[filmscanners] Re: Scanning archival prints

["Preston Earle" <PEarle@triad.rr.com>]

"Tomasz Zakrzewski" <tomzakrz@ka.onet.pl> asked:
"Could you give me hints as to recommended settings on VueScan and the
work flow in general?

"I know I should work with 16bit color in Photoshop but I'm not sure how
to switch it on.

"My plan is to record to CDs the uncorrected originals "as they are" and
the corrected ones alongside. All in tiff format, not jpeg.

"How to disable tiff compression in VueScan? If I use the compression,
do I risk future incompatibility? Are uncompressed tiffs a "safer"
option as compatibility and future use go?

"And the last question: my Photoshop 6 doesn't show thumbnails of files
created with VueScan. What can I do to make them show up?


Tomasz,
I think what you plan to do with these images influences the answers to
your questions.
1.  Are your images of high monetary value or only sentimental value?
2.  How many are there?
3.  What do you plan to do with digital files:  use primarily to make
prints, or use for screen display as computer slide shows, or something
else?

If you have high-value images that are worth $50+ or more (Is that 200
zlotychs?) each, these suggestions may not apply.

I've been scanning my family pictures over the past 6 months and have
learned several things. I began scanning and saving uncompressed TIF
files from my scanner and also saving the color-corrected and retouched
images from Photoshop. I was scanning 35mm slides and negatives at 1470
ppi, yielding files of 6-8Mb. I started correcting in Photoshop "the
right way', using adjustment layers, etc, and saving the layered PSD
files. I remember these files being up to 20Mb or more, depending on the
amount of retouching the image required. When finished, I also saved a
copy of each image as a 1024x768 JPG file for screen display and
computer slide-show use.

It took me a while to realize that this collection of several thousand
images was getting out of hand. By saving 15-30Mb of files for each
image, the collection of 150 photos from that memorable trip to Paris in
1992 took 6 CD's to store. The idea of 120 CD's of images wasn't
appealing. I decided to forego the TIF files, and now I scan everything
to high-quality JPG files. At first, I changed my scan resolution to
2800ppi for these "archive scans", but I got tired of the extra minute
or two scan time for each image over the 1470ppi scans, so I've gone
back to the 2100x1400 pixel images for 35mm images.

I believe the issue of image quality "loss" in jpeg compression is
greatly over-rated. If I were dealing with those $50/200zt images, I
might be less sure, but for family pictures, having files 1/20th of the
tiff image size is a tremendous benefit. Now I only have to deal with 10
or so CD's. I save all files as jpeg images at level 6 in Photoshop.

I scan everything in 24-bit mode. There has been a long discussion in
the Color Theory discussion group as to whether there are *any* scanned
images that benefit from high-bit data. I'll leave that question to
others. I decided that for my purposes, I'd rather save the 50% file
size on every image.

I have a significant concern about what I'm going to do with all these
CD's in the future. Will the whiz-bang recording device that comes on
that new computer I get in 2006 even be able to read these CD's? The
problems of dealing with my father's Kodachrome slides form the '30's
and '40's pale when compared to the challenges facing people in 50 years
trying to deal with my digital images.

I have started saving a VueScan index file for each roll of film I scan.
This provides a very easy proof-sheet for each scanned roll.

Good luck in your scanning. I've spent many wonderful hours reliving the
good times represented in my photos as I've been scanning them.
Photography, like firewood, warms you several times.

Preston Earle
PEarle@triad.rr.com


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