If you are looking for good batch scanning software to use with either a flatbed or a slide/film scanner, the usual recommendation is Vuescan from Ed Hamrick.

Hamrick Software

I agree, VueScan does a good job of batch scanning, and is pretty reasonably priced. if you are a novice at such things, though, configuring it for what you want may prove a little challenging.

Presently I use a combination of Ulead's PhotoImpact and an Epson 4870 Photo - a fast, versatile and high quality combo which does not cost a fortune. The Epson is the first flatbed I have come across that does genuinely high quality film scanning (I have two dedicated film scanners too - an Epson and a Microtek 4000tf).

If you are scanning photos, rather than film, on the Epson, you can lay out as many photos as will fit on the platen, select multiple scan regions, and do them all in the one hit; and keep repeating! This way you can scan each in a few seconds, depending on resolution (which would be low for what you want).

If you are scanning from your negatives you can put through batches of 24 at a time.

Hey stewartr002,

Been using vuescan from hamrick and its been fantastic. Cut my scan time down by about 75%. I really recomend you give it a go!

fixler

fixler, just been reading the info and viewing the screen grabs. What's it got over a standard scan and fix solution? Where does the option of Batch or something like that come into play? Sorry for being dense but presently I just don't see it . . . again, I'm missing the point.

Grazie

What's it [batch scanning] got over a standard scan and fix solution? Where does the option of Batch or something like that come into play?

If I understood what fixler was asking for, he wanted something that lets you feed film (or prints) into the scanner, and then have the software do vitually everything automatically from there, including exposure, cropping, color correction, dust removal, etc. If the film scanner has the ability to take an entire roll of film or at least the 4-6 frame film segments, all you have to do is feed the film.

By contrast, most software that comes with scanners assumes you want to manually adjust everything for each picture. As someone who has scanned over 20,000 negatives (and gone through three scanners), batch scanning is an absolute necessity.

As it turns out, Hamrick's software (Vuescan) actually can do a better job automatically than I can do in five minutes of dickering with the NikonScan software that came with my exotic Nikon film scanner.

JM - I understand that.

I undertand the need and bonus of having a "mechanical" device, doing the handling - yup got that JM! Honest!

It was the need to do individual adjustments to individual prints that I can't understnad how this VueScan did it. I read the product info on their site and it didn't go into the type of depth for me, to asssist me in understanding HOW it actually dealt with batch scanning. It did, however, explain what it did to individual scans. It didn't then explain how this individual approach was then fed into the automatic process? That is when I thought, hello, how does it then batch scan a bunch of "needy" stills to the quality I want? Isn't this again like individual scanning and correction? Where's the batch scanning/correction coming in? Wont this be the same? That's when I came back here and asked the question.

Yes I appreciate your 20,000 experience. If you have used this VueScan - and I think you haven't? Or have you .. . - maybe you could explain . . . I could be tempted to download and try.

Oh, the other thing is that you can't activate from within a Graphics package. No biggy here, but a thought to what it might do to my TWAIN sharing kinda scares me - yeah?

Best regards,

Grazie

Vuescan has a library of film emulsions that it uses to correct the tint. Most scanning software doesn't do that. You can also use a clear leader from your actual emulsion to create your own custom calibration. Again, this isn't usually offered in scanning software.

It has five different approaches to white balance, and you can easily adjust white and black point (i.e., the point at which the software decides to treat a really dark pixel as black or a really white pixel as white).

It automatically names files. It also automatically starts and end the scan process. Thus, you insert the film and it does the rest. Amazingly, many other programs require you to click the mouse to start the scan. Small item, but it is a big deal when you have to scan huge numbers of pictures.

You can still scan pics one at a time, crop them manually and adjust exposure, color etc.

The only downside to Vuescan is that if you use a really advanced film scanner (like my Nikon Coolscan 4000), this scanner has firmware from Applied Science Fiction (ASF) that reduces grain (GEM), restores faded colors (ROC), and eliminates dust. Vuescan attempts to do some of the same things, but without direct access to some of the innards of the scanner, it doesn't do as good a job of GEM or ROC. Its dust removal, however, is excellent.

One upside is that if you scan Kodachrome slides, you can get some dust remove help from Vuescan, whereas the Nikon approach to dust removal only works on color negatives. No software currently provides automatic dust removal for B&W photos.