scan/save...is there a point of 'overkill'

[max morrison]

Are you saving your tiffs uncompressed?
Try using LZW compression. It's lossless, and will
allow you to fit many more images onto each CD.

mm


"Ivon" <ozwosh@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:b86820d7.0307070533.5cb454fe@posting.google.c om...

> I'm looking for advice from any kind photographer boys or girls
> please.
>
> I am using my Epson 1650P to scan and save 50+ y.o. mono negs of
> various sizes to cd. I will be printing out a few, but I also would
> like to save them all to cd in as good a resolution as possible, for
> safekeeping.
> From my searches it seems that 'tiff' format is appropriate??. I set
> the resolution so that the resulting file size is around 30 meg. Am I
> going overboard or should I be setting higher?
> ALSO
> Some of these negs have 'stuff' on them - maybe mildew or something
> spilt perhaps. Should I try to clean them somehow or could that cause
> more damage? They've already been through a couple of house fires and
> some are a little 'shrivelled'.
> ALSO
> Do I put them down on the scanner shiny or flat side down? The
> documentation that came with scanner says 'base side facing down' -
> means nothing to me unfortunately.
>
> TIA, Ivon.

[Nige]

"Andy G" <dalinean@starday.com.au> wrote in message
news:bec3nn$3g4sd$1@ID-119557.news.dfncis.de...

> i think that 30 mb is overkill
> for fine art maybe but family snaps.... 5 mb is fine

forget file size... that means little. Look at the resolution of the scan
and divide by appropiate printer resolution to see if you can drop the
scanning resolution from the best you can get from your scanner. What's a
1650's best native resolution? If it's the same as my 1640 then you'll want
to scan at maximum (1600 for the 1640). You can always down sample but your
can't add the missing info back later.

> cleaning with water is the way to go.
> soak n dry flat
> dont squeeze hard.

scan them before trying anything to clean them up (other than using a blower
brush to remove obvious dust) At 50 years old I think they are too young to
be nitrate (?) based negs which I don't think you should wash. Search
photo.net for some threads on the subject (I asked a question similar a
while ago and there's a knowlegable guy there)

> dont worry about which side to put 'down'
> the software can flip the photo afterwards if you get it wrong.

only if you know which way the pic goes! Use a known pic to work out
which way it goes. Something of your own or one with writing in it. On my
1640 it's face down (shiny side down / emulsion up) which is the reverse of
what I'd call "base side down".

Cheers, Nige

[Andy G]

ok sounds fine but.......
at 50 years old, they are probably not 35mm.

a neg over 24x36 mm in size will very rapidly get too large.

35mm at 1600dpi sounds about right
6x9 cm is too big.
a file over over 10mb for non-professional use is overkill.

you will need to experiment with file sizes to see what suits your
needs.then scan the different size negs in batches according to size.

even though they are b&w I would scan them as colour,

save once only, as Jpg , to the folder which you will burn onto the cd.
tiff is fine, but if a jpg is on a cd, it cant be reduced in quality further
as it is then 'read only'


so.........
scan as 10mb or whatever works out best for you.
save the scanned image as jpg's but dont really work on them until they are
saved onto cd.


"Nige" <post@it.in.thegroup> wrote in message
news:3f0aabe9$1_1@news.iprimus.com.au...

>
> "Andy G" <dalinean@starday.com.au> wrote in message
> news:bec3nn$3g4sd$1@ID-119557.news.dfncis.de...

> > i think that 30 mb is overkill
> > for fine art maybe but family snaps.... 5 mb is fine

>
> forget file size... that means little. Look at the resolution of the scan
> and divide by appropiate printer resolution to see if you can drop the
> scanning resolution from the best you can get from your scanner. What's a
> 1650's best native resolution? If it's the same as my 1640 then you'll

want

> to scan at maximum (1600 for the 1640). You can always down sample but

your

> can't add the missing info back later.
>

> > cleaning with water is the way to go.
> > soak n dry flat
> > dont squeeze hard.

>
> scan them before trying anything to clean them up (other than using a

blower

> brush to remove obvious dust) At 50 years old I think they are too young

to

> be nitrate (?) based negs which I don't think you should wash. Search
> photo.net for some threads on the subject (I asked a question similar a
> while ago and there's a knowlegable guy there)
>

> > dont worry about which side to put 'down'
> > the software can flip the photo afterwards if you get it wrong.

>
> only if you know which way the pic goes! Use a known pic to work out
> which way it goes. Something of your own or one with writing in it. On

my

> 1640 it's face down (shiny side down / emulsion up) which is the reverse

of

> what I'd call "base side down".
>
> Cheers, Nige
>
>