Newbie scanner

[Randy P. Allen]

I have an epson 2400 scanner that I'd like to learn how to use correctly. I have an Imac flatscreen with Elements. Being a photographer, instinct says always scan all negs at optimum resolution(2400dpi), then burn the files on to a cd-r (to save hard drive space). This way if a lower resolution is needed for an application other than a reprint, it can be scaled down. I've looked at a website called "scantips" but I haven't got my Phd yet in scanning so it's pretty much a bunch of techno crap for those not in the loop. Any suggestions for a beginner would be much appreciated. I'm ready to revert back to the darkroom at this point. Thanks.
Randy

[Beth Haney]

You may feel like a rank amateur, but you got the most important piece down - scan at the highest OPTICAL resolution available from your scanner and resample when/if you need to. Some people advocate doing some touch up to the images (if needed, and you don't say what condition the stuff is in that you're going to scan) using the scanning software. Depending on how good your software is, that might be something you want to consider. I've tried several scanning apps and still haven't found one that gives a preview that's decent enough to judge when/if I've made any improvements!

[DS Nelson]

Here's <http://www.scantips.com/> a pretty good link with some scanner basics. I haven't looked at it for a while so I don't know if it's current, but most of this stuff is pretty standard and shouldn't change much over time.

Dan

[Bert Bigelow]

Randy,
A couple comments on things you might not have thought about.
Burning backups on CD-Rs is very good procedure. However, if you want to use any kind of photo database software like Photoshop Album, you will need the image files "online." You might want to consider a second HD, either internal or external. Internal drives are cheaper and have faster access, but an external drive doesn't add heat and congestion inside the box and it eliminates the migration problem if you buy a new computer.
I am acutely aware of these issues right now, as my "new" computer dedicated to photo processing has an 80GB HD that I thought I would never fill up. It's just about full, and I'm just getting started on my family photo archive project.

Bert

[Randy P. Allen]

Thank you all for the replys. I'd like to email my replys but I don't know if thats possible with this forum or for that matter how I'd do it. I just stumbled on to this website recently( a few days ago).
Randy
[email]mrrp.allen@verizon.net[/email]

[brent bertram]

Randy,
We'd encourage you not to email replies, but keep them on the forum. We all get to see the interplay that way. Stick around and keep your questions and comments coming.

:-)

Brent

[Chris French]

In message <1de9d706.3@WebX.la2eafNXanI>, Bert Bigelow
<bigelowrs@aol.com> writes

>Randy,
>A couple comments on things you might not have thought about.
>Burning backups on CD-Rs is very good procedure. However, if you want
>to use any kind of photo database software like Photoshop Album, you
>will need the image files "online."

Not entirely true. Photoshop Album at least can catalogue images on CD.
It does create a low res copy of the image on the hard disk, but them
main image can stay on the CD.

If you want to edit the image say then it will request the relevant CD.

--
Chris French