Vuescan Batch Scan

VueScan is a scanning program that works with most high-quality flatbed and film scanners to produce scans that have color fidelity and color balance. Batch scanning and other features used. The simplest thing is to set the focus point X/Y midway between an edge and the center of the transparency, to 'split the difference' on a 'cupped' slide. Then (in the 'Input' tab) set 'Auto focus' to 'Scan', and 'Batch scan' to 'All'. You can do most things in VueScan by simply pressing the Scan button(p. You can also see more options using Input Options(p. 51) and you can choose additional options before pressing the Preview button(p. 48) or Scan button(p. VueScan is easy to use and has neat processing features such as the ability to restore faded colors, undertake batch scanning and also perform other image adjustments. The application’s interface is easy to navigate with a main window showing Preview and Scan tabs and a left-hand navigation and control panel tabbed for Input, Crop, Filter.

Batch Scan With Vuescan
Vuescan Scanner Software
Vuescan Batch Scan
Vuescan Batch Scanning
How To Scan With Vuescan
Vuescan Scanner Software Free License

For Negative Lab Pro to work properly, it’s important that you have good, evenly-lit, properly-exposed scans of your negative film. The input must be good for the output to be good.

Digital Camera Scanning
Vuescan RAW DNGs
Silverfast RAW DNGs
Basic TIFF Scans

Digital Camera Scanning

Vuescan CANNOT batch scan with the LS-8000. Even when you are scanning frame by frame, it's necessary to correctly set the frame offset and spacing values because Vuescan cannot automatically detect frames. Try these values (for 6x6, three-frame strip) to see if they work. Frame 1/Frame 2/Frame 3.

Scanning your film negatives with a digital camera can be an incredibly rewarding – or incredibly frustrating – process, largely depending on your setup and know-how.

While DSLR (or Mirrorless) film scanning holds many promising results – like RAW capture, faster capture times, and sharpness that rivals $10,000+ drum scanners – there are many potential stumbling blocks along the way that could prevent you from getting the results you want from your film negatives.

Equipment

Having the right equipment plays a key role in getting great results with digital camera scans! There are 4 basics components to a good DSLR film scanning setup…

1. LENS

The lens is an incredibly important part of the DSLR/Mirrorless scanning process. Not only will a good macro lens produce great edge-to-edge sharpness of your negative scan, but it will also prevent some of the most common issues with DSLR scanning, like orange blotches resulting from lens flare during capture.

Use a modern macro lens if possible. Not only will a modern macro lens produce sharper results, but the newer AR coatings decrease the chance of lens flare during capture (lens flare can lead to strange colors and casts).
Use a “native” lens if possible (and avoid adaptors and tubes). Every adaptor or tube adds to the likelihood of light variances that will throw off the color (which may not be visible during capture, but will be amplified by the conversion). Adaptors can also throw off lens corrections that are performed later in software.
Longer focal lengths are preferable to shorter focal lengths. They allow you to keep the lens further from the negative, thus reducing the likelihood of lens reflections.

2. LIGHT SOURCE

The colors from your DSLR scan will only be as good as the light source that you use. Poor light sources will not be able to bring out the rich, natural colors in your negative. Poor light sources can also cause uneven lighting in your scan, which not only throws off the tonal balance, but will create uneven color reproduction.

Look for a light with a high CRI (Color Rendering Index) of at least 90+. If the manufacturer does not list the CRI, it is a warning sign that it is not a good light source for DSLR film scanning.
Look for an even lighting source - high-quality light pads made specifically for camera scanning should provide even illumination. If you are using a pixelated source (like an iPad) you’ll need to raise the film higher off the surface or use a diffuser (like opalized glass) to even out the light. If you are using a flash as a light source, special care will need to be taken to ensure even diffused light.
It’s generally recommended to use a daylight balanced light source with a temperature of 5000°K or 5500°K - you certainly don’t want your light to be any warmer than this!

See recommended light sources for more.

3. TRIPOD / COPY-STAND

You’ll need a way to keep your camera stationary and in plane with your film. You’ll want to look for a solution that is easy to finely adjust, as well as being sturdy enough to remain fixed in place for an entire session of film digitization.

A sturdy copy-stand with an adjustable height is the ideal solution. They are significantly easier to adjust than a tripod, are more stable, and more ergonomic to use while sitting at your desk.
In a pinch, you can use a traditional tripod. The sturdiest way to use a tripod is to invert the center column and shoot straight down.
An alternative to copy-stands and tripods is using a bellows or digitization adaptor (see this example). The advantage of this setup is that it keeps everything in plane and stray light out. The disadvantage is that this method is not as flexible for working with different film formats, or switching between lenses.

4. FILM HOLDERS/CARRIERS

Now that you have a lens, light source and stand, you need a way to safely elevate and transport your film for each shot. The important considerations are 1) film flatness, 2) speed, 3) limiting contact with film.

