Another slide scanning question

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:14:52 -0500, Carl wrote
(in article ):

On the scanner, under the advanced settings for film, I can adjust for color,

hue, contrast, etc., etc.,

My question: Am I right in concluding that it would be best to scan the slides to my HD then use Photoshop for any changes I wish to make and not to use the scanning software to do this?

How would one know what scanner options to use? I can only guess that you must scan, decide what changes to make, scan again, and repeat until satisfied. So I have never messed with scanner options. It’s easier to scan and then work in Photoshop.

Maybe somewhere there is a cookbook with pictures of different kinds of problem slides and advice on what scanner settings to use.

—
John Varela
Trade NEW lamps for OLD for email.

In article ,
John Varela wrote:

How would one know what scanner options to use? I can only guess that you must scan, decide what changes to make, scan again, and repeat until satisfied. So I have never messed with scanner options. It’s easier to scan and then work in Photoshop.

When scanning a slide in my scanner, the scanner software offers me many, but not all, of the same choices that are offered in Photoshop Elements.

What I was getting at was: should I use the tools offered by the scanner or just scan at the default, leaving all changes for later, when I move the scan into PSE for work there.
Carl

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:44:48 -0500, Carl wrote
(in article ):

In article ,
John Varela wrote:

How would one know what scanner options to use? I can only guess that you must scan, decide what changes to make, scan again, and repeat until satisfied. So I have never messed with scanner options. It’s easier to scan
and then work in Photoshop.

When scanning a slide in my scanner, the scanner software offers me many, but not all, of the same choices that are offered in Photoshop Elements.

What I was getting at was: should I use the tools offered by the scanner or just scan at the default, leaving all changes for later, when I move the scan into PSE for work there.

That’s the question I was answering.

In Photoshop (or any picture editor) you make a change, you see the result immediately, and either keep it or undo it.

With the scanner, you scan, you see the result, and either keep it or scan again.

That was for brightness. Repeat for contrast. Repeat for hue. Repeat for saturation. etc.

Which is easier? Doing it with the scanner is like old-timey batch processing: submit the job, wait, examine results, make change, submit job, wait…

Unless someone, as I suggested, has made a cook-book that says in effect, if your slide looks like this then use these scanner settings.

—
John Varela
Trade NEW lamps for OLD for email.

In article ,
John Varela wrote:

That’s the question I was answering.

Thanks John. Chalk up the miscommunication to getting old…at least on my part. :->

In Photoshop (or any picture editor) you make a change, you see the result immediately, and either keep it or undo it.

With the scanner, you scan, you see the result, and either keep it or scan again.

Actually, in my new CanoScan 8800f, there is a Preview window showing the scan.

As you apply each setting to the Scan, such as Fading Correction, Backlighting Correction, etc., it is immediately applied to the Previewed image so you can toggle these setting on/off/on/off etc. to determine whether you like the change they make or not.

If I can rephrase my question:

Since I can correct for brightness, for example, in both the scanner’s software or in Adobe PSE, which should I use? New to both the scanner and to PSE, I strongly suspect that PSE contains the more powerful tools.

BUT, and this is what gives me pause: the scan is the image on which I will work in PSE. If I begin with a scan that is poor, because it is under- or overexposed, etc., isn’t it like taking a photo without a flash, looking at the photo, realizing you should have used the flash, then trying to add the flash, in PSE, after you took the photo???

So, I am guessing that logically the most important thing is the state of brightness/contrast and saturation/color in the scan I make so that I am starting in PSE with the best scanned image I can.

Does this make sense to you???

Carl

On 2008-01-14 16:44:52 -0330, Carl said:

I am faced with about 350+ slides, ranging in age from 30 to 50 years old, that I want to scan to my hard drive. All but the oldest ones are in pretty good shape.

I just purchased a CanoScan 8000F scanner, my first, and am learning how to use it.

I also just purchased Photoshop Elements and bought the "Photoshop Elements One to One" book (with a video CD) on how to use PSE.
On the scanner, under the advanced settings for film, I can adjust for color, hue, contrast, etc., etc.,

My question: Am I right in concluding that it would be best to scan the slides to my HD then use Photoshop for any changes I wish to make and not to use the scanning software to do this?

