Scanning Pictures

[APG85]

When scanning pictures, whats the best setting for the best quality scan i.e. jpeg, tif, 300dpi, 600dpi, etc. ? I always seem to get a grainy result. Thanks.

[Sean Curtiss]

What I do is scan with maximum DPI possible, i.e., 600 DPI. From there I can reduce, despeckle, remove dust and scratches and so on. It’s especially useful if you’re scanning from a magazine or newspaper. When your scanner doesn’t have noise reduction software, to eliminate what they call the “Moiré effect”, the best is to scan anything equal or higher than 600 DPI.

Hope this helps you. Anything else just let me know.
Cheers,
Sean.

[k5083]

Depends whether you are scanning (1) film media such as negatives or slides, (2) original photographs or artwork, or (3) published photographs or artwork.

Category 1 is a special case requiring dedicated equipment to do properly, if you need more info let me know.

Category 2 is what I presume you mainly mean. If you are scanning a well-made print on glossy paper, 600dpi is about right. That is about the best resolution that the photograph paper itself can manage, so any higher than that doesn't add much information. If the photo is not very sharp and/or is printed on matte paper, you can probably go down to about 300dpi without losing much information. On an original print, you shouldn't have much trouble with grain unless the original photo itself is grainy. In that case you should treat it as Category 3.

Category 3 (published and grainy pictures) should be scanned to whatever resolution you need for your ultimate use of the image. Scanning to a higher resolution and then downsizing tends to exaggerate interference patterns ("moire") between the printing pattern (halftoning, etc.) or grain and your scanner's own pixel matrix. After scanning, you will likely need to employ a photoshop plugin or a standalone application -- there are several available, I use mainly Noiseware myself -- to reduce the moire effect. These are basically special blur filters that try to detect edges in the picture and leave them sharp while blurring noise in the solid areas.

August

[APG85]

Thanks. Mostly I'm scanning old family photo's. What's the best format i.e. jpeg, bmp, tif, etc.?

[Sean Curtiss]

Hi Scott,
If the scanner gives you the option, the best thing to do is scan your family photos in TIFF format. TIFF creates a larger file size, but it is a lossless format. On the other hand JPEG (or JPG) losses some quality but makes a smaller file size.

Always use a large DPI setting like we explained above.

The most important factor is your backup. Saving them on your HD is not a recommendable thing. For those really important images I usually have multiple backups of the same in CD's and DVD's.

What you can do is tell us the file formats your scanner gives you and we can go from there on.
Cheers,
SC.

[k5083]

Yes, TIF is a good lossless format that most scanning and editing programs handle well. It's what I use.

I recommend buying an external hard drive for the archiving; dedicate the entire drive to your photos. Writable CDs and DVDs are not stable. Consumer CD-Rs decay and become unreadable in an average of 5 to 7 years, DVD-Rs even quicker, so they're not considered suitable for archiving. Magnetic media like hard drives don't last forever either but they do last much longer. Ironically the original photographic negatives or slides, even if they already are a few decades old, are almost certain to outlast any form of computer storage with proper care so be sure to preserve them carefully whatever you do.

August