Use a film carrier that elevates the film off the surface of your light pad. Placing the film directly on the light table can lead to newton-rings, and will exacerbate any small variances in light.
Flatness is crucial to getting edge-to-edge sharpness across the entire frame - the depth of field of macro lenses is incredibly sensitive, so look for a film holder/carrier that has built-in mechanisms to keep the film flat.

AVOIDING DUST

One of the most annoying aspects of digital camera scanning is the need to remove dust. Unlike traditional film scanners, there is no separate IR channel capture with digital cameras, making IR dust removal not possible. The best solution is to prevent dust from being on your film in the first place!

Wear lint-free gloves whenever handling film - this will prevent oil from your skin and finger-print smudges from getting on the film.
Use a “rocket blaster” or anti-static dust removing brush directly prior to scanning. Since camera scanning doesn’t have IR dust removal, it will save you a lot of time to avoid dust in the first place. If using a rocket blaster, be sure to blast across both sides of the film, and blow the dust off the film rather than just pushing the dust to another part of the film.

CAPTURE PROCESS & SETTINGS

Now that you have all your equipment together, it’s time to check your setup! A proper setup is crucial, because even with great equipment, a small mistake in your setup can lead to frustrating results.

The basic setup process looks like this:

Make sure to mask at ALL the stray light from your light source. It doesn’t need to be fancy. Some dark construction paper with a mask cut out will do. This includes masking out the light that is passing through sprocket holes, although you may be able to get away with it if you have a modern macro lens setup.
Use a mirror to get the camera perfectly parallel to the film - place the mirror on the surface of the light pad. Then align your camera so that the reflection of the lens is exactly centered. See example of using mirror for alignment here.
Turn off all the lights in the room before capture.
Use your lens hood if you have one - to reduce flare potential.
Take off any lens filters (like UV filters), as this can be a source of unwanted reflections.
Shoot with the emulsion (matte) side of film facing towards the camera if you can (it’s less reflective and less likely to catch the light reflecting back from your camera/lens). You can then just flip the image during editing later.
Use a remote trigger or camera countdown timer during capture. The vibration caused by pressing the shutter button can cause blur in the capture.

Once you’re all set up, it’s important to consider the camera settings you use for capture.

CAMERA SETTINGS:

Shoot RAW - You don’t want to capture as a TIFF or JPEG because these will have a lot of settings built in that are intended for regular digital positive capture (and will result in distorted colors and tones when you invert the negative).
ISO: Set to your camera’s base ISO. This will vary a bit by camera, but is usually 100 or 200 ISO.
APERTURE: Set to f/8.0. This will minimize lens vignetting. Any lens vignetting that occurs during capture will be reversed during the inversion of the negative. It can also throw off the color balance along the outer edges of the capture.
SHUTTER SPEED: Set to your camera meter’s recommendation, or 1-stop higher - You may find some small improvements by exposing about 1-stop higher than your camera recommends, as this will result in slightly more “levels” of information being captured from the denser parts of the negative (You can read more about “exposing to the right” here).
Keep the SAME exposure for the entire roll. This will cut down on variance during processing. Beware auto exposure, as the small settings changes throughout the roll will create unwanted variance.
White Balance - since you are capturing RAW, the white balance won’t matter at this stage.
If your camera supports it, use “focus peaking” with LiveView and focus manually - otherwise, use AutoFocus on each shot. With focus peaking, you should be able to see that the film grain is in focus. If your camera does not have focus peaking and liveview, set it to AutoFocus, but be aware that there could be variations in your sharpness from frame to frame.

That’s it for camera scanning best practices! There certainly is more work necessary to get everything set up properly with a camera setup, but once you do, the workflow is much faster than a traditional scanner, and the results can be incredible.

Want RAW digital camera “scans” to play around with? You can download my DSLR scans here.

Vuescan RAW DNGs

Both Vuescan and Silverfast are capable of creating RAW DNG files. Negative Lab Pro includes unique RAW Profiles made just for these type of files.

These RAW DNGs are generally better to use (vs regular tiff files) for a number of reasons:

It gives us better control over how the orange mask is neutralized. The reason for this is that the raw profile can act directly on the linear data in XYZ color space. Basically, this allows us to control how the white balance “color multipliers” are applied, which means better colors in the inverted Negative Scan.
They are more versatile for future updates. Already there have been a few generations of improvements to the profiles.
They are easier to create consistently. For instance, you don’t have to worry about color profiles.

The process for creating a RAW DNG file in Vuescan is as follows:

1. Set Vuescan Input Settings

If using a flatbed scanner, set the mode to “transparency”. If using a dedicated film scanner, use whatever mode is listed.
Set “Media” to “Image”
Preview the image if you haven’t already done so
Crop to show the exposed image (and a small amount of the film border if possible), then hit the “lock exposure” button. NOTE: You should only need to lock exposure once per roll. The reason for doing this is you want a consistent exposure for all your scans. Otherwise, small variances in auto-exposure could create issues later, particularly if using the “sync scene” function of Negative Lab Pro.

