Scanning

[evotwo]

Don't know if this is the correct section to post this in but I am sure it will be moved if I have got it wrong

After clearing both my parents and my partners parents houses I have now got several hundred photos that require scanning and the old photos storing. I have a decent scanner (Epson GT2500) so I am not limited to fixed settings

What would people suggest that these were scanned at resolution wise so that future generations have decent digital images to play with if they wish. Also what would be the best way to store the originals.

Are there companies offering this service?

Any info and guidance would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

 

[Danny_Two]

The higher the better, but anything from 300 to 600 resolution would be good. Save as Tiff's.

 

[Chappers]

The limiting factor is going to be the originals. Photographic paper is not known to be a high definition media. Less so if you have a textured surface on the print. I would think that 300 dpi should be good for most applications, but you could play safe with 600, just in case. Try some test scans and see if you can tell the difference.

 

[evotwo]

Thanks for the replies guys

I think I will opt for the 600 dpi to be safe. I am going to use 24bit colour as opposed to 48 bit as I really can't see that there will be any huge benefit with older snap shots but please correct me if you think that this is a mistake

Thanks again

 

[Chaz Photos]

It will depend on what you wish to do with them after.
The way to do this is to measure the photo, know what size you like to reprint [if that is what you might like to do at some time] and work out 300 dpi
So if the photo is small say 4ins and you wish to reprint it at say 8ins then you need to scan the small 4ins at 600dpi to give you 300dpi when printing at 8ins
Hope you understand this

 

[Willid1]

Thanks for the replies guys

I think I will opt for the 600 dpi to be safe. I am going to use 24bit colour as opposed to 48 bit as I really can't see that there will be any huge benefit with older snap shots but please correct me if you think that this is a mistake

Thanks again

I found that 600dpi will give you all the detail in the print, I was scanning 10*8 black and white prints and was quite surprised at how much detail I could see. This assumes you have a sharp print to start with.

I also did all my scanning in RGB even for the B&W ones, give more options when PPing if required. Again 48 bit will give you more options in PP, but if you get the scan right then you shouldn't need to do that much.

HTH

David

 

[Steep]

If you have the time and the disk space, scan at the highest optical resolution your scanner can go to and as said above, save as TIFFs.

If you want to work on or print an image later you can always drop the resolution then if you need to.

 

[TheBigYin]

Always remember, that the original photo's are probably more robust than the digital copies you make... Treat them as the masters, they'll probably still be serviceable in a hundred years time, who only knows what form of storage media we'll be onto by then (but I'm damned sure that it won't be a dvd-r )

I've had a similar situation to think about recently to be honest - found 8 handbags full of photographs in the bottom of my Mothers wardrobe when she died. I've spent quite a while going through them, trying to see who I recognised and who I didn't. Came out with a pile of really meaningful shots from my childhood, and a load of shots of both My Mother and Father as they were growing up. I've also a HUUUGE pile of stuff that don't mean much to me, which one of these days my Aunt (mothers older sister) says she'll go through with me and I can label up. Why am I dripping on like this - well - to be honest, I went through all these because they WERE photo's - if they were just a bunch of old floppy disks (or such-like obsolete storage media) i'd have just consigned them to the skip! So, all I can say is - By all means scan the photo's - i'd scan at whatever resolution i'd need to take a given shot up to at least 10"x8" @ 300 dpi. - but don't dismiss the original photo's (and neg's - should your scanner be capable of working with them - you'll get a FAR better quality of output from the negs providing they've not been kicking about loose in the envelopes like a bunch of my Mothers had).

 

[evotwo]

Thanks for all the very valuable input, it really is appreciated. I am going to store the originals (I wouldn't dream of not doing) at present they are stored in the developing wallet and then all packed into large plastic boxes with lids. Looks as though I have got many many hours of scanning to do given that there are 6 24x12x12 boxes full.

I know I grew up with film, but my kids have grown up with digital and they just expect to be able to view things via their computer so that was really my reasoning behind scanning them, plus of course they are far more accessible than stuck up in the attic. I guess the one thing that it does bring home to me is just how much more info you can now store with a digital image given you can keyword, description, geo tag, etc brings it home how important it is to do so

Thanks again