Scanning photo prints and negatives

Hi All,

I am very new to scanning but hope to understand
very quickly how to handle a situation i have.

This might therefore be trifle to the experts out there.

I have many 4x6 and 5x7 inch photo prints developed
from an equal number of negatives, from a film camera.

I want to ask the following questions:

I need to scan these and display them on a monitor
in 800x600 resolution at the highest quality.
I don't want to bother much about printing them
out on a printer. ( not yet

Q1) Is there a scanner out there that can take in multiple
prints ( from a tray say,) and create files out of them ?
I want to display the files on a website.

I cannot spend so much time scanning
individual photos.

Q2) If I were to scan individual photos (because thats
all I can do with my current scanner), what is the
workflow involved going from a 5"x7" photo print
to 800x600 display on monitor ? I currently have an HP
scanjet 3500c

Q3) If I go via scanning the negatives route, then I am
absolutely new to this. Which scanner is the most
economical yet provides high quality? And is there a
combo scanner that i can use to scan negatives and
positive prints? Are these devices popular among
consumers. Meaning should one always go to a
pro photo lab for this kind of scanning ?

Q4) What about taking digital photographs of prints?
Is this approach a suitable alternative ? It sounds
cumbersome considering one has to always have the
right light falling on the photo print to capture it into
the digicam effectively? Does one use macro mode for
this ? or

Thanks a ton.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All,

I am very new to scanning but hope to understand
very quickly how to handle a situation i have.

This might therefore be trifle to the experts out there.

I have many 4x6 and 5x7 inch photo prints developed
from an equal number of negatives, from a film camera.

I want to ask the following questions:

I need to scan these and display them on a monitor
in 800x600 resolution at the highest quality.
I don't want to bother much about printing them
out on a printer. ( not yet

Q1) Is there a scanner out there that can take in multiple
prints ( from a tray say,) and create files out of them ?
I want to display the files on a website.

I cannot spend so much time scanning
individual photos.

Q2) If I were to scan individual photos (because thats
all I can do with my current scanner), what is the
workflow involved going from a 5"x7" photo print
to 800x600 display on monitor ? I currently have an HP
scanjet 3500c

Q3) If I go via scanning the negatives route, then I am
absolutely new to this. Which scanner is the most
economical yet provides high quality? And is there a
combo scanner that i can use to scan negatives and
positive prints? Are these devices popular among
consumers. Meaning should one always go to a
pro photo lab for this kind of scanning ?

Q4) What about taking digital photographs of prints?
Is this approach a suitable alternative ? It sounds
cumbersome considering one has to always have the
right light falling on the photo print to capture it into
the digicam effectively? Does one use macro mode for
this ? or

Thanks a ton.


Hi.

There are scanners which can scan Prints and Film. They usually have
"Photo" tagged onto their model name / number.

All of them would easily cope with producing 800 x 600 Jpeg files from
prints or film, for on-screen display.

Quality is not an issue unless you compress these small files down and then
make a few "Saves".

A number can scan several prints, on the platen, at a time, and
automatically produce individual files.

Quality becomes more of an issue if, or when, you decide to make Prints.
Provided you are not planning on making anything bigger than a 10 x 8 from a
6 x 4 Print, a Flat Bed scanner should still cope, but you will need to
decide for yourself whether the quality is good enough.

The problem is not so much the scanner, more that the detail will be lacking
in the original print.

You will be able to pull a lot more detail out of a negative or slide, but
be aware that the resolution figures quoted for Flat Bed Scanners, can be
rather optimistic.

Dedicated Film scanner resolution figures are much more accurate, but these
are not cheap machines.

Roy G

"Roy G" wrote in message
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I did not mention Workflow.

Scan print at 200 Ppi- Save as jpeg - import into a Photo Editing Program
( if not already there) - Adjust density and Colour using "Levels" or
"Curves" - Crop as required - Resize (with resampling or interpolation On)
to 800 x 600 - Save, using as little Compression as needed, to get the image
to an Email-able size, 80 to 100 K

Depending on your Program, some of these steps can be combined.

PS Elements can Crop to a specific Size at a specific Resolution,
irrespective of what size the Crop Rectangle seems to be on the image (if
you preset it to 4 inches x 3 inches at 200Ppi, you will get an 800 x 600
pxl image, from any part of the original)

Roy G wrote:
"Roy G" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
oups.com...


I did not mention Workflow.

Scan print at 200 Ppi- Save as jpeg - import into a Photo Editing Program
( if not already there) - Adjust density and Colour using "Levels" or
"Curves" - Crop as required - Resize (with resampling or interpolation On)
to 800 x 600 - Save, using as little Compression as needed, to get the image
to an Email-able size, 80 to 100 K

Depending on your Program, some of these steps can be combined.

PS Elements can Crop to a specific Size at a specific Resolution,
irrespective of what size the Crop Rectangle seems to be on the image (if
you preset it to 4 inches x 3 inches at 200Ppi, you will get an 800 x 600
pxl image, from any part of the original)

Thanks for your reply, I'll try out this workflow.