2. Set Vuescan Filter Settings

If you’d like to (and your scanner is capable of it), you can include infrared cleaning in your RAW DNG file. You can also set grain reduction. Other settings will not have an impact on your RAW DNG.

3. Set Vuescan Output Settings

Make sure “Raw file” is the only file type selected
Set the “Raw file type” to 48 bit RGB (do this even if your image is black and white)
Set “Raw output with” to “Save” (this will allow for IR cleaning to work, if you’ve enabled it)
Select “Raw DNG format”

NOTE: Do NOT set the raw file type to 64 bit RGBi - Lightroom won’t be able to interpret the 16-bit IR channel. Because you have “RAW Output with” set to “Save”, the 48bit RGB output will already include the dust removal from Vuescan.

Converting and editing your RAW DNG in Lightroom with Negative Lab Pro

[UPDATE: The process has been amended as of v2.1 of Negative Lab Pro to incorporate the advanced profiles and compatibility.]

Import your RAW DNG file into Lightroom.
After import, select all the files, and go to “file > plugin-in extras > Update Vuescan/Silverfast DNGs” - then follow any instructions it gives you. (This step ensures compatibility, and may not be necessary for all users depending on your scanner model, but is recommended).
If step 2 has gone correctly, you should see the profile in Lightroom showing as “Negative Lab v2.1”, and there should NOT be any kind of profile warnings.
Use the white balance tool in Lightroom and sample off the film border. (Alternatively, you can use the “auto” WB setting in Lightroom, which is useful when there is no film border showing.
Crop your image to crop out the film borders (or use the “Border Buffer” setting in Negative Lab Pro to ensure the film borders are not included in the image evaluation.
Open Negative Lab Pro, and set the “Input” to “Vuescan/SF RAW DNG”.
Go ahead and set your other pre-conversion settings in Negative Lab Pro and hit “Convert”. Then continue to edit using Negative Lab Pro’s settings.

Silverfast RAW DNGs

The recommended workflow for Silverfast is to scan as 48-bit HDR DNGs. This will enable us to use special, dual-illuminant profiles in Lightroom made just for SilverFast negative conversions, and not have to worry about gamma conversions.

Set SilverFast to scan in “positive” mode (so that it doesn’t invert your negative).
Scan as “48-bit HDR” and save as DNG file (depending on your version, this may be done different ways… at least in SF 8.8, I believe you need to go to preferences and check “HDR raw”).

Basic TIFF Scans

The directions for proper TIFF scans will vary a bit by scanning software, but here are some tips to keep in mind.

General Scan Instructions:

Scan at gamma 1.8 or 2.2. – If you scan at gamma 1.0, you will need to use the “Tiff Prep Utility” to prepare the tiff for use in Lightroom).
Scan as 48bit TIFF (i.e. 16-bit per channel) – You’ll need that bit-depth when we go to edit.
Scan as if it were a Positive Image – Most scanning software will give you the option to scan in “negative” mode, or just scan a regular image. You want to tell the software that this is just a regular image, so that it doesn’t try to do the inversion itself.
Turn off any color adjustments – You want to have a pure representation of the data in your scan.

I’ve also made some more detailed instructions for working with a few different kinds of scanning software:

Input tab

This tab contains the options that control the inputs toVueScan from scanners, raw scan files and digital camera files.

Input | Options

Use this to indicate whether you want to see a simplifiedsubset of the options ('Basic options'), or all the commonly-usedoptions ('Standard options') or all the more advanced options('Professional options');

Basic Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Task

Use this option to indicate the task you're performing. Choose from 'Scan to file', 'Copy to printer', 'Profile scanner','Profile printer', 'Profile film' and 'Make IT8 target'.

A brief reminder of how to do each task is displayed in thelower left corner of the window.

Professional Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Source

If you've got more than one scanner on your system, this lets you specify which scanner you want to use.

A special 'scan from' source is from a disk file. On the Output tab, VueScan provides a special option to save the raw output of a regularscan to a file. This option lets you read that raw file as though you were scanning it.

If you set this option to 'File', then you'll be able to enter afile name in the Input | Files option. The name can bea TIFF file from a previous scan, a JPEG or TIFF file from a digitalcamera, or a raw file from a digital camera.The name can't be a PDF file.

Basic Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Files

Specify the name of an image file that VueScanwill read when you set the 'Source' option to 'File'. Usually thisis a raw scan file you created with VueScan or a file from a digital camera.

Disk files can be scanned just like a normal scanner. TheInput | Preview resolution and Input | Scan resolutionoptions work just as you'd expect, so do the preview and crop options.

Disk files can be TIFF, JPEG, or raw files from digital cameras.These files are typically the output of a raw scan, but they canbe any valid JPEG, TIFF or raw digital camera file.

Batch Scan With Vuescan

You can also use the file dialog (press the '@' button) to selectmultiple files, or you can separate multiple file names with a semicolon.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when Input | Source is set to 'File'.

