[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 951]

Film and Photo Digitizing

on: February 13, 2021 at 3:09 pm

This very well-received ebook was sold from the LaserSoft Imaging website from 2012 until mid-December 2020, when the company abruptly discontinued it, corresponding with their launch of SilverFast 9 and a new ebook expressly for SilverFast 9 written by the owner of the company. As I received no notice of intent to discontinue it, I had to make alternative arrangements for offering it thereafter. Those arrangements are now in place and I am pleased to announce that the book is once again available, now in the PhotoPXL Store at a reduced price of USD 29.95. You may access it here: https://photopxl.com/product/scanning-workflows-with-silverfast-8-silverfast-hdr/

I reduced the price (from USD 39.95) because there may be differences between SilverFast 9 and SilverFast 8 which this book does not cover. That said, I fully expect that much of the content remains generally relevant, and in particular the meticulous treatment of alternative workflows for integrating SilverFast scanning with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, including the implications for colour management settings and what tasks are optimally performed “where and when” in the workflows.

I was of the view from the outset that SilverFast need not be a universe unto itself but should be seen and leveraged in the broader context of other prominent image-editing software that adds value and options to scanning outcomes. This philosophy has proven to be both effective and appreciated in the market.

The Table of Contents (Index) is a free download from the book’s page in the PXL Store and provides a comprehensive overview of the book’s coverage.

Best regards,

Mark

[Eric Olsson Participant Posts: 2]

Re: It’s back!! Mark Segal’s acclaimed book on Scanning with SilverFast 8……

Reply #1 on: December 27, 2021 at 7:58 pm

Hey Mark, I bought this book a few years ago when I started a family slide/photo scanning project that I had to shelve for a while. I’m getting back into that now and very recently upgraded to SilverFast 9, and bought the CEO’s new book while I was at it. It’s as comprehensive as it is cumbersome to get through, so I’m happy I also own yours and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to get started with this complex and powerful software. In my opinion your book is a must for any amateur who has the time and wants to get great results from SilverFast.

I’m posting here first to give you the outstanding review you deserve for your work, and second to ask if you have any plans to publish a new edition or maybe supplement to cover new features in SilverFast 9. I’ll be first in line to buy either.

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 951]

Re: It’s back!! Mark Segal’s acclaimed book on Scanning with SilverFast 8……

Reply #2 on: December 27, 2021 at 9:15 pm

Hello Eric,

Many thanks for taking the trouble to write in, and needless to say I much appreciate your commendation of my book. You are only the second person I know of who has upgraded to SilverFast 9 (of course there must be quite a few but I just don’t know of them) and you are the first I know of to have bought Mr. Zahorsky’s book. I shall be doing neither because I am shifting my technical paradigm from scanners to camera-based film digitizing which dispenses with any scanning software. I shall be writing extensively on that subject for this website a bit down the road. So the short answer to your question is “no”, I shall not be using SilverFast 9, nor will I be updating the book for it.

That said, as you get into it, I – and perhaps others – would be naturally interested to hear from you about the ways SilverFast 9 improves upon SilverFast 8 and from a user perspective the merits of the accompanying book.

I kind of surmise that the SilverFast 9 book does not delve into the kind of SilverFast + Lightroom and/or + Photoshop integrated workflows that were a particularly important and appreciated feature of my book. But you can let us know perhaps whether what I surmise is factual or not.

Best Regards and have a happy holiday season,

Mark

[Eric Olsson Participant Posts: 2]

Re: It’s back!! Mark Segal’s acclaimed book on Scanning with SilverFast 8……

Reply #3 on: July 8, 2024 at 9:47 am

Hi Mark,

Sorry for the long delay in responding but I’m finally able to devote significant time to my slide scanning project. To answer your questions, I’m actually not aware offhand of the differences between Silverfast 8 and Silverfast 9. My copy of Silverfast 8 came with one of my scanners and so was one of the more limited versions (SE or SE Plus), and once I realized that the Archive Suite would suit my needs much better, Silverfast 9 was already out, so I waited for a sale and bought it then.

Mr. Zahorsky’s book does not get into workflows covering software from other companies, but he has his hands full covering the features of Silverfast and Silverfast HDR. But even within the Silverfast product line your book does a better job of giving a big-picture view of how to do high-quality scans of large numbers of photos, so I’m happy to have both. For a hobbyist new to the field there’s a lot to learn.

Eric

[Christopher Sanderson Gold Member Posts: 362]

Re: It’s back!! Mark Segal’s acclaimed book on Scanning with SilverFast 8……

Reply #4 on: July 8, 2024 at 5:14 pm

From personal experience: Mark Segal’s book provides a huge head-start for anyone new to scanning and I found SF 9 to be a very worthwhile upgrade.

[Author]

Posts