Re: Photo Scanners

**"* M* <B*@verizon.net>**

Hi, Lina,

It can be hard to learn all the settings and software for your scans but I 
have a few hints for you.

Once you become familiar with Photoshop Elements you will find that you can 
use a drop-down menu from the far left to "acquire" an image from your 
scanner. This should allow many choices of resolution and scan type.

If you scan leaves or flat flowers, put them face-down on the scanner glass. 
Then put a backdrop over them such as a plain piece of paper or a piece of 
attractive cloth. One of the best backgrounds is a piece of speckled 
recycled paper. Then instead of a messy background you have the texture and 
color of your backdrop behind the object.

If you scan old photos with ripple-cut white borders, put black paper over 
the back and include the attractive border in your scan.

If you are scanning in order to make prints, the scan should be at least 300 
dpi for a print the same size. If you want a blowup you have to scan at a 
higher dpi setting.You can always cut down the size of an image but it is 
not so easy to blow it up once it is scanned.

If you are scanning in order to put something onscreen or online, 72 dpi is 
the preferred resolution.

Saving scans as .jpgs saves lots of space, but jpgs degrade every time they 
are used (they use a formula for filling in monocolored spaces) and the 
image comes out a little different every time. Yet I use jpgs by saving the 
original and then a copy. I work from the copy and save the changes with a 
new name. I can always go back to the undisturbed original for a fresh 
start.

When you scan slides, you'll need super high resolution -- 2400 dpi or more, 
but only the actual size of the slide's film (does this make sense?) Then 
when you view it at 300 dpi  or less it expands and fills the screen as it 
would if it had been projected.

A scanner is essentially a camera and if you have a good one you will find 
lots of uses for it. You might also want one of those usb portable drives to 
hold all the big images you are going to make and store.

-- Betty
www.mackeybooks.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <AldieOaks@aol.com>

> Thanks, Betty.  The flatbed scanner looked more appealing to me and  more
> practical and, as you said, less likely to damage the old photos. 
> Interesting
> what you said about scanning fresh ferns and pansies -- I'll  have to give 
> this
> a try next year.
>
> Right now I'm leaning toward an Epson which does have Photoshop Elements,
> which I thought would be useful if some of the old photos need some 
> restoration.
>
> After I finish this project, I have a lot of garden and flower slides I'd
> also like to digitize. At one time (many years ago)  I specialized in 
> garden
> photography -- even had an agent -- and sold slides to for catalog use 
> and,
> surprisingly enough, an awful lot to churches for bulletin covers. I'd 
> like  to
> put the best of these old slides onto disks now. Don't know what I'll do 
> with
> them, but still would like to do it.

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