Input | Mode

Use this option to specify the type of scan you wantto make. This is automatically sensed on some scanners, butyou may need to set it manually on others.

VueScan uses this option for two things:

1) To indirectly indicate whether the scan data comes from reflectivemedia or transmissive media. Input | Media will be automatically set to the most recent setting for the selected mode.

2) To indicate the color space of the scan data (i.e. the colorcharacteristics of the CCD and light that exposed it)

Basic Option: This option is displayed when the scanner has more than onemode and the scanner mode can't be sensed by VueScan.

Input | Light box width

Use this option to specify the width of the light box that's placed on the glass.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when using Light box mode.

Input | Light box height

Use this option to specify the height of the light box that's placed on the glass.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when using Light box mode.

Input | Media

There are two lists of media, dependingon whether you're scanning paper (reflective media) or film(transmissive media).

Reflective media

When scanning paper, Input | Media is used to control whetherthe final image is color or black/white, continuous tone (photo), or bi-level (text).

When Filter | Descreen is set, adescreen filter will be applied. You can control the strength ofthe descreen filter with the Filter | Descreen dpi option.

Transmissive media

When scanning film, this option indicates whether you're using positivefilm (i.e. slides), color negative, or black/white negative film.This option causes the default film type to be changed, but also setsup the scanner for scanning orange-colored media (i.e. color negatives)by exposing the green and blue channels more than the red channel.

If you choose 'Image', no film correction isapplied, so the cropped file will be comparable to the image on the film. If you select 'Negative film' or 'Slide film',the cropped image will be comparable to the original scene thatwas photographed. When you use either film option, theColor tab then lets you choose the film manufacturer, the brand, and film type to enable VueScan to refine the result further.

The difference between 'Image' and 'Slide film' is subtle. If youtake the same picture with Kodachrome and Ektachromefilm and then scan them with the 'Slide film' setting, VueScan will tryto make the resulting scan look the same (i.e. to resemble theoriginal scene). Use the 'Image' setting and the resultingscans will look different to reflect the differingcolor characteristics of Kodachrome and Ektachrome film.

If you then took the same picture with Kodak Goldcolor negative film and scanned it using the 'Negative film'setting, the resulting scan should look close to what you would get from using the 'Slide film' setting and scanning theKodachrome and Ektachrome slides (i.e. all three should looklike the original scene).

VueScan contains sensitometric data for 200 types of negative film and 4 types of slide film. If you've got something different,choose Kodachrome for K14 process slides, and Ektachrome for E6 slides.

Basic Option: This option is always displayed except whenInput | Bits per pixel is set to 1.

Input | Microfilm zoom

This option is displayed when scanning microfilm ormicrofiche. It indicates how much you need to zoom torestore the microfilm/microfiche image to it's originalsize. Most microfilm uses a zoom value from 8 to 14.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when scanningtransparent media and Input | Media is set to 'Microfilm'.

Input | Media size

This option is used with flatbed scanners to specify thesize of the reflective media you're scanning.

If set to 'Auto', the full size of the flatbed will be previewed andthe location and size of the media automatically determined. Thescanner will stop scanning when VueScan detects that it has scannedthe whole document, photo or receipt that's on the glass.

If a specific size is chosen, no preview is necessary when youpress the Scan button. This will save a significant amount of time.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when using reflective media(i.e. paper).

Input | Paper width

When media size is set to Custom with reflective media,this option is used to specify the width of the paper.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when using reflective media(i.e. paper) and Custom media size.

Input | Paper height

When media size is set to Custom with reflective media,this option is used to specify the height of the paper.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when using reflective media(i.e. paper) and Custom media size.

Input | Bits per pixel

This option specifies how many bits per pixelare read from the scanner. The more bits that are read,the higher quality the image, but the slower the transfer speed atfull resolution. If you specify a value that the scanner isn'tcapable of, the closest valid option is used instead.

Scanning at 24-bit resolution can add gaps to the finalimage histogram (compared to 48-bit resolution), but it canalso speed up scanning with some scanners and often the endresult is virtually indistinguishable from 48-bit scans.

If this option is set to 'Auto', the Input | Mediaoption controls the number of bits per pixel and samples perpixel used in a scan.

Professional Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Make gray from

This option specifies how to make the gray color fromthe scanner's red, green, blue and infrared sensors.

The default, 'Auto', either uses the scanner hardwareto convert from the color CCD to gray, or converts inVueScan, mostly from the green channel.

Otherwise, the gray color is taken from either thered, green, blue or infrared channels. Using the redor infrared channel can be useful when scanning older,degraded black/white negatives that are silver based.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when scanningwith 8-bit or 16-bit gray.

Input | Batch scan

If you set this option to 'All',pressing either the Preview or Scan button will preview or scanall the frames in the scanner. By setting it to 'List',you can specify a list of frames to preview or scan.

