Geoff Marshall Posted January 9, 2019 Share #1 Posted January 9, 2019 Advertisement (gone after registration) I’ve tried scanning some 35mm negs and slides today and all the images are coming out blurred, it’s the first time I’ve had the scanner connected to my new PC and never had this problem with my last PC. All drivers have been installed and I use Vuescan which normally gives good results so I am baffled. Has any other members had similar issues and if so how did you resolve the problem. Geoff 🙁 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 9, 2019 Posted January 9, 2019 Hi Geoff Marshall, Take a look here Plustek problem. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Martin B Posted January 9, 2019 Share #2 Posted January 9, 2019 Slides have a big potential to come out blurry with Plustek scanners from my experience with the 8200i Ai - especially when the slides are scanned within the frames. The focus point of the scanner is very narrow, and I found that the slide frames differ quite a bit in their thickness. The color calibration slide which came with my Plustek scanner has just the optimum thickness for a sharp scan - try this one first how it works. I use my Plustek scanner always for negative strips or slides which are not framed - then the images should come out very sharp. I am using the Silverfast 8 software which also has an automated sharpness control - but I think this is not your issue and Vuescan likely has something similar. Best of luck! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted January 11, 2019 Share #3 Posted January 11, 2019 (edited) On 1/9/2019 at 11:50 PM, Martin B said: I am using the Silverfast 8 software which also has an automated sharpness control - but I think this is not your issue and Vuescan likely has something similar. Best of luck! I assume you mean it can automatically add sharpness to a scanned image rather than focus an image, given there is no focusing with a Plustek scanner? As an aside nobody should ever use scanner software to sharpen an image. As regards Geoff's problem the first thing to do is ask 'what kind of blurred', low resolution blurred or out of focus blurred, and suggest you check all your settings and take nothing for granted. Edited January 11, 2019 by 250swb Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frame-it Posted January 11, 2019 Share #4 Posted January 11, 2019 On 1/10/2019 at 4:41 AM, Geoff Marshall said: I’ve tried scanning some 35mm negs and slides today and all the images are coming out blurred, it’s the first time I’ve had the scanner connected to my new PC and never had this problem with my last PC. All drivers have been installed and I use Vuescan which normally gives good results so I am baffled. Has any other members had similar issues and if so how did you resolve the problem. Geoff 🙁 please post a photo Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted January 11, 2019 Share #5 Posted January 11, 2019 5 hours ago, 250swb said: I assume you mean it can automatically add sharpness to a scanned image rather than focus an image, given there is no focusing with a Plustek scanner? As an aside nobody should ever use scanner software to sharpen an image. As regards Geoff's problem the first thing to do is ask 'what kind of blurred', low resolution blurred or out of focus blurred, and suggest you check all your settings and take nothing for granted. Yes, this is what I meant - but I personally like the automated sharpening tool in SilverFast 8, it is needed IMO. It adds the little kick of sharpness into the image without increasing the grain - the scanner itself always is set as standard to have lower contrast and moderate sharpness only, so a little PP is needed to compensate this. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted January 11, 2019 Share #6 Posted January 11, 2019 Sharpening is needed on any scanned image, but Lightroom or Photoshop does it a whole lot better than any scanner supplied software. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Marshall Posted January 11, 2019 Author Share #7 Posted January 11, 2019 Advertisement (gone after registration) 13 hours ago, frame-it said: please post a photo Hi I deleted the images from my PC but will set up the scanner again this weekend and rescan them, when I do this I will also re-install all the drivers just to make sure it’s not a software problem. Apart from this occasion I have been really happy with the results from the Plustek so hopefully it will be a easy fix. Geoff Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted January 12, 2019 Share #8 Posted January 12, 2019 On 1/11/2019 at 9:55 AM, 250swb said: Sharpening is needed on any scanned image, but Lightroom or Photoshop does it a whole lot better than any scanner supplied software. It's a matter of personal preference, but I find indeed the SilverFast 8 sharpening better for film-based images with some grain compared to the options I have in CS6 or LR5 (yes, still using the older versions since I don't like PS CC and software leasing etc - in fact I will move away from Adobe in the future, but this is a different topic). Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Marshall Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share #9 Posted January 12, 2019 Problem solved, today I re-installed the drivers and had another attempt at scanning the negs and everything seems to be working fine again so obviously just a software glitch. Thanks everyone for taking time to respond to my post 👍 Geoff 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted January 21, 2019 Share #10 Posted January 21, 2019 On 1/12/2019 at 9:12 PM, Martin B said: It's a matter of personal preference, but I find indeed the SilverFast 8 sharpening better for film-based images with some grain compared to the options I have in CS6 or LR5 (yes, still using the older versions since I don't like PS CC and software leasing etc - in fact I will move away from Adobe in the future, but this is a different topic). If it works for you that's good. Most photographers don't embed sharpening into the scanned image because ideally it needs to be applied at different levels for different sized prints. And over time people may change their minds about an image and how it was processed so produce a pure un-manipulated scan as their master image to work with at any time. Today's idea's for dodging and burning, or contrast choice, or sharpening, etc. may not be those of tomorrow. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted January 21, 2019 Share #11 Posted January 21, 2019 I really like this video linked below and started following the advice given there including sharpening. It works well for me: Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted January 25, 2019 Share #12 Posted January 25, 2019 (edited) It is universally true that sharpening a scan at the scanning stage is a bad idea, unless you are batch processing for people who don't care about ultimate quality (such as a photolab doing holiday snaps), and unless you are a company trying to sell a product. Edited January 25, 2019 by 250swb Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted January 26, 2019 Share #13 Posted January 26, 2019 16 hours ago, 250swb said: It is universally true that sharpening a scan at the scanning stage is a bad idea, unless you are batch processing for people who don't care about ultimate quality (such as a photolab doing holiday snaps), and unless you are a company trying to sell a product. Did you even watch the video? You can actually achieve the same or even better than sharpening in PP! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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