Scanning in photos, questions?
02 January 2012, 04:34 PM
#1
Scanning in photos, questions?
Got a new scanner for Christmas, I want to scan in all my old photos, plus negs of some to colour correct awful orange prints.
I have one or two questions.
1. The scanner, an Epson V330 comes with some correction-type software, dust removal, sharpening, removal of scratches etc etc.
Would I be better putting them into Photoshop elements and learning how to use that?
How do you transfer from one to the other? I reckon I can choose to put them there, but if I want them back?
2. Should I STORE the photos in PSE or just in photos on my computer? In separate files?
3. When I scan in a photo, it comes out as a tiny rectangle at the top of a white page. How do I get it stored as full page? I tried putting a marquee over it, but that seemed to result in it being LESS sharp
Or do I just store it as that tiny pic? Negatives come out full size....
Sorry for the utterly docile questions, be kind, I'm a novice at this
I have one or two questions.
1. The scanner, an Epson V330 comes with some correction-type software, dust removal, sharpening, removal of scratches etc etc.
Would I be better putting them into Photoshop elements and learning how to use that?
How do you transfer from one to the other? I reckon I can choose to put them there, but if I want them back?
2. Should I STORE the photos in PSE or just in photos on my computer? In separate files?
3. When I scan in a photo, it comes out as a tiny rectangle at the top of a white page. How do I get it stored as full page? I tried putting a marquee over it, but that seemed to result in it being LESS sharp
Or do I just store it as that tiny pic? Negatives come out full size....
Sorry for the utterly docile questions, be kind, I'm a novice at this
02 January 2012, 06:04 PM
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
I have the V750 Pro (the old man got it for me when he wanted all his old photos digitised - piccies in 120 format from the late 50s on) and it's a good piece of kit. I got the 750 over the 700 as it came with some Silverfast SW and I use this, rather than the Epson provided SW, for my photos. I usually use the Epson SW for normal document scans. Any advice I give will be based on the setup I have as I don't really know what SW your scanner comes with.
Firstly, take a Google about the old interweb as there are various sites that give "advice" on photo/negative scanning. Second, if possible, scan the negative as that is what you'll get most detail from. The Silverfast SW allows me to enter the type of film used (Kodacolor, Fuji, etc) and adjusts accordingly BUT there is still a load of experimentation to do at first until you get acceptable results.
I scan mine in so that all the detail is scanned, with a small margin around the edge. I store these as TIFF images and use these as the "source" for any editing etc that may need doing. I keep these plus the "finished", usually 'jpg', photo. That way I don't need to scan in the original again unless I need a higher resolution scan or something. I'd keep the "storage" separate from whatever editing SW you use as that way you can chop and change whenb you want to, rather than with new/changed versions of the editing SW.
Not sure about the 'tiny rectangle' thing, but you're probably scanning at too low a resolution. What you need to do is scan the picture/negative so that your final resolution is large enough so you can print at the size you wish. So, 6x4, 7x5 or even something like A3. Personally I scan at a higher resolution than I need then I can then reduce this for prints. Looking at some of my scrappy notes I made I scanned some 35mm film at 3200dpi and 48bit colour. Of course, the other issue is disk space and memory useage. That file is c. 50MB. Photos wouldn't ned to be scanned at this resolution as I doubt that you could get that much detail from one.
I also clean the negs/photos before scanning. Usually a wipe with a lint-free cloth is all you need but I've had a load of negs that have got some staining which is chemical (not stored correctly so chemical changes have occurred) and all you can do here is try to play about with your favourite editing suite to see what you can achieve.
The old man's photos were in no order either as they'd got mixed up over the years. What I would do if I did them again, and will do when I get around to doing my own, is scan them and index them. That way, if I do need to re-scan any I can find them fairly quickly rather than try to sort through hundreds of negatives. This is that onerous if you start off as you mean to go on. All I mean is, give the scanned file a name, say 'SunnyScunnie-01' etc and then put the negatives in a proper negatives book against this name.
