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Community Newsletter: Q&A: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer?
- 9/29/08 10:23 AM
My Scanner
by jonathanjgr - 9/27/08 1:36 PM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I too had trouble finding a scanner that would scan both prints and slides or negatives.
Eventually I discovered the HP Scanjet G3010 which does everything and comes with a simple but complete software package to do the basic touch-ups; including multiple pictures scanned in one run but seperated into individual files. Aligns skew pictures as well.
The HP scanner also comes at a very reasonable price too.
Camera with good Macro possibilities.
by BetyRosita - 9/27/08 5:04 PM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
- Use a good Digital camera with Macro possibilities.
Like for example the Panasonic Lumix FZ50.
- Take care for dimmed daylight or alike for the exposure (not directly Sunshine)
- Process your Memory Card in the PC with suitable Digital Imaging Software. Then you also have the possibilitis to correct all shortcomings etc.
I think this is the most decent solution and.....low costs!
Regards,
Ruud Hennige, Pangandaran (West-Java, Indonesia)
speedup your computer
by srajja_2 - 9/28/08 2:00 AM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are many way to disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background, You should disable some startup programs that ununnecessary for running your pc. or use window washer program to clean unnecessary files
You asked 2 questions, here are your 2 answers
by Anamouse - 9/28/08 10:02 AM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Question 1, what is the fastest way:
For normal people cameras mounted above a properly lighted copy board are the FASTEST way to scan photos, because cameras take pictures many many times faster than the fastest scanners, (that normal people buy). The downside is that you have to change the pictures by hand, (so you have to stand there), and most cameras inclusing most digital cameras add a little distortion when they shoot a picture. The more wide angle usually the more distortion. Few people know that and fewer people notice it. There are programs that will remove the distortion.
Question 2, best method:
If quality is you goal, scanners deliver much better quality, provided you can afford to pay the price it costs to get the quality you want. Many also have document feeders that can scan feed pictures into the scanner while you're not their, so it's a little like doing the laundry, you can do it while you eat or watch TV.
Unless you are doing commercial graphics, (like I did for a living for a while), I think you would be very happy with the camera and copy board speed and quality. And as a plus, you can use your camera for lots of things, but a scanner can't do anything but scan. I have both and could not live without my camera, but easily make it without my scanner.
Ana
Scanning old pics
by WAArnold - 9/28/08 2:10 PM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If you have old slides use this link and purchase the Slide scanner. I've used it for about 15000 slides and it performs perfectly.
If you have printed Pics I would suggest you use a good scanner, I personally use an HP 3400 scanner, and scan them into your computer using a photo editing program such as JASC Paint Shop or Adobe Photo Shop. I use both and can attest to the ease of use. The pixel rate you scan the product will determine the size of the file. I personally scan them in, edit and do my correction with the Adobe Photo shop, then I do a little editing with the JASC Paint Shop and then save them in the JPEG format, although you can select other formats.
Your slides will deteroriate rather rapidly over the years. You will notice black spots forming and they will continue to grow over time. This is fungus that forms on those slides. Printed pictures will deteriorate slowly also, so the sooner you conver to digital the sooner you will stop the fading. You should do it today.
As soon as you get them scanned in, you should immeddiately do a backup. I have a minimum of 4 backup of my pics. I learned a lesson when I lost about 7 thousand and had to start over.
BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP
can't be said enough.
Scanning your picks
by WAArnold - 9/28/08 2:12 PM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I forgot to put the link in for the Pacific scanner
http://www.thenerds.net/PACIFIC_DIGITAL.Pacific_Image_PrimeFilm_1800U_Film_Scanner.PF1800U.html?affid=1&srccode=cii_9324560&cpncode=12-67810843-2&affid=3
The Don'ts: No One's Talking Much About Software
by middlebass - 9/28/08 2:52 PM In reply to: Scanning your picks by WAArnoldThis is a great discussion of hardware pros and cons plus techniques, but software is only mentioned occasionally.
I have scanned thousands of pictures successfully over the past nine years with 4 different HP scanners, and will never buy another one from HP. I've had it with their software. They don't seem to provide fixes for problems. My HP4600 worked fine for two years until some Windows update caused a problem with HP Director. I love the oddball 4600 device, but have worked with a clumsy workaround to get HP Director started for three years now. The workaround takes extra time whenever I use the scanner.
And I've had numerous reasons to re-install HP scanner drivers that magically stop working. The uninstall and install programs taken much longer than most other similar programs.
