Silverfast SE 8 Plus output settings for BW 35mm

[robert_brown30]

<p>Hi, <br>

I recently got a Plustek 8200i and Silverlight SE 8 Plus. So far I love it, but want to make sure I'm using the correct output settings here. I'm scanning b+w and my scans are going to be used for my website. </p>

<p>I have the vendor/film type set up properly, using 16->8 bit greyscale, and am scanning as TIFF files at 3200dpi. <br>

I supposed I'm just wondering if I should have the CCR box checked in the Negafix and/or Histogram settings. <br>

Also, what's the general consensus on the Multi-exposure setting in Silverfast?<br>

Any tips/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

[gfisch9862]

<p>I do a lot of large format B&W scanning, but I use an Epson v850 scanner. However, the basic concepts are probably the same. Depending on how much processing you do after scanning, just use the 16 bit mode, not the 16->8. Save the conversion to 8-bit when you're finally ready to export the file. Do ALL of your post-processing in the 16-bit realm to avoid posterization and other issues. Yes, it take more space, and it's slower, but the results are worth it. Some of my original scans, from 4x5 negatives, are 350+ MB.<br>

Setting the film type is critical, but I always uncheck the CCR box for B&W, but do use it for color.<br>

Almost all of my original negatives fit within the normal range (as seen in the histogram), but I find that using the multi-exposure mode seems to smooth things out nicely, so I just leave it on by default. Again, it takes twice as long to scan, so you have to decide if it's worth it for you.</p>

[robert_brown30]

<p>Thanks for the help, Greg!<br /> I just now read your response, so I haven't had a chance to try the 16->1 bit. I've been posting mostly on Instagram for a couple years (handle: streetfluff) but have a friend building a site for me. I'm going to need to go back and rescan a bunch of negatives that were originally scanned with my ancient Epson 4490 flatbed. I am running into a couple of problems, however. When I scan a b&w negative with (what I believe) are the appropriate settings, the scans come out looking pretty decent. Sometimes Multi-exposure makes the images look worse; sometimes better. Anyway, I'm scanning the negs as 3600 TIFs since any prints I make are in the darkroom, then in Lightroom I'm cropping the excess around the image (which is never perfectly straight, forcing me to crop bits of the image), and doing light spotting as needed with the healing tool. However, when I export from lightroom, I seem to lose A LOT of grain and sharpness. Sorry if I'm not making a ton of sense here. I'm not looking into doing a ton of work in post. I just want to take pictures, scan them properly, and make sure they look great on my website. Thanks so much in advance.<br /> Attached are screen grabs of my SL/LR settings and an exported image from LR that lost quite a bit of sharpness.<img src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/707c22279c4fd6310cd87c2feaba2f91/tumblr_o8ku5rjmCP1taui2so5_1280.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="863" /><img src="https://67.media.tumblr.com/d500cd45c82ee031d86043e0c12dec1c/tumblr_o8ku5rjmCP1taui2so1_1280.png" alt="" width="1280" height="800" /></p>

<p><img src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/61316274692b6516fb79e4df6a202edd/tumblr_o8ku5rjmCP1taui2so2_1280.png" alt="" width="1280" height="800" /><img src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/c4e01ac77352f4c74141178d88e83e0d/tumblr_o8ku5rjmCP1taui2so3_1280.png" alt="" width="1280" height="800" /><img src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/9b0c656fde1c2aa24e524301376de290/tumblr_o8ku5rjmCP1taui2so4_1280.png" alt="" width="1280" height="800" /></p>