VueScan, because it includes so many controls for so many scanners, can be frustrating to use sometimes, but if you follow my workflow, and refrain from experimenting too much, you’ll be okay (I think). By far, I’ve found VueScan is the most flexible and effective, and what I say below relates to its use. I’ve tried Epson Scan®, SilverFast®, and VueScan®. Software can make a big difference in user experience.

For those film images, we need to learn how to force the scanner and scanner software to do the best job possible to get all the useful information from the film. But there will always be those film images that fail miserably during scanning automatic settings and presets just can’t provide a digital image that we can process into a fine image for printing or sharing. Scanning film requires a special machine (a transparency scanner) that passes light through the film and to the scanner’s sensor, and records minute differences in density and color at millions of sampling points on the film, and records those differences in a digital file.įor some images on film, we can relay on automatic settings in scanning software to adequately read and convert the film image to an acceptable digital image. Scanning film is a necessary evil if you shoot using film cameras and want to convert the film image into digital format for proofing, sharing to the web, making a digital negative for alternative processes, or for inkjet printing. This tutorial covers how I manage my film scanning to get every bit of tonal information from a negative and avoid clipped shadows and highlights, which ensures I get great scans from my film images. “A Moment on the Nez Perce” by J Riley Stewart Why Scan Film?

Vuescan multi exposure