I have Silverfast Ai and IT8 (supplied with the Artixscan 4000) and with
this software it is possible to output HDR scans which are the raw data.
I think that the best scans to archive are the raw files. As later you can
return to these and use new better processing techniques become available
without having to rescan the image.
In the past I have found trying to use the HDR option extremely difficult
without the Silverfast HDR software. But now Silverfast have included a tick
box that allows the gamma (2.2 windows) correction to be applied to an HDR
scan. For some reason I always ended up with loads of noise if I used
Photoshop to apply the gamma correction.
With the new option Silverfast a gamma corrected raw scan can be loaded into
Photoshop 6 and by assigning the Silverfast Calibration profile and then
converting it to the internal profile.
This gives you an almost identical result to the usual Silverfast Ai output
but you get to work on the full 12bit data in photoshop. For the lazy auto
levels in PS6 produces a very similar result to the auto adjustments in
Silverfast. Most of the simpler to use functions in silverfast can be
performed in PS6 and it can all be done at 48 bit resolution.
I am no expert but this seems to work well for slides. Negatives are
probably all together different due to Silverfast specialist colour cast
removal algorithms.
What are the downsides ?
Steve
