Sparrow
Veteran
That sounds to be a reasonable conclusion, I'm still on 10.5.8 so I can't help with the drivers, sorry
brbo
Well-known
ColorPerfect. And yes, it should be included with every scanner
Jamie123, your problem is that Vuescan is obviously "compressing" this very bright scene and trying to make it a "normal" scene with evenly distributed histogram. So it's cutting a hefty chunk of the histogram (left side) and in turn transforming the darkest part of the clouds (which in reality is still very bright) into black.
Option 1: Trash you vuescan settings. Have Vuescan display the histogram (Image - Graph b/w). In Color tab: set Color balance to 'none', Black point and White point to 0, Curve low and high both to 0 (0.001). Crop tab: Border (%) to 0 (manually make crop selection bigger if you want to scan a part of the frame), Buffer (%) to 0. This should help fool Vuescan into seeing the black colour of the frame and it will not compress the histogram. The rest of 48bit input/output/tiff... is pretty much standard. You should get a very flat file as a result.
Option 2: Read about Vuescan Advanced Workflow (learn how to lock exposure, lock film base).
Option 3: Learn about how to make a proper RAW scan and invert with NegFix8 script (free) or ColorPerfect PS plug-in($$).
Jamie123
Veteran
ColorPerfect. And yes, it should be included with every scanner
Jamie123, your problem is that Vuescan is obviously "compressing" this very bright scene and trying to make it a "normal" scene with evenly distributed histogram. So it's cutting a hefty chunk of the histogram (left side) and in turn transforming the darkest part of the clouds (which in reality is still very bright) into black.
Option 1: Trash you vuescan settings. Have Vuescan display the histogram (Image - Graph b/w). In Color tab: set Color balance to 'none', Black point and White point to 0, Curve low and high both to 0 (0.001). Crop tab: Border (%) to 0 (manually make crop selection bigger if you want to scan a part of the frame), Buffer (%) to 0. This should help fool Vuescan into seeing the black colour of the frame and it will not compress the histogram. The rest of 48bit input/output/tiff... is pretty much standard. You should get a very flat file as a result.
Option 2: Read about Vuescan Advanced Workflow (learn how to lock exposure, lock film base).
Option 3: Learn about how to make a proper RAW scan and invert with NegFix8 script (free) or ColorPerfect PS plug-in($$).
I've looked into the ColorPerfect solution recently and I'll give that a shot. Can't seem to get the plug-in to work so far but I'm sure I'll figure it out.
Yes, Vuescan is clearly trying to make this bright scene into a 'normal' contrast scene but that's not really the problem. Firstly, I'm getting the same thing with other images. Secondly, I can actually adjust all these settings and get the scan to look pretty close to the Silverfast one EXCEPT for the shadows. They are always blocked and noisy.
And yes, I do know how to lock exposure and film base. I'm having trouble with all scans not just this particular image. This is just a crappy frame that happens to be in the film holder right now and it works well to exemplify the issue.
brbo
Well-known
Hmm... You said that you had problems even before you installed Silverfast Demo and any driver that it brought with it. And Nikon's driver doesn't work in Lion, or does it? Even then, Vuescan would probably use it's own driver.
Still, you could go through '/System/Library/Extensions/' and search for any hint of a strayed driver. You can check for loaded drivers (kexts) with 'kextstat' command (I think, I don't have access to a Mac right now)...
Some scanners have to go through a scanner calibration routine after every power up (my Minolta 5400 for example), but I would suspect that Vuescan would display a warning if it was the same with CS9000.
ColorPerfect plugin works on Mac only if you run Photoshop in 32bit mode.
Jamie123
Veteran
Yes, it's definitely not the Silverfast Demo that is the problem. If anything, the Silverfast Demo actually helped. VueScan seems to have trouble getting my scanner to be ready (green light keeps on blinking) but when I start the SilverFast Demo the scanner is ready right away. I can then turn off SilverFast and turn on Vuescan and it works.
Didn't find anything I could identify as a problem in the kextstat.
I did find a bunch of old Nikon ICC profiles in my ColorSync folders but removing them hasn't made a difference.
bwcolor
Veteran
Given that many others, including myself, use Vuescan with this scanner, the problem must reside with the settings, or profile that you are using.
If you can use the profile with Silverfast with good results, then your problem is with the settings in Vuescan.
So, in order to help you, every setting will need to be posted, or you need to provide the log and issue to Hammrick.
If you can use the profile with Silverfast with good results, then your problem is with the settings in Vuescan.
So, in order to help you, every setting will need to be posted, or you need to provide the log and issue to Hammrick.