If you set this option to 'Auto' and you're using the Crop | Multi cropoption, VueScan will automatically detect the list of frames that arevisible in the preview.

Note that you can change this to 'Off' during a long-runningbatch scan, this will then stop scanning when the current frameis completed (this is a better way to stop than by pressing the Cancel buttonbutton, as this will leave files half-written).

Batch scanning also works when scanning from disk files. In thiscase, the 'All' option refers to all disk files named using a series of numbers (e.g. scan0001.tif, scan0002.tif, etc.). Ifthe 'scan0001.tif' file in the series is specified as Input | Files, the Input | Frame number will causeVueScan to reference the file with the same number.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when the scanneris capable of batch scanning or when you set Crop | Multi crop.

Input | Batch list

You can specify multiple frames by selecting multipleframe numbers, or a range of frames like '1-3', or acombination of both (i.e. '1,3,5-7' causes frames 1,3,5,6,7 to be scanned).

You can also add an additional rotation to any frame or range of framesby putting a letter along with each frame number. Use 'N' for no rotation, 'L' for left, 'F' for flip, 'R' for right, and 'D' for default rotation.The letters may be in upper or lower case.

For example, adding '3r' to the batch list meansscan frame 3 and rotate it 90 degrees to the right, '2L' says toscan frame 2 and rotate it 90 degrees to the left, '1F,2L,4R' saysto scan frame 1 flipped, frame 2 rotated to the left, and frame 4rotated to the right. If no letter is specified (or if 'D' is used),then the last rotation setting in the batch list will applyfor all subsequent frames.

Using Batch list, you can also preview a group of images in one step, rotate and crop each previewed frame, and then scan all theframes in the batch. The process is:

Specify the batch list. For example, specify '1-6' to specify 6 frames in a film holder.
Preview the batch. All six frames will be previewed.
Change Input | Frame number to view each previewed frame.Adjust rotation and cropping for the frame. When done, move tothe next frame.
Scan the batch. VueScan will create a series of croppedfiles (e.g. 'crop0001.tif', 'crop0002.tif' ... 'crop0006.tif').

Basic Option: This option is displayed when Input | Batch scanis set to 'List'.

Input | Frame number

If you have a film scanner that canmove the film holder, you can use this option to selectwhich slide or negative frame you want to scan. Thisoption will only be displayed if your scanner supports it.

There are several advanced uses of Input | Frame number to consider when setting Input | Source to 'File' or using theCrop | Multi crop option.

When scanning from disk files, VueScan will consider anumber at the end of the Input | Files as the startingpoint in a series, and Input | Frame number to reference a filerelative to that starting point. So if you have scanned a whole roll of film and have raw files 'scan0001.tif' through 'scan0030.tif' you may specify 'scan0001.tif' as Input | Files, and then use Frame number to work on different scanned files as though they were frames.Frame number 18 would then use the disk file 'scan0018.tif' as the source when you press Preview or Scan.

Frame number may also be used if you have set up Crop | Multi crop.Frames are counted from top to bottom, then left to right.

Basic Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas hardware that supports this, or when using Crop | Multi crop.

Input | Frame offset

This option sets an offset for thestart of the each frame on a film strip on the Nikon LS-30, LS-40,LS-2000, LS-4000, LS-8000, LS-9000 scanners, the Canon FS4000 when thestrip film adapter is used, and the SprintScan 120 when theMedium Format adapter is used.

Use this option if there is some leader on the film strip,or if you're scanning panoramic frames and need to scan whatwould otherwise be the gap between 35mm frames. This optioncan be either a positive or negative number.

The units for this option are normally millimeters, but thiscan be changed with the Prefs | Crop units option.

Standard Option: This option is displayed when thescanner is capable of frame offsets.

Input | Frame spacing

This option sets the spacing betweenframes for some film scanners that support this in hardware.It is not available for most film scanners or flatbed scanners.This is the distance between the starting positions of twoconsecutive frames.

The units for this option are normally in millimeters, but thiscan be changed with the Prefs | Crop units option.

Standard Option: This option is displayed when the scanneris capable of frame spacing.

Input | Preview resolution

Use this option to specify the resolutionthe scanner will use when performing the preview scan.

If set to 'Auto', a resolution will be chosen that results in apreview with roughly one million pixels. The exact number of pixelsdepends on the resolutions your scanner is able to produce.

If set to 'Custom', the resolution is selected by theInput | Preview dpi option.

You can also select a specific preview resolution from the list.

Lower resolutions may take less time to scan, and willuse less memory. The preview resolution needs only to be enoughfor you to determine appropriate cropping, filter settings, color settings and so on; the result of the final scan is determinedby Scan resolution and other settings, not Preview resolution.

Standard Option: This option is displayed when thescanner is capable of scanning the same paper or film multiple timesand when Input | Scan from preview is turned off.

Input | Preview dpi

If Input | Preview resolution is set to 'Custom', the scanner willuse a hardware-supported resolution that is greater than, or equal to,this value. VueScan will rescale the image to the requested resolution.

