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91 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
Good introduction to scanning
This is a well written book that will guide someone new to scanning slides and negatives through the learning process. The author uses plain English and a lot of good examples to show how to optimize your scan settings in NikonScan, VueScan, and SilverFast. If you're interested in learning to scan negatives and slides, this book will help you learn what you need to know...
Published on March 26, 2007 by Rakesh Malik
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134 of 140 people found the following review helpful:
If you want some introduction to scanning, buy it. If you want to improve your scanning, search elsewhere
I'm an amateur photographer who is learning how to scan film. When I see this book I'm very excited and expect it can improve my skill in getting a better output. To be frank I'm totally disappointed when I read the book. The book gives you a very good introduction about scanners, basic scanning principle and terminology, and popular scanning software like Nikon Scan,...
Published on November 10, 2007 by NG S. T. Nevin
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134 of 140 people found the following review helpful:
If you want some introduction to scanning, buy it. If you want to improve your scanning, search elsewhere, November 10, 2007
I'm an amateur photographer who is learning how to scan film. When I see this book I'm very excited and expect it can improve my skill in getting a better output. To be frank I'm totally disappointed when I read the book. The book gives you a very good introduction about scanners, basic scanning principle and terminology, and popular scanning software like Nikon Scan, Vuescan and Silverfast........and it ends here.
If you expect it teaches you how to tweak options in these software? Look elsewhere. If you expect it teaches you how to extract every details from a film using a particular software? Look elsewhere. If you expect it teaches you how to handle a problematic film? Look elsewhere. If you expect it teaches you varies in-depth workflows in scanning film? Look elsewhere.
Even the pictures in the book are bad. e.g. How you can illustrate the sharpness effect of a curl film in scanning if your picture is not sharp in the first place?
Bottom line: If you know nothing about scanning, this maybe a good book for you to get "just" started. If you've been using your scanner already, skip this book and use the money to buy more film.
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91 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
Good introduction to scanning, March 26, 2007
This is a well written book that will guide someone new to scanning slides and negatives through the learning process. The author uses plain English and a lot of good examples to show how to optimize your scan settings in NikonScan, VueScan, and SilverFast. If you're interested in learning to scan negatives and slides, this book will help you learn what you need to know to choose a film scanner and how to use it.
There are probably other books out there that are more detailed than this one, but as far as introducing you to the world of scanning and getting you started on learning how to maximize your scans, this is a great book.
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52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
Expertise, experienced and articulate, August 12, 2007
This knowlegdgable and articulate assessment of scanning, hardware and software is very targeted for the serious hobbists, diys as well as professional. I found numerous excerpts that matched perfectly with my semi-professional (small and local photo conversion business) level of experience, which added much credibility to the rest of the book. Especially strong, detailed and valuable information was presented on the Nikon Coolscan 5000, which is our scanner. This is the best of my scanner books and it gives us a few more accurate and helpful options in pulling out the best images from our scans. The printed photographs themselves were in such high detail that they clearly illustrated what the author was writing about. These photos coupled with the articulate text make this book a technical show and tell of scanning. I highly recommend this book as a valuable resource to my fellow photo scanners.
