Starting with Version 4, the Digital Exposure Enhancer (DEE) is integrated into Nikon Scan. It offers automatic exposure corrections for two difficult areas: underexposure in shadow areas and overexposure in very bright areas. Digital DEE can correct the exposure to recover more detail in the highlight and shadow regions. Different regions can be corrected separately. The resulting image can improve drastically.
This feature was introduced with the current generation of scanners (Coolscan V / 5000 / 9000). The same effect can be achieved by manually changing the gradation curves. Since DEE correction can now be performed in Nikon Capture with the D-Lighting feature after the scan, there is no reason to continue using DEE. Unlike DEE, D-Lighting is fully reversible and is not frozen in the NEF files. Starting with version CS, Photoshop has also integrated this functionality with the Shadow/Highlight adjustment.
Upgrade to ROC, GEM, and DEE Functionality with Photoshop Plug-ins
For ROC and GEM, trial versions of Photoshop plug-ins with the same names can be downloaded from www.asf.com. These also allow scan file corrections after scanning. The plug-in for correcting highlights and shadows is called SHO, but its functions are identical to DEE. All three plug-ins are available in standard and pro versions with extended functions. The free trial versions are fully functional, but the images are saved with a watermark as a reminder to register the software. The advantage of the plug-in solution over the integrated scanner software is that the plug-ins do not require rescanning of the image if the results of the corrections are unsatisfactory.