What quality can you get scanning old prints?

[kirbinster]

I have boxes and boxes and boxes (not sure if I said boxes enough) of old photos that I would like to scan and make useable. My question is what sort of quality can I expect to get. I figure I need a better scanner. I tried this one with my Brother 5440CN multifunction unit, which has a 1,200 dpi x 2,400 dpi 48 bit flatbed. I scanned the print using Vuescan and told it to scan at 4,800 (which I assume it extrapolates?). Have to say the quality is not what I would hope for How much better can I expect the results to be with something like an Epson V500 scanner:

[jiminyClickit]

kirbinster,

I've had a Visioneer and a Canon Pixma 920, and see mostly that a small photo won't get much better than this. It's finite, the scanner can't add much that isn't seen in the print. What I wonder about is whether a new scanner that will take an original negative and all its pristine information, might be the best way to get a good scan? I haven't tried that, it just seems likely the results would be better (if the negative is still available).

[kirbinster]

Interesting idea. The V500 is supposed to be able to do negatives too. I just figure one would get better quality from a good quality 4" x 6" print than from a little tiny 35mm negative on a scanner - but that is why I am asking. This scan came out noticeably worse than the print. The dust and scratches seem to be amplified and the scan is much more unsharp than the print.

[jiminyClickit]

About the only way I know to be sure is to examine your print with a strong magnifying glass, then look at the scan on your monitor, area by area (eyes, fingers, fabric).

Some of the longest postwork sessions I've had were on scanned 3x5 photos or smaller. I hope you'll try a negative - just to see what happens! I toyed with the idea of getting a model that would, but I have only a handful of negatives left.

[spazoid1965]

I noticed quite a bit of white splotches on the photo you posted. Are these defects on the original photo? If not the glass in your scanner is dirty.

[Ciscley]

We use our old Epson flatbed scanner for baseball card trading, but in that scenario you want the scanner to capture every detail and flaw. You want it to be obvious you are capturing a piece of paper, to see the texture of it, the thickness.

This past week I had to scan several hundred photos for a friend's wedding (pics from the B&G childhood) so quickly learned a few things:

1) Scan multiple photos at the same time. Put as many photos as will fit onto bed and save that single scan and then cut out the sections later. Saved me loads of time since I did the scan at the highest DPI mine had.

2) Lay black matte board or that kids craft foam sheet on top of the photos. The weight helps flatten the photos better than the scanner lid alone and you want to make sure the photos are as evenly flat against the scanner as possible.

3) Clean the scanner with eyeglass cleaner and a cleaning cloth. Don't use anything you wouldn't use on your camera lens basically.

4) You will be able to see the texture in a matte photo and the smudges in a glossy. You can "clean" the glossy before scanning, but there's nothing to do about the matte and honestly I liked the look of the matte texture for their purpose, so I didn't mind.

[kencaleno]

You need to scan print at highest resolution of scanner

Then, in photoshop double that resolution

Add just enough gaussian blur to blend

Then bring down to 300 dpi to save. regards, Ken

[LoveDSLR]

If you are buying a new scanner, consider bundled software that included digital ICE technology.

[Swisstony10]

I bought a big old clunky SCSI-connecting Canon dedicated negative scanner, second-hand from a camera place a few years ago, when I was using my Canon Eos film before I upgraded to digital, so all I had to pay for was processing. It only cost me £40, and it used to take a couple of minutes to scan each picture (probably not helped by the creaky old PC it was hooked up to at the time), but the results were absolutely amazing. The images it churned out were easily as good as the ones I get from my DSLR - using a standard ISO 200 film, the scanned images showed up the grain from the negative before any pixellation occurred..

Scanning from prints, on the other hand - not always brilliant results, although I'm definitely going to give Ken's suggested process a go.

Russ.

[kirbinster]

Just ordered an Epson Perfection V500 which has the digital ICE. Should have it in a week or so.