Scanning old pictures...

Elaine

I am involved in a family history project, and my job is all about the pictures! I need to get a ton of pictures into the computer to get them ready to be printed into a book format. Some pics are really old and some are not so old. Here are some of my questions...

Will I harm the really old pics by scanning them? Should I think about taking pictures of them (in natural light) instead?
When I do scan, how do I ensure a good quality print from it? (I don't know much about scanning...what resolution or dpi should I aim for?)
I currently have Photoshop Elements 3.0. Do I need a more robust photoshop program in order to prepare all these pics, with captions, for a book printing?
Is there a program that can do it all...pictures, captions and integrate many, many pages of text?

I would appreciate any help with this! Thanks in advance!

Elaine

mushy

Elaine wrote:

I am involved in a family history project, and my job is all about the pictures! I need to get a ton of pictures into the computer to get them ready to be printed into a book format. Some pics are really old and some are not so old. Here are some of my questions...

Will I harm the really old pics by scanning them? Should I think about taking pictures of them (in natural light) instead?
When I do scan, how do I ensure a good quality print from it? (I don't know much about scanning...what resolution or dpi should I aim for?)
I currently have Photoshop Elements 3.0. Do I need a more robust photoshop program in order to prepare all these pics, with captions, for a book printing?
Is there a program that can do it all...pictures, captions and integrate many, many pages of text?

I would appreciate any help with this! Thanks in advance!

Elaine

I am doing basically the same thing with all my parents fading travel photo's. I'm using Photoshop CS2 and bridge to add captions. I'm not to up on Elements but if you can set up a few simple actions to clean up old shots then you can definitely speed up the process. I'm scanning all my photo's at 300dpi which seems to provide a decent image.
Hope that helps to some degree

colourbox

This site may be helpful:
http://www.scantips.com/

Photoshop Elements is quite good enough for a book project if the book publisher can use RGB images. This is true of most consumer book printers, like those affiliated with photo printing sites. If the book publisher requires CMYK images, Photoshop full version may be required. CMYK images are usually used for books printed in high volumes to be sold on a bookstore shelf.

Scanning won't harm the photos unless the photos are carelessly handled while scanning. Sunlight is far more intense and damaging than a typical scanner light source. Also, the scanner light is calibrated for predictable color, while natural light changes throughout the day and you may have to fight white balance more often.

Elaine

Thanks to you both for the tips and input! This certainly helps clarify some things for me. I may be back again with more questions...

Elaine

dancing-hedgehog

Elaine wrote:

...what resolution or dpi should I aim for?)
Elaine

I'm been involved in a couple of similar projects, except for the book part. I personally prefer to scan at a minmum of 600 dpi, but other members of a team project used 400 dpi .tif files. The .tif file is saved as the "original". Currently I've been saving PP files as .psd, and will convert to .jpg at max resolution if I need to get prints made (as opposed to printing with my own printer).

I have a disk with the originals scanned as .jpg @ 300 dpi, and it is very frustrating to work with such low resolution, especially since the originals tend to be small and/or could greatly benefit from cropping.

I've been scanning medium format negatives at 3200 dpi (bought an Epson 4990 for the purpose ). I'm still struggling with the workflow, but feel comfortable about the scanned image being good enough for future applications without the need to re-scan. :