Hello, newbie here! Fuji Gs245s questions

Ysarex · May 30, 2016

meow7 said:
It's an Epson V550, the negatives are very sharp, scans not so much.

I know this may sound a bit odd, but are you following the scanner instructions? If so you need to stop that. Epson's instructions have you placing the film on the scanner emulsion up so that you scan through the film base. (I don't know why and I haven't asked them, but it's stupid.) Place the film emulsion down on the scanner and then just flip the scan when you get it into PS.

The Epson scan software is OK, but not the greatest. If you're going to do a lot of scanning you could look into either VueScan or SilverFast as more convenient and more featured, but you can make the Epson software work.

Try scanning at 2400 PPI and then reducing in PS as needed. Also avoid the Epson software USM sharpening -- better off sharpening in PS.

Joe

meow7 · May 30, 2016

Yeah, I was scanning with the emulsion side up. I'll definitely do it with the emulsion side down next time. I did download the Silverfast 8 trial, but I actually liked the Epson better now that I have used the Silverfast, the Silverfast had lots

of stuff that can actually make the image worse, if you mess it up. But, I'll keep playing with it. I figure any real adjustments can be made in LR or PS, not in the scan software. The last few scans I've done at 2400.

meow7 · May 31, 2016

So I gave Vuescan a try and it seems to be ok, better than Silverfast, at least for me. Less expensive, plus when dealing with a not top of the line scanner, the software might be negligible... And I scanned emulsion side down. This one is straight from scanner, no PS or LR, not too bad, needs some PP though. I need to ban the cats from my office, there is a hair... or two!
Thanks so much for the input and suggestions! I'm really liking this camera so far, I'd love to see the images printed in the darkroom, getting there, that's next. I like to challenge myself with steepish learning curves.

Happy shooting.

Ysarex · May 31, 2016

meow7 said:
So I gave Vuescan a try and it seems to be ok, better than Silverfast, at least for me. Less expensive, plus when dealing with a not top of the line scanner, the software might be negligible... And I scanned emulsion side down. This one is straight from scanner, no PS or LR, not too bad, needs some PP though. I need to ban the cats from my office, there is a hair... or two!
Thanks so much for the input and suggestions! I'm really liking this camera so far, I'd love to see the images printed in the darkroom, getting there, that's next. I like to challenge myself with steepish learning curves.

Happy shooting.
View attachment 122532

I'm happy using the Epson software with their scanners -- not a big deal. Make sure you also scan at 16 bit versus 8 bit and treat the scan process like a digital camera capture process; goal is to get as much tonal data as possible in the scan and then further process in PS.

Joe