Vuescan - Film Profiles

[MPerson]

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I am just about to start scanning the 30 plus rolls of film from my holiday. I use Vuescan with my Coolscan V Ed. I find I get the best results with minimal tweaking of the settings, the only real tweaks are with the B&W histogram.

 

I scan at 4000 for RAW/DNG saved as positives with an additional 16 bit TIFF. I shoot 90% with Tri-X rated anywhere between 400-1600 and the the rest with Plus-x usually at 320-400 - all developed in Diafine.

 

I get the impression that the film profiles - like the GUI - were an afterthought as there are some serious omissions for what I feel are mainstream/popular films. Ilford for example only has XP2! Kodak does not have Tri-x or Plus-X.

 

I like Vuescan now that I better understand the interface and am happy with the results I get and I actually think I get better results using the GENERIC film profile but I was curious as to whether anyone uses any of the film profiles provided in Vuescan?

 

Anyone know if there is resource for various Vuescan settings for film?

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[andybarton]

I agree

 

I'd love Ed Hamrick to work on some more profiles.

 

I use T-Max 100 and CI=0.8 when I scan Tri-X, but it much depends upon how you have developed the film.

[MPerson]

I have come to the conclusion I have a love/hate relationship with this software.

 

Working my way through the rolls I find keepers and am happy with them even before they hit Lightroom and then a little voice in my head says: "Hmm, wonder what the Nikon software would make of that?"

 

Next thing I have used the Nikon prog and it seems to get more out of it. Have to admit the NikonScan is faster to tweak etc.

 

Hurrumph

[stunsworth]

I think the profiles are from the old days of Photo CD, which is why they haven't been updated.

 

For b&w scans I tend to use the T-MAX 100 profile and select the development drop down list until I get something that looks ok. I also set the black and white points to low values - say .1% - to ensure there's minimal clipping when scanning. Final adjustment is then done in Photoshop using a curves layer.

 

Oh, and I scan at 16 bit greyscale.

[andym911]

IMO Vuescan belongs in the most overrated software category for me.

 

Terrible user interface and no clear advantage in speed or quality or workflow.

 

The Nikon package is more than fine once you get to grips with it and have your post processing flow sorted, same goes for Epson.

 

I know many use it but the reasons are not clear to me.

Stick with the Nikon , learn it well and you'll be fine

Good luck

Andy

[fingerprinz]

I am very pleased with the results I receive from Vuescan. I use the Generic filter and save my files in 16 bit grayscale mode. For post-processing I use Adobe Lightroom.

[MPerson]

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I found this yesterday and whilst being lengthy actually helped me improve my understanding of the process:

 

A Primer on Image Histograms & Curves

 

May help those who tread the path in the future. (Added new tags to the thread)

[erl]

I agree with Steve's assessment on VueScan.

 

Regarding the GUI. I find it's minimilistic look refreshing after so many software program clutters. A particularly attractive feature for me is that VueScan gives a huge 'scan and 'preview' image, (nearlt 75% of my total screen area) compared to any other software I have used. Of course, it has been some time since I used others, so they may have improved. Last time I used Nikon scan software, the screen images were postage stamp size!

 

Regarding VueScan's profiles. Yes, they are OOD, but the 'generic' profile say for Tmax100 coupled with your choice of Dmax is excellent for scanning. Use PS for manipulations afterwards. Both dedicated to what they do best.