Note that this uses simple rescaling, so ifquality is an issue, you should use an external image editorto rescale the image.

Standard Option: This option is displayed whenInput | Preview resolution is set to 'Custom'.

Input | Scan resolution

Use this option to specify the resolutionthe scanner will use when performing the final scan.

If set to 'Auto', a resolution will be chosen based on whether it'sa reflective scan or a film scan. The exact number of pixels depends on the resolutions your scanner is able to produce -- the number ofpixels is displayed in the status area of the VueScan window.

If set to 'Custom', the resolution is selected by theInput | Scan dpi option.

You can also select a specific scan resolution from the list.

Standard Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Scan dpi

If Input | Scan resolution is set to 'Custom', the scanner willuse a hardware-supported resolution that is greater than or equal tothis value. VueScan will rescale the image to the requested resolution.

Vuescan Scanner Software

Note that this uses simple rescaling, so ifquality is an issue, you should use an external image editorto rescale the image.

Standard Option: This option is displayed whenInput | Scan resolution is set to 'Custom'.

Input | Auto rotate

VueScan will detect the orientation of text images when the media typeis set to Text, Color text or Microfilm. When the image is scanned, thisoption causes the image to be analyzed and the page is rotated to beupright.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when scanning Text, Color text or Microfilm.

Input | Auto flip

If this option is set, the page orientation is flipped every time animage is saved. This is to allow easier scanning of books and magazines.

Professional Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Rotation

This option describes the orientation of the imagesin the Preview and Scan tabs and in TIFF, JPEG, PDF, Index and Raw files.This is relative to the unrotated image that comes from the scanner.

Don't have much memory on your system? Set this option to 'None' androtate the image later with an image viewer - this will make the croppingfaster. Using 'Right' rotates 90 degrees clockwise, using'Flip' rotates 180 degrees, and using 'Left' rotates 90 degreescounterclockwise.

Note that rotation happens after mirroring.

Standard Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Auto skew

Use this option to automatically compute the skew anglefor images that aren't quite straight.

Professional Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Skew

Use this option to rotate the image by a small angle to correctfor images that aren't quite straight. The angle is specifiedin degrees, plus or minus two degrees.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when auto skew isn't enabled.

Input | Mirror

This option mirrors images left/right before rotating.This lets you position your film emulsion side up or down.

Standard Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Auto focus

Set this option to enable a focus beforedoing a preview or scan (or both). The scanner will focus onthe point specified by Crop | Focus X/Y offset. This locationis visually represented by an animated cross-hair in the Preview tab after a preview scan is created.

Set to 'Preview' so that focus will only be done once if the scan is to be created directly after the preview. Otherwise, set to 'Always'or to ensure the most accurate focus (as in some cases the heat generated by the preview can cause the media to bend).

If you have locked exposure and turned off auto-cropping (see'Advanced Workflow Suggestions') no preview will be performed.In this case, you must focus at scan time, so either 'Scan' or'Both' will ensure focusing.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner is capable of auto focus.

Input | Focus

Set this option to a value between -1 and 1 tomanually change the device focus. The nominal value for mostscanners is 0.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner is capable of auto focus and when Input | Auto focusis set to 'Manual'.

Input | Auto scan

If this option is set to 'Preview' or'Scan' and if the scanner can sense when an image isinserted, VueScan will simulate pressing either the Preview button orScan button when an image is inserted.

This option is reset to 'None' if you press the Cancel button

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner can sense inserted media or when the scanner iscapable of addressing frames separately.

Input | Auto save

If this option is set to 'Preview' or'Scan', VueScan will save files after a preview or scan iscompleted. If set to 'None' files will be saved onlyafter pressing the Save button.

In most cases, this option should be set to 'Scan'.

Professional Option: This option is displayed whenTIFF, JPEG, PDF, OCR Text, Index or Raw files are being saved.

Input | Auto print

If this option is set to 'Preview' or'Scan', VueScan will print after a preview or scanis completed. If set to 'None' scans will be printed onlywhen you choose the 'File | Print image' command.

In most cases, this option should be set to 'Scan'.

Professional Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Auto lamp off

This option controls when the lamp in the scanner isturned on and off. It is only displayed when a scannerthat is capable of controlling the lampindependently from the scan is selected.

When 'None' is selected, the lamp is turned on at thestart of a scan and is never turned off.

When 'Always' is selected, the lamp is turned off at theend of a scan and turned off when VueScan exits.

When '5 minutes' is selected, the lamp is turned onwhen VueScan starts, turned off when VueScan exits,and turned off 5 minutes after the end of a scan.

When 'Exit' is selected, the lamp is turned on whenVueScan starts and turned off when VueScan exits.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner's lamp can be controlled.

Input | Auto eject

This option controls when the media is ejected(assuming the scanner is capable of ejecting media). It can beejected after a preview, or a scan, or when VueScan exits.

