help settings Plustek 7300 + SF SEplus + kodachrome

[hujikol]

Hi,

1.
i have bought for christmas a plustek 7300 to scan the 35years old 1500 kodachrome 24x36 dias (i mean "diapositives" or "color slides") of my father...

the plustek 7300 is "bunded" with "Silverfast 6.5 SE Plus" and i have upgrated to 6.6 with special option for kodachrome

2.
i have a lot of trouble to find the "better" settings to scan those slides.

first at all, wich dpi ?

the final goal is having a numeric version of those slides, so i think to scan in TIF format with the best settings as it could be possible

and the second goal is to see numeric results on the numeric "screen" (kodak easyshare m1020) and print the most beautiful (or less awfull...) in 10x15cm (by a canon selphy cp760)

3.
i tried some settings...
1200dpi / 100% / autocolor adjustement
7200dpi / 100% / manual color adjustment...
multiexposure / multiscan...

first problem, the results are always very "dark"
i mean it is as if there was no light when the photo was shoot...
and those photos where shoot on Afrika Beach,
or outside, so with sun...

second problem, the results are not fine
Faces of people are disturbed
even with an only one scan, without multiexposure

4.
there are 2 important settings (i think) :
-a) a choice list of the "input" scanner
--> there are 3 "plustek 730" options but 0 "plustek 7300" options : i think it's a traduction mistake... but wich is the good ?
-b) a choice list of "internal" option
--> there are a lot of options : 2 "Adobe RGB 1998", ..., "PhotoRGB", ... : i have choosen the 1st "Adobe RGB 1998" : is it good ?

5.
i have seen, that some of members have bought a Plustek 7200 or 7300...
so, if some of you could help me, it would be very nice...


Best regards

PS :
sorry for my english, but i'm a french guy who don't speak and write it fluently

Thanks

-- edit --

For those who can't figure it out, "dias" are color slides, from the word diapositive, a term rarely used in the U.S. these days.

thanks for this comment Al Kaplan
-- end edit --

 

[Svitantti]

Maybe there is a general option that is not named to any specific film type? Maybe you could try to scan the films so that the result has low contrast and then you could edit them in Photoshop or other software?

Kodachrome has a lot of contrast and that is one reason it is hard to scan well.

For the dpi, I would use something around 3000 (maybe 3200). 7200 sounds overkill because of the file sizes and scanning time. In the tests I've read, that is about the maximum you get out of Plustek scanner.

 

[Al Kaplan]

For those who can't figure it out, "dias" are color slides, from the word diapositive, a term rarely used in the U.S. these days.

 

[hujikol]

little strange thing :
with silverfast SE Plus, the max dpi i can choose are :
- 24000 dpi with 6.5 version
- 10000 dpi with 6.6 version

scan a 24x36 slide in 24000 dpi + HDR color = TIF around 4 Go, and result is not really fine...

HDR color option = result with colours with very low contrast

48bit->24bit : i can set value for each color (RGB) and play with ACR (settings for selective colors) to obtain something "better" (i mean i prefer)

the problem, it is very hard (for me, because i don't know enough the impacts of the settings) to obtain a good contrast
between skin of people and the sand of the beach
and between the blue of the ocean (with white of the wave) and the gray-blue of the sky (with white clouds)

there is always an "sand" (skin/sand) master color
and a "gray/blue" color (ocean/sky) master color

gray is the general result i obtain without try to play with settings

and i know it is not the real color of people/sand/sky/ocean....

the "best" (less awfull) results i have are with
- kodachrome
- input scanner : "plustek 730"
- internal : "Adobe RGB 1998"
- accentuation USM : auto
- auto calcul of RGB
- ACR : manual selective adjustement for R,G,B,C,M,Y
- light
- contrast
- saturation
and
iSRD to reduce black dusts

well, last point is the reason (perhaps no so good as i thniok?) to scan in 7200dpi : i can more reduce black points with iSRD

so, if someone have good tips or comments to help me...

Best regards

 

[Svitantti]

I'd say just leave the scan result "loose" and then edit it in Photoshop or something like that, if you have any software to control the contrast etc...

Forget about the resolutions above 4000dpi. I would use 3200 or some that is closest to that.

 

[hujikol]

well, i do not have photoshop or like that...
i just have downloaded "photofiltre" and don't know if it is enough to correct a "loose" scan... i mean, correct black points and scratch and dusts and colors...

i will try, but, i think (hope?) that it could be possible to obtain something "good" direct with the scanner...

 

[varjag]

From a Plustek 7200 owner:

1. Ditch Silverfast - the one bundled with the scanner is 8 bit per channel (OpticFilm seires are 12 bit in hardware). With chromes it inevitably results in clipping.
2a. Install VueScan - $50 or so from their website.
2b. Or, use native PusTek scanning utility - it's user interface is horrid but it exploits the hardware fully.
3. Enable "48 bit color" setting, set resolution to 3600 dpi, no color correction. Scan, adjust the scan in Photoshop - "Auto Color" command is a good start. Then set the contrast to your liking with Curves or Levels.

 

[venchka]

Eugene,

All good advice. He doesn't have Photoshop. If you don't have a 16 bit photo editing software package, you will loose a lot! maybe you can get Photoshop Elements or Lightroom. Both are less expensive than Photoshop. I use Lightroom. I like it a lot.

One more thing-Is there a setting or switch in the scanner software to turn on the light in the top of the scanner? The light shines through the slides, just like a slide projector. That may be your problem. Can you share examples?

Don't be disappointed by the look of the scan files before you "fix" them with editing software. My scans looked bad from the scanner. With a little editing help, they look much better. The best thing to do is get all the information the scanner will give you. Don't make too many adjustments in the scanner. Scanning is hard. It takes lots of practice. Look at the Histogram when scanning. Adjust the black point, white point and mid-point so the histogram doesn't clip on either end or at the top.

Good luck.

ps: I know there are French sites like this one where the language barrier won't be as diffcult as learning how to scan slides.