Photo Scanning

[Montana]

We have just been going through the loft and came across a shed load of older photo's.
So here for the questions.What would be the best program for touching up older photo's and storing them onto a HD and disc ?

I should also let you know that I have a Epson Perfection 640U scanner, is this scanner up to the task of being able to scanning photo's properly ?
As a side note , should I be using (if the scanner is up to the task) the scanners software for scanning the photo's, or can I use a photo touching up program (as asked for help on earlier) to scan them ?


Andy

[pixelpixel]

Yes use your scanner software, any other software will just call your software using twain. I believe your scanner is 600 x 2,400 dpi resolution, 9,600 x 9,600 dpi enhanced resolution which is more than enough.

With your images what would you like to do with them ?

• Archive ?
• Keep as close to the original ?
• Touch up ?

• Or all of the above !

Photoshop elements has a few handy tricks for fixing images.

I think you would get better feed back in the Digital Cameras, Photography & Photo Editing section don't worry they are a friendly bunch and will help you.

I once did a black and white image into colour for my dad based on some of the info he gave me. He was stunned to how life like it was.

[rickyt]

Most scanners nowadays will make a nice job of your photos , I have a standalone model but the one built in to my Epson printer is superb . A really nice thing to do with your scanned pictures is to create a slide show with effects and background music and put it onto a DVD .Excellent to watch and quite easy to do , as there is a load of programs out there to create the slide show .Have a go first with Windows Photostory . It will create a .wmv to view on your Pc , then you can try some other software.

[Montana]

Originally Posted by pixelpixel

Yes use your scanner software, any other software will just call your software using twain. I believe your scanner is 600 x 2,400 dpi resolution, 9,600 x 9,600 dpi enhanced resolution which is more than enough.

With your images what would you like to do with them ?

• Archive ?
• Keep as close to the original ?
• Touch up ?

• Or all of the above !

Photoshop elements has a few handy tricks for fixing images.

I think you would get better feed back in the Digital Cameras, Photography & Photo Editing section don't worry they are a friendly bunch and will help you.

I once did a black and white image into colour for my dad based on some of the info he gave me. He was stunned to how life like it was.

With regards to my original post, I apologise to all that I posted in the wrong forum, I didn't realise this one existed(must come here more often, and try to look at the forum catagories , lol ).

What I would like to do with my photos, is all of the above.Mainly I would like to keep them as original as possible, but if need be adjust them if need it.

So what program would you suggest ?

Andy

[senu]

Originally Posted by Montana

So what program would you suggest ?
Andy

If you don't already have one, Photoshop Elements ( now on ver 5) as suggested is hard to beat for "all of the above" and more
It is simple enough for a newbee to grasp but has a few tricks under its sleeve for the more adventurous
I now have Photoshop Cs3 but still use Elements for a lot of stuff ( and this is ver 3 ( too lazy to install 5 on this PC )
All software have a learning curve but there is no shortage of help from online sources , forums ect and books
I also have 2 Epson Scnners and find Epson Scanning software is gennerally good
However it wont replace a dedicated program for enhancing ect For the actual scanning, use it, Even if you scan from within any program it will just "call" it up

[MarkE19]

If you do get a copy of Photoshop Elements then I highly recommend you also get hold of a copy of The Photoshop Elements 5 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby to get the best out of the software.

Mark.