If that is correct, what is THE most important thing to focus on when scanning? Resolution, exposure, contrast?

Thanks so much for any feedback. I’d like to get this right the first time through and save myself a lot of time and effort.

Carl

Hi Carl
Scan the slides at the highest resolution and the greatest bit depth. That way you only have to scan the slides once and use photoshop for any further resizing. When you get them all scanned be prepared for really big file sizes(60 megs each approx)I use Photoshop to make all adjustments, curves, colour, sharpening and retouching etc. Good luck… Ray

On 2008-01-14 15:14:52 -0500, Carl said:

I am faced with about 350+ slides, ranging in age from 30 to 50 years old, that I want to scan to my hard drive. All but the oldest ones are in pretty good shape.

I just purchased a CanoScan 8000F scanner, my first, and am learning how to use it.

I also just purchased Photoshop Elements and bought the "Photoshop Elements One to One" book (with a video CD) on how to use PSE.
On the scanner, under the advanced settings for film, I can adjust for color, hue, contrast, etc., etc.,

My question: Am I right in concluding that it would be best to scan the slides to my HD then use Photoshop for any changes I wish to make and not to use the scanning software to do this?

If that is correct, what is THE most important thing to focus on when scanning? Resolution, exposure, contrast?

Thanks so much for any feedback. I’d like to get this right the first time through and save myself a lot of time and effort.

Carl

Not shure what optons you have, but with my Nikon film scanner, I- run of most modifications. My scanner gives me- he choice of adju ting the anolog gain, and if I have a severly underexposed or overexposed negative or slide then I adjust the gain to get as much data as I can. If there is a gross error in the curve, then I will adjust that. I evaluate the photo for anyhing that Digital Ice can handle (scratches, grain, faded color) and make those adjustments, otherwise everthing gets scanned at max resolution and I deal with it later in Photoshop.

jen … not.. home…//// yahoo… com

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:07:17 -0500, Carl wrote
(in article ):

Actually, in my new CanoScan 8800f, there is a Preview window showing the scan.

As you apply each setting to the Scan, such as Fading Correction, Backlighting Correction, etc., it is immediately applied to the Previewed image so you can toggle these setting on/off/on/off etc. to determine whether

you like the change they make or not.

Are those just on/off or do they have adjustments?

If I can rephrase my question:

Since I can correct for brightness, for example, in both the scanner’s software or in Adobe PSE, which should I use? New to both the scanner and to

PSE, I strongly suspect that PSE contains the more powerful tools.

If the above are just on/off, then a resounding "Yes".

BUT, and this is what gives me pause: the scan is the image on which I will work in PSE. If I begin with a scan that is poor, because it is under- or overexposed, etc., isn’t it like taking a photo without a flash, looking at the photo, realizing you should have used the flash, then trying to add the flash, in PSE, after you took the photo???

So, I am guessing that logically the most important thing is the state of brightness/contrast and saturation/color in the scan I make so that I am starting in PSE with the best scanned image I can.

Does this make sense to you???

Indeed. My scanner software can make adjustments to the preview, but they are so crude compared to Photoshop that I haven’t bothered to use them. (Probably I should.)

If the picture in the preview looks really bad, then it’s probably worthwhile to use the scanner adjustments to make whatever improvement you can, then scan, then use iPhoto edit and Photoshop (in that order) to tweak the picture. (Mainly because iPhoto’s straightening tool is superior to Photoshop’s rotation tool.)

I have been making a lot of use of Photoshop to restore old photos, a few of them as old as the 19th Century. Photoshop can make tears and wrinkles disappear, and smooth away the blotches that show up in old photos when you increase the contrast. You can’t do any of that in the scanner. There are lots of other things that Photoshop can do — such as remove an overhead line from a scene or make unwanted people in the background disappear — that you can’t do with the scanner.

So I regard Photoshop or some powerful software editor as essential.

—
John Varela
Trade NEW lamps for OLD for email.