The media can be ejected manually with the'Scanner | Eject' command.

When Input | Batch scan is set, ejection will occur afterthe batch is complete.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner hardware can eject the media.

Input | Auto repeat

This option will simulate repeatedly pressing theScan button after a time delay.

Professional Option: This option is always displayed.

Input | Number of samples

This option is available for scanners thatsupport multi-sampling. As the scanner head passes over the media itmakes multiple exposures for each location. The results for all samplesare averaged.

This is a useful feature because any one exposure may be inaccurate, resulting in noise in the output. Noise will appear as one pixel whose color or tone is different than surrounding pixels. By taking multiple samples and averaging the results, the effect of inaccurate exposure is reduced.

This option will slow down scanning because the scanner is doing more.You should experiment with your scanner to see which balance of speedand accuracy is appropriate.

Number of samples is similar to Number of passes. Multi-sampling is preferable as the scanner head is positioned once, which ensures that the same area will be exposed for each sample. Multi-sampling isavailable only on a limited number of scanners.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner is capable of multi-sampling.

Input | Number of passes

This option provides a similar function as theNumber of samples option, but does not require the scanner to providehardware support for multi-sampling. Each pass causes a full scan. After all passes are complete, the results are averaged, and the averageis saved.

This is a useful feature because any one exposure may be inaccurate,resulting in noise in the output. Noise will appear as one pixel whosecolor or tone is different than surrounding pixels. By taking multiplepasses and averaging the results, the effect of inaccurate exposure isreduced.

This option will slow down scanning because the scanner is doing more.You should experiment with your scanner to see which balance of speedand accuracy is appropriate.

On multiple passes the scanner head needs to be repositioned precisely at the same location as where it started on the previous pass. Some scanners do not support this operation. Others do, but reposition incorrectly, which will cause a blurred result.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner is capable of scanning the same image more than onceand when not scanning from a file.

Input | Scan from preview

When turned on, VueScan will perform a single preview scan and thencrop and write the scan results accordingly.

You can use this option to scan multiple snapshots on a flatbed -you can do one scan of the whole flatbed, and then repeatedlycrop and save each snapshot without having to scan individually.

This is sometimes faster when scanning film, since it eliminatesthe need for separate preview and scan passes.

You can also use this option to scan a strip of negatives, alsoallowing you to repeatedly crop and save each frame withouthaving to scan again.

To use this option:

Set Input | Options to 'Professional'
Set Input | Scan from preview
Press Preview button
Adjust crop box with mouse
Press Save button
Repeat these last two steps as necessary

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner can scan the same media more than once (i.e. whennot using a scroll-fed feeder).

Input | Grain dissolver

This option is only displayed when using the Minolta Scan Elite 5400.It causes a translucent material to be inserted in the light path, whichmakes the light source more diffuse. It can slightly reduce the appearanceof film grain at the cost of longer scan times. By default, thisoption is turned off.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a grain dissolver.

Input | Frame alignment

Vuescan Batch Scan

This option is only displayed when using a Nikon LS-30, LS-40, LS-50,LS-2000, LS-4000 or LS-5000 with the strip film adapter. It causesVueScan to align the start of the frames by scanning the area between thefirst and second frames on the strip and then finding the initial2 mm of clear leader. By default, this option is turned on.

You can use this with negative film (the default) or slide film. Thisis because the gap between the frames with negative film is orange colored,and the gap between the frames with slide film is black.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a strip film adapter inserted.

Input | Fine mode

This option is used to improve the scan quality on some scanners.

When using the Nikon CoolScan 5000 (LS-5000),CoolScan 8000 (LS-8000) or CoolScan 9000 (LS-9000), this optioncauses only one CCD line to be used, which makes scans takelonger but sometimes improves the scan quality of very darkmedia.

When using some Brother, Canon, Fujitsu, HP and Samsung scanners,this option disables in-scanner JPEG compression of scans, which makes scans take longerbut sometimes improves the scan quality by eliminating subtleJPEG artifacts.

Professional Option: This option is displayed with some Nikon scannersand some scanners that support in-scanner JPEG compression.

Input | Lamp

Some scanners allow scanning with two different lamps or both lamps.

This option is used to emphasize the texture in paper scans on Epson scanners.It does this by turning on a lamp that illuminates the paperfrom an angle, throwing a shadow where there's texture.

It also lets you scan paper or transparencies with different colored lampswith the G4010 and G4050, for specialized color post-processing.

It currently is enabled on the Epson Perfection V700, V750, V800, V850 andon the HP Scanjet G4010 and G4050.

Professional Option: This option is displayed with some Epsonscanners.

Input | Overscan

This option is used to scan a few extra millimeters around theimage. This is useful when scanning photos or postcards whenyou want to get every bit of the image in the scan.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a document feeder that supports this in hardware.

