Having spent the last 15 years scanning photos for clients I'm always interested in seeing how other people tackle the task. As I've told all my staff, your first 16,000 scans are the hardest, after that it's all down hill. I think for workflow purposes it's advisable to adopt a common file strategy - probably TIFF or JPG. Converting from DNG to whatever just adds overhead. Silverfast is great, albeit with a steep initial learning curve. You can scan film negatives as positives, saving all that bother later going from a digital negative to a positive. Silverfast incorporates film profiles so you'll get a scan tuned to your underlying film stock. You can also use Digital ICE on good Epson scanners to remove dust and scratches as you scan, saves hours down the track in your workflow. I have tried to explain to people that getting it right / optimised in the earliest steps of your workflow saves you hours later on. Loved the video by the way, just need to scan a few hundred 35mm slides for todays client.
I will give silverfast another try, I had some bad experiences with it when I just starting scanning myself. Since now I understand the workflow a little bit better, I may get better results with it～ the dust removal process is definitely a pain, but I just like that I have all the control in LR…
This is the best V850 and workflow RU-vid video I have ever seen. I have just bought one on EBay for my 5x4 large format film as you said it is cheaper than using a lab to print film.
Sam, I love this tutorial videos! Could you make a video about your workflow on making these videos and the gears you are using too? Would love to see your process in making videos as well as your film journey ✌️
Thank you for liking my videos!! It's definitely on my list, I'm currently in the process of changing gears and building my "RU-vid filming corner", when that's done, I will definitely be making a behind the scene videos of my process~
This is super helpful, thanks Sam! I have an older Epson flatbed, and the Epson Scan software is too old to work with my current computer, so I need to look into Silverfast or some alternative. I'll check out Negative Lab Pro too, that looks like a great tool to have!
Silverfast looks a bit intimidating at first, but it’s really simple actually if you only getting negative scans :) if you already have a scanner, definitely try it out~
Thanks for this useful video. After decades away from film, I’ve recently come back and am exploring scanning options. Was wondering if you can process scans without the borders for accurate scans, as you were doing, but then add the borders back in afterward. Is that possible?
You're the first scanning presenter I've come across who has said to select a frame individually! I've just got the Epson GT-X980, which I"m told is identical to the V850. I use VueScan. But I have been unclear if one previews the three strips (that the 35mm holder accepts) all at once and that the 'Batch' command separates them out into separate images consecutively numbered ... or if *I* must set each frame's borders. You have just told me I must, myself. (Otherwise I get a 'totem pole' stacked image of the 10 or whatever frames, and I cannot see how to then make consecutive images--I must batch-scan again for each subsequent image!) So what's the utility of scanning 3 strips at once if I must do that?? Anyway, thanks for the vid.
The silver fast has “find frame” options that automatically select 36 frames… but for one it won’t leave boarder for white balance, and for two the number doesn’t stay consistent.. that’s why I selected all frames myself. I never used the VUE scan, so I’m not sure how exactly it works, from my understanding, you either crop it when scanning, or you can crop it in LR, either way you need to crop to single frame before converting, I think.