HTH
Dave
Firstly, take a Google about the old interweb as there are various sites that give "advice" on photo/negative scanning. Second, if possible, scan the negative as that is what you'll get most detail from. The Silverfast SW allows me to enter the type of film used (Kodacolor, Fuji, etc) and adjusts accordingly BUT there is still a load of experimentation to do at first until you get acceptable results.
I scan mine in so that all the detail is scanned, with a small margin around the edge. I store these as TIFF images and use these as the "source" for any editing etc that may need doing. I keep these plus the "finished", usually 'jpg', photo. That way I don't need to scan in the original again unless I need a higher resolution scan or something. I'd keep the "storage" separate from whatever editing SW you use as that way you can chop and change whenb you want to, rather than with new/changed versions of the editing SW.
Not sure about the 'tiny rectangle' thing, but you're probably scanning at too low a resolution. What you need to do is scan the picture/negative so that your final resolution is large enough so you can print at the size you wish. So, 6x4, 7x5 or even something like A3. Personally I scan at a higher resolution than I need then I can then reduce this for prints. Looking at some of my scrappy notes I made I scanned some 35mm film at 3200dpi and 48bit colour. Of course, the other issue is disk space and memory useage. That file is c. 50MB. Photos wouldn't ned to be scanned at this resolution as I doubt that you could get that much detail from one.
I also clean the negs/photos before scanning. Usually a wipe with a lint-free cloth is all you need but I've had a load of negs that have got some staining which is chemical (not stored correctly so chemical changes have occurred) and all you can do here is try to play about with your favourite editing suite to see what you can achieve.
The old man's photos were in no order either as they'd got mixed up over the years. What I would do if I did them again, and will do when I get around to doing my own, is scan them and index them. That way, if I do need to re-scan any I can find them fairly quickly rather than try to sort through hundreds of negatives. This is that onerous if you start off as you mean to go on. All I mean is, give the scanned file a name, say 'SunnyScunnie-01' etc and then put the negatives in a proper negatives book against this name.
HTH
Dave
04 January 2012, 12:11 PM
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Oh, and BACK THEM UP!!!!! Just had the 'data' disk on my PC, whic has my photos on it, go t!ts up. Last backup I did was a couple of moths ago - and I'e scanned a shed-load since. Aaarrrggghhhhhhh ..................
Luckily I don't think it's terminal as after I'd re-installed XP on the system disk (been meaning to do that for ages) I could 'see' the data disk again. But I'm leaving it offline until my nice, new, shiny 1TB Samsung arrives then I'll make the attempt to copy them all over. So, backup at least every time you scan new stuff in!
Oh, and useful little image utility program here ... http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/ ... Takes jpegs and re-sizes them. It's really fast and quite clever. Say you want to take your old 120 format pictures (which are nearly square) and get them printed 7x5. Not sure how much control you have in Boots on their machines but with this you can put them on CD at the size you want with the correct bits cropped out (you get a movable 'final image' window which you poisition then say 'go' and everything outside of this window is cropped). Saves time at Boots as you just upload the whole lot without any faffin g about on their equipment.
Enjoy!
Dave
Luckily I don't think it's terminal as after I'd re-installed XP on the system disk (been meaning to do that for ages) I could 'see' the data disk again. But I'm leaving it offline until my nice, new, shiny 1TB Samsung arrives then I'll make the attempt to copy them all over. So, backup at least every time you scan new stuff in!
Oh, and useful little image utility program here ... http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/ ... Takes jpegs and re-sizes them. It's really fast and quite clever. Say you want to take your old 120 format pictures (which are nearly square) and get them printed 7x5. Not sure how much control you have in Boots on their machines but with this you can put them on CD at the size you want with the correct bits cropped out (you get a movable 'final image' window which you poisition then say 'go' and everything outside of this window is cropped). Saves time at Boots as you just upload the whole lot without any faffin g about on their equipment.
Enjoy!
Dave
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