Input | Double feed detect

This option is used to detect when more than one page at a timefeeds into a document feeder. Sometimes pages or photos sticktogether when feeding into a document feeder, and the scannerwill stop scanning when this happens so you can feed the pagesagain and restart the scan (with the Scan+ button).

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a document feeder that supports this in hardware.

Input | Paper protect

This option is used to protect documents from damage when scanningby more gently feeding, albeit a bit slower.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a document feeder that supports this in hardware.

Input | Adv. paper protect

This option is used to protect documents from damage when scanningby more gently feeding, albeit a bit slower.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a document feeder that supports this in hardware.

Input | Double feed recovery

This option is used to recover from double feeds.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a document feeder that supports this in hardware.

Input | Staple detect

This option is used to detect staples on a page being scanned.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannerhas a document feeder that supports this in hardware.

Input | Multi exposure

This option provides a way to get additional detail from the darkerparts of the scanned image. It is available on scanners that are ableto increase the CCD exposure time.

A first pass is performed as usual with the normal RGB exposure.This will be an appropriate exposure for the image as a whole. Then asecond pass is performed with a longer exposure, which can reveal additional detail in dark areas not captured in the first pass. VueScanthen merges the results of the two by choosing from either thefirst or second exposure pass.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannercan control the CCD exposure time and when scanning slide film(not Color negative, B/W negative or Microfilm).

Input | Lock exposure

Set this option to lock the CCD exposure values to auto-exposure valuescomputed for the most recent preview or scan, or as adjusted manuallywith the Input | RGB exposure option.

This option can save time when scanning a batch of images with similarcharacteristics, e.g. a roll of film.

If you turn on this option and also clear Crop | Auto offsetand Crop | Auto rotate, then the Scan button will not perform apreview scan. This can save time when batch scanning.

Note that locking the CCD exposure values doesn't lock thebrightness of the final images - it only locks the brightnessof the raw scan files. To lock the brightness of the finalimages, use the Input | Lock image color option.

See the 'Advanced workflow suggestions' section of thisUser's Guide for more information.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannercan control the CCD exposure time.

Input | RGB/Infrared exposure

On scanners that are able to vary the CCD exposure time, thisoption lets you multiply the exposure time by a user-specified value.This can be useful when scanning very dark slides with brighthighlights and you want to get more detail from the dark areas.

There's seldom any reason to increase these values from thosecomputed by the auto exposure.

If the CCD is over-exposed when scanning color negative film, thenthe film base color gets messed up and the dark areasof the image (the bright parts of the negative) will lose detail.

Note that these exposure values do not directly control thebrightness of the final image - this is controlled by optionsin the Color tab. These exposure values control the brightnessof the raw scan file only.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when the scannercan control the CCD exposure time and the Input | Lock exposureoption is on. The infrared CCD exposure time is only displayedif the hardware is also capable of infrared scanning.

Vuescan Batch Scanning

Input | Red/Green/Blue analog gain

On Nikon scanners, this option multiplies Input | RGB exposureby the per-color analog gain. You can change the analog gainoptions to change the ratio of the CCD exposure times forthe red, green and blue channels.

Note that 'analog gain' is Nikon's term for CCD exposure time.It doesn't actually vary the analog gain within the scanner.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when thescanner is capable of separately controlling analog gain.

Input | Lock film base color

This option locks the color of the film substrate to values calculatedat the most recent preview or scan. These values are displayedin the 'Color | Film base color' fields when this option is set.

Negative film has an orange tone that needs to be compensated forto produce the positive image. You can see this orange color bylooking at an unexposed (clear) area of developed negative film.

For a given film type and roll of film (all of which is developedunder the same conditions), this correction will be the same forall frames, so only needs to be set once.

This option is only available after Input | Lock exposure is set, and then after a preview or scan.

This option can save time when scanning a batch of images with similarcharacteristics, e.g. a roll of film.

See the 'Advanced workflow suggestions' section of thisUser's Guide for more information.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when using theAdvanced Workflow Procedure in this User's Guide.

Input | Lock image color

This option locks the black and white pointused in the most recent preview or scan. This isuseful after scanning the first image of a series andyou want to make the lighting consistent in future scans(especially when scanning panoramas). This option is only displayedif you first set the Input | Lock exposure option andthe Input | Lock film base color option.

See the 'Advanced workflow suggestions' section of thisUser's Guide for more information.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when using theAdvanced Workflow Procedure in this User's Guide.

Input | Blank page removal

This option causes blank pages from a document feeder tonot be saved or printed.

Professional Option: This option is displayed when using adocument feeder.

Input | Default folder

This is a mirror of the Output | Default folder option.

Input | File type

This is a mirror of the Output | File type option.

Input | TIFF file name

This is a mirror of the Output | TIFF file name option.

Input | JPEG file name

How To Scan With Vuescan

This is a mirror of the Output | JPEG file name option.

Input | PDF file name

This is a mirror of the Output | PDF file name option.

Input | Raw file name

Vuescan Scanner Software Free License

This is a mirror of the Output | Raw file name option.