled several boxes of CDs with the scans. This was before hard disks were as large and cheap as they are today. All this was done in an effort to capture everything before the colors degraded any further than they already had. Took a long time and a lot of effort, but I'm glad I did it. I can now go back and pick out individual images to work on further. Cheers,

 

[Sorbz62]

That's great mate!

What settings did you scan the negs in at?

 

[Bruce J]

Ah, I knew you were going to ask that question. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer near me. I'm away from the location where I do the scanning for the summer, so don't have either the software or my notes here. Too long ago for me to remember the details, alas.

But, I will relate one short tale. I did a lot of experimenting w/ various settings in the beginning (and as you know, there are a lot of settings), thought I had it pretty well wired. Because I had lots of images to scan, I was doing them in batch mode, a box of slides at a time w/o changing settings for each image. About 3 months into the process, I realized that I could do better. This may be about the time that I switched from the previous software to VueScan. In any case, I changes my process, deleted the scans that were finished, and started over. This was probably a couple thousand images into the process. Just a warning, don't expect to get it right the first time, and expect to do a lot of trial and error on the settings. Best of luck,

Edit: I just found one of my VueScan .ini files on this computer. Maybe this will help you get started. Had to change the extension to .txt to attach the file here.