Jim Crawford
TuckerPhotoConversions
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
Scanning Slides and Negatives, November 15, 2007
While the book has some helpful information, it is all in all disappointing for readers who already own scanners and seek help in using them to best effect. Specifically, over 50 pages of the 230 in the book seem aimed at helping the reader decide WHETHER to digitize slides and negatives in the first place. I would have liked a clearer and more comprehensive explanation of whether, why, and how one can use the multitude of settings and tools on the better scanners. The writing, editing, and use of illustrations are passable but not as good as I had hoped and not nearly of the quality found, for example, in the Ben Willmore books on Photoshop. The Steinhoff book includes a DVD containing little of readily apparent value; the promised software turns out to be limited trial versions easily found on the web, should you want them.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Book on Film Scanning Presently Available, June 2, 2009
This review is from: Scanning Negatives and Slides, 2nd Edition: Digitizing Your Photographic Archives (Paperback)
Having read both the first and second editions of this book, I highly recommend it to those who are new to film scanning or wish to broaden or refresh their knowledge about film scanning. Film scanning at this point seems to be a bit of a dying art, as reflected in this book, and the other books on this subject, with one exception (see below), are all dated and mostly too superficial. This book will help someone new to film scanning make more informed choices amongst the (few) hardware and software choices out there. It will also help the reader to understand the issues that crop up in film scanning and the pros and cons of the various solutions out there. Basic workflow suggestions are also provided, although I think there could be more depth of treatment in that area. The only real alternative to this book for someone who wants to gain some introductory knowledge about this subject is the much less efficient one of trying to piece together information by searching the web. That said, if you want to dig in further, I also highly recommend the excellent "Real World Scanning and Halftones" 3rd Ed. published by Peachpit Press, which goes into more depth and is broader in its coverage. I do have some issues to raise. First, this book focuses on film and slide scanners almost entirely. Issues concerning flatbed scanners (except the relatively inferiority of flatbed scans compared to dedicated film scanners) get short shrift here. Second, the book is about scanning film (negatives, positives and slides). There is really nothing here about scanning reflective material such as prints. I don't see that as a drawback -- the focus is on scanning film. Third, the book tends to be a little Nikon-centric. That is somewhat explainable with respect to hardware because everyone else has pretty much left the dedicated consumer grade film scanner market, leaving Nikon with a virtual market monopoly (and there are unsubstantiated rumors that Nikon will also be leaving this market). The book does try, if not with total success, to give objective treatment to the software alternatives to Nikon Scan. Fourth, the book uses the term "RAW" somewhat inaccurately. Scanners apparently do not produce RAW files like digital cameras can. What they produce is a kind of TIFF, which already has certain parameters baked in, unlike true RAW. Yet much of the discussion of the pros and cons of scanning software is framed in terms of the ability of the software to produce RAW files. Files output from film scanners can be readily optimized in conventional photo editing software. Thus, this book leaves one a little confused about whether to spend money on additional software or just stay with the image editing programs that they already own. Fifth, while I very much enjoyed reading this book, there are some obvious editorial gaffes which are a little hard to excuse for a book at this price. I've noticed this in other Rocky Nook publications I have read. They need to do a better job of proofreading, but I can't say that it detracts substantially from the overall reading experience. All that said, for someone who is looking for a good introduction to this area, or simply wants to know a little more, this book will clearly fit the bill.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent for the intermediate photographer, November 3, 2008
For those with little photography or scanning experience (i.e., not knowing about bits or resolution) this book would be of little value. However, for those with intermediate experince it is excellent. It discusses, in depth, factors that affect scanners (i.e., DPI, RAW vs JPEG, etc.) and does so in good detail. It points out the many practical fallacies that underlie advertising with respect to scanners (that DPIs for example really are very limited in telling you the resolving quality of different scanners as they vary so much between scanners even if they are stated to be the same (i.e., a 1600 dpi Nikon is not equivalent to a 1600 Canon).
The book also provides very good high resolution pictures that actually show difference in photos (i.e., different bit rates, resolutions, etc.). The reason for this is the book is printed in high quality museum quality paper with high resolution (hence its relatively high cost). Examples, even subtle, are evident in these pictures, unlike so many photo books.
In addition, the book is an excellent buy before purchasing a new scanner. It not only discusses the subtle differences between the major scanners (i.e., Nikon and Canon) but there is a DVD included with pictures that actually ENABLE one to view the differences in scans produced (and the subtle differences/tradeoffs between scanners in terms of color saturation, resolution, etc. is evident in these).
The last major strength of the book is its good discusion of scanning software. The major brands are discussed in detail with good comparisons between them.
Very good discussion also of color correction, eliminating scratches, dust removal and other such touch ups.
