Scanning Sprocket Holes using Epson Scanners

For anyone who’s bought a Spinner 360 or Sprocket Rocket, figuring out how to scan sprockets can take a lot of trial and error…which is why I wrote this guide.

As most Epson scanners are bundled with EpsonScan and Silverfast SE software and both mis-behave identically, I created this guide for both so that no-one else has to go through the same pain that I did. However this guide does assume you know how to use the basic functions of the scanner.

Using Silverfast SE
Assuming your scanner can find your filmstrip placed in your Lomography Digitaliza, (and if it can’t place it in the middle of the scanning area and not against the sides), the first time you do a preview it will probably look something like this where the image is washed out.

The problem here is the “Auto Exposure” button in the Negafix window combined with the exposed sprockets causes the scanning software to get confused resulting in the washed out image.

For now leave the “Auto” button checked and drag the frame area box in so that it only covers the middle area of the film. Doing this will instantly correct the colours of the film and suddenly you will have a nice balanced image. If you want to make any changes to saturation, contrast and mid-tones, now is the time to do it.

Next un-tick the “Auto” in the Negafix window.

Now drag the frame area box to the edge of film strip. You will now find your adjustments to the middle of the frame now cover the whole film area. Finally you are ready to scan.

Using EpsonScan
Scanning sprockets with Epson’s bundled scanning software uses an almost identical technique. When you first preview the filmstrip it does a better job than Silverfast, but this can still be improved.

As before drag the frame area in so that it only covers the middle of the filmstrip. This will instantly balance the lighting in the frame.

Now we need to turn off “continuous auto-exposure” which can be found by pressing the “configuration” button in the main window.

After turning it off, return to the preview and drag the frame area so it covers the whole film strip. As with Silverfast, you will find you have a nice balanced image ready to scan.

written by disasterarea on 2011-05-28 #gear #tutorials #tutorial #scanning #tipster #epson-scanner-silverfast-epson-scan-sprockets-spinner-360-rocket