Jamie123
Veteran
Just heard from a friend who works at a university that he's getting rid of a few old Macs. I'll go pick one up later and make it a dedicated scanning machine. So it's back to Nikon Scan and I'll keep Vuescan for the Epson.
Bob Michaels
nobody special
If Vuescan is linking to a monitor profile, things will be really hosed.
I know you later said that Vuescan was using the built in profile, but I would double check which it is.
My Vuescan uses a custom scanner.icc profile that I built using a calibrated IT8 target but I really do not think it gets you that much.
R
rich815
Guest
Here's how I set up to scan on my iMac running Snow Leopard: turn on 9000 let it run the start up fully until green light stops blinking. Load film tray and let it run it's set up cycle fully. Once it stops and only once it stops do I start Vuescan. This seems a little different then how you describe you do it above.
If you want to PM me your email I'll E-mail you a saved settings file I use very successfully for b&w negs that you can simply load in Vuescan and see what happens. That setting profile is for the most part loosely based on hints from here: http://www.kenleegallery.com/html/tech/scanning.php
If you still have issues after that then it might be a Lion thing...
If you want to PM me your email I'll E-mail you a saved settings file I use very successfully for b&w negs that you can simply load in Vuescan and see what happens. That setting profile is for the most part loosely based on hints from here: http://www.kenleegallery.com/html/tech/scanning.php
If you still have issues after that then it might be a Lion thing...
Jamie123
Veteran
There's a setting in Vuescan for 'Monitor profile' which is where I set the monitor profile. Scanner and film profile are both set to 'built-in' and output profile is AdobeRGB. I've actually tried setting the scanner profile to one of the ones that was installed with the Silverfast Demo but it didn't change anything.
Jamie123
Veteran
Yeah, I think it's a Lion thing. When I turn the scanner on it just keeps blinking indefinitely. When I turn on Vuescan it stops only sometimes and when I turn on the SilverFast Demo it stops every time. If assume the problem is that since the old drivers don't work with Lion you have to start a program that loads a driver.
Thanks for your offer but I think I'll see if I can get that old Mac today and get Nikon Scan running again. Vuescan ist just too much of a hassle with the Nikon. With the Epson I find it quite decent, though.
biomed
Veteran
Jamie,
That is exactly what did with my Nikon scanners. I have a rather simple PC dedicated to scanning. I had too many problems with vuescan and never had it give me a satisfactory scan. I am sure it was some setup issue considering the number of people who use vuescan. The dedicated computer gives me the added advantage of scanning while working on my primary computer. Maybe one day I will figure out vuescan and come to love it as so many others do.
Mike
R
rich815
Guest
I understand your frustration but Vuescan and the Nikon scanners are normally not a hassle, they work and they work well. No offense meant and I understand for your situation you choosing to go another route for your solution but I would not blame this on Mac, Vuescan or Nikon as others are having simply sublime results using that combination.
Jamie123
Veteran
I do blame it on Nikon first and foremost for not updating their software for Intel Macs. When the switch to Intel Macs came the Nikon scanners were still in production so that's not an excuse.
I do blame it somewhat on Apple for dropping Rosetta from Lion but I guess they have their reasons.
I don't really blame Hamrick for the specific problems I'm having with Vuescan as I think it's something on my system that's causing the malfunctions. I do, however, think that it's a pity Vuescan is not a more intuitive software. It's like he made a very good job but stopped short of making it great.
Pete B
Well-known
Has Ed responded? I'm sure if you hang fire he'll sort it for you.
Pete
Pete
Jamie123
Veteran
Haven't contacted him yet. I'll see how it goes with the Mac I'm getting. Frankly, I much prefer Nikon Scan and not having to mess around with frame offset etc. would be nice.
bhop73
Well-known
Before reading this thread I thought I was the only one that didn't like Vuescan. I can get better results from Epsonscan. I guess this isn't an option for Nikon scanners though..
Trius
Waiting on Maitani
I know this sounds crazy, you may have tried it, it shouldn't work because it doesn't matter with Silverfast, but have you tried a different cable to the scanner? Is it in a chain or the only device? If you've already addressed this, I apologize, I just didn't see it.
whitecat
Lone Range(find)er
Ed is slow on responses.
Bob Michaels
nobody special
It has been a number of years since I corresponded with Ed Hamrick. He was quick and interested in a real product problem.
He did acknowledge that he frequently ignored e-mails about problems if:
* the answer was in the instructions or user guide
* the user was not using the latest version (free download)
* the user was asking about hardware comparability (there is a free demo to figure this out for sure)
* the user did not adequately describe the problem and included the specified file per his problem reporting instructions.
I have always felt his position was very fair considering the price of the program.