But the last straw was late this spring, when I bought an HP4380 All-In-One wireless printer/copier/scanner for my summer home. I assumed that if I had problems with wireless scanning, I could use a USB connection. Well, wireless scanning stopped working two weeks after I got the scanner, and multiple VERY LENGTHY uninstalls and reinstalls didn't fix the problem. And I never got the USB connection working. But the printing works fine.
However, to add insult to injury, my laptop started bouts of unexplained heavy CPU usage at about the time I installed the new scanner. The program using the CPU time was svchost.exe. And cancelling the process fixed the problem for awhile, but it always came back after a re-boot. Well, I finally installed a program called Process Explorer which helped me figure out that svchost just provides services for other programs, and the program causing the process was a HP DLL. I don't remember the full name. A search on the name pointed that it was from the HP4380 printer/scanner, and that HP had not fixed the problem in the year after it became known.
So I deleted the drivers for the printer/scanner and the problem went away.
I've had other fairly serious problems with HP scanner drivers that I won't go into here. In summary, not counting the time taken to install the HP software the first time, I have spent at least 40-50 hours over the past 8 years fighting HP scanner software problems.
HP scanners are great hardware with very poor software. Working well 95% of the time is not enough. I will never buy another HP scanner.
The Don'ts: No One's Talking Much About Software
by WAArnold - 9/30/08 1:04 PM In reply to: The Don'ts: No One's Talking Much About Software by middlebassI say something about a couple programs to help in getting your pics scanned and fixed into the computer, you don't like that!! but go on a diatribe about how many scanners you bought that crapped out and that's ok?
Only scans at 1800 dpi
by mynond - 9/28/08 9:21 PM In reply to: Scanning your picks by WAArnoldLooked at the scanner you recommended, but it only scans at 1800 dpi. For archival quality the dpi should be 4000 dpi.
Only scans 1800
by WAArnold - 9/29/08 8:37 AM In reply to: Only scans at 1800 dpi by mynondActually that is wrong. I own one of them and assure you I can scan even at 4800. However that is a quite large file.
Why scan when you can photograph them ?
by teraupo - 9/28/08 4:17 PM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If you have a decent digital camera on a tripod with a 50mm capable lens, it is quick and easy to create digital copies of your prints. I have a 10megapixel SLR which I used to photograph our family albums consisting of mostly b/w prints. The tricky part is making sure you dont get any reflections and that the photo is flat. This can be achieved with a non reflective pane of glass, spend some time setting up before launching into massproduction.
If you want to use a camera set up a copy stand, with lights
by Anamouse - 9/28/08 4:40 PM In reply to: Why scan when you can photograph them ? by teraupoCameras work great if you take all the guess work out of it,by using a copy stand. With most copy stands for small pictures, the camera is mounted pointing straight down, so the pictures are flat and pointing up. They don't need to be under glass unless they are warped, and even if you use glass, do not use non-glare glass. Non glare glass would just muddy the image.
The room you use should be as dark as possible, and the lights should be off the side of the pictures, about at a 45 dergee angle on both sides, which will eliminate shiny spots and most ghosting that comes from reflections off the original. Flashes work well, especially since their color rendition is eary to predict.
I will give that a try, but...
by jpedicord - 9/30/08 10:28 AM In reply to: If you want to use a camera set up a copy stand, with lights by Anamouse... where I started in my "archiving" operation was with my pile of slides rather than the prints, using a similar technique: a digital camera in macro mode on a tripod. I paid $20 for a small light box at a crafts store to backlight the slides, taped a couple of pieces of cardboard on it for a "target" to set the slides in, and started snapping away. At the position that gives me the best focus I end up with a black border around the picture, which is easily cropped with any editing software in 2 shakes to give a decent reproduction... and the price is right.
Well, I'm late, but here's my 2 cents-
by Aimee H. - 9/29/08 7:22 AM In reply to: What is the fastest and best method to scan photos into a computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Watzman is correct-there is no easy way to do it-unless you send off for it and that can be costly. I have thousands of photos myself and had bought a HP Photosmart C5180 some time ago. The software it came with is easy to use and you can scan in tons of photos in one sitting fairly quickly. However, I was regretting my decison to purchase it over the Epson that had the negative scanner when I realized there was the issue of the pictures I had already scrapbbooked into an album.
I ended up buying a PlusTek negative and slide scanner on NewEgg.com after reading several reviews and information on digitizing photos. Many of my pics I still have the negatives for, for those I don't I have my All-in-one. It would have cost a heck of a lot of beans to scan all my negatives, and I wanted the best quality for reprints. The scanner wasn't