Ask archival el-jay

[rdhdsnippet]

Maybe the hive can help...

I'm scanning old family photos, and I have three questions about the process, from a technical standpoint. And oh-by-the-way, I am working on a Mac. Though I could move much of the process to a PC if you gave me a ghost of a reason I needed to, as the scanner is wireless

Comments

[redhotlips]

1. It adds the extra mgs because it's creating an instruction file associated with it, to instruct to turn the image. If you were to use Lightroom3 that file would be smaller, and you may not need to rotate them at all. Some scanners (depending on what scanner you have) have an option where you can set which side is "top" - usually in the scanner settings menu.

2a. 72 dpi is the most any electronic screen can "see". Facebook displays between 60 and 72dpi. Lowest minimum print quality is 300dpi (when I deliver images to clients, they are 300 dpi) which is suitable for up to 16x24 enlargements without degredation on any print surface (canvas or paper)

2b. you may want to go up to 600 dpi for handwriting to really get smooth lines. For old polaroids, negatives or even older material 1200 pi is more than enough. Many Archives and Libraries scan at just 900dpi.

3. you are on the right track with the EXIF data very smart move, highly recommended. For your needs I would consider a copy of Lightroom3 very user friendly, you are able to do batch edits (ie, all 1991 images can be edited to show "1991" at once, for instance) the program can also serve as an excellent catalogue, create a slideshow for you etc. (I teach you as well) And you can get a Windows or Mac version (no reason not to have Windows - everything I do on the Macs, I can also do on PCs now.

[rdhdsnippet]

1. I guess that makes sense. I could certainly orient the photos differently, but was taking advantage of the fact that the scanner is smart enough to separate different snapshots into different files and do them four at a time. I guess I can live with the file size bloat as long as it's not doing anything else weird.

2. OK, so I'll stick with my 600 for the snapshots, 1200 for paperwork/newspaper clippings, and 2400 for negatives when I get to some. I'm only doing this once, I'd rather err on the side of the quality being higher than I need than lower. My scanner doesn't have a 900dpi setting - I was sort of wishing there was something betwix the two.

3. We have Lightroom actually, as well as a full blown copy of Photoshop, both installed on the iMac and I think possibly on the MacBook. I don't think we have legal copies for Widows any more since I think John transferred the licenses to the Macs, but I'm also not sure my poor laptop could run them anyway. ;) I find Lightroom very difficult to use, but if it'll do the EXIF stuff, I'll figure it out, thank you!