Last but not least equipment such as different stretch negative holders and scanhancer are discussed (helps soften scanned images).
This book should be on the shelf of any person interested in advanced scanning or purchasing a scanner that is beyond entry level.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Scanning for Those With the Time To Do It, March 11, 2009
This review is from: Scanning Negatives and Slides, 2nd Edition: Digitizing Your Photographic Archives (Paperback)
This is a book that should appeal to the baby boomer generation. Most of us have slides of our childhood, or prints from our grandparents life scattered through our homes, often in attics or basements. I got this book because I'm interested in turning those prints and slides into digital images that I can save for my children.
This review is about the 2d edition of the book, its publication date is 2009. Most of the reviews in Amazon concern the 1st edition. I haven't looked at the 1st edition, so I don't know the additions that have been made for this book.
The book focuses on dedicated film scanners and flat bed scanners that can be used for film scanning. It is very complete in those areas. After discussing commercial scanning services, there are detailed analyses of scanner types, critiques of connection types, USB vs Firewire, the type of computer that is required, amount of disk space necessary (a lot, as a single high density image can take up 100 MBs), and the scanning software. Software evaluated include SilverFast SRD, VueScan and Digital ICE, as well as proprietary Nikon software such as Nikon Scan and Nikon Capture NX 2. There is a section on post scan processing using Photoshop and Photoshop plugins. And finally the pros and cons of various back up strategies are discussed. The back up strategy discussion doesn't include backup up to the net, using any one of a variety of commercial firms that offer it at very reasonable prices. This allows you to have automated off site backup, a good option for valuable photos.
The book is focused more towards the semi-professional and professional. They're the only ones who have the time to use scanners for conversion from analog film to digital media. The rest of us will most likely use a slide copier on a digital camera to copy slides (very briefly discussed in the book), and for the occasional print, we'll either use a professional service or a scanner that didn't come with the specialized software discussed in the book. But if you'd like to go beyond those modest goals and have the time to do it, this is an excellent book.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
A good introduction to Scanning, May 26, 2008
This is a very nice book for learning about the basics of scanning, especially if you have a Nikon Coolscan 5000. The book is about the only place one can find a reasonably objective summary and evaluation of scanning software from Nikon, Vuescan, and Lasersoft (Silverfast). Although fairly recently released, the book is already showing its age. The long chapter on Nikon Capture is out of date with the replacement Capture NX on the market for a while now. The book also basically is current as of Photoshop CS maybe CS2. I was left with the desire for more information. Expecially in the Photoshop area. Discussions regarding the Plug ins were helpful but I was left wanting more insight into skills to wring out the best from your slides. For the money I would have like more deapth than was presented here. With the drop off of film scanner manufacturers there probably will not be many books like this in the future so enjoy it as a basic primer on scanning.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Retired USNR O-6, September 6, 2008
I purchased the Plustek Optic Film 7200 + this tutorial book. The book was informative at first and convinced me to use the SilverFast SE software in lieu of the Quik-Scan. Unfortunately, the book scans over the SilverFast SE program and wants to tell you all about the Silverfast Ai programs and beyond. The author likes the NIKON scanners and really dwells on them. FYI - Silverfast out of Sarasota FL has a great Tech Support guy named Boris @ 941-921-4815 -- call between 3PM & 5:30 PM and he will talk you through your problems.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Book!, June 6, 2008
I read this book cover to cover. As someone who has been using scanners since the 80286 days with a hand scanner, I liked to think I knew a thing or two about scanning and imaging editing.
After I began to read this book, I quickly realized, I knew little about the intricacies of scanning photo's, and next to nothing about slide and negative scanning.
This book comes with a CD with sample software and images to let you try some of the same things you read about in the book.
If you are thinking about buying a slide scanner, but haven't yet, I recommend reading this book first. You WILL be glad you did.
The book is written in a way that will assist the absolute beginner, and also no doubt, provide a few 'aha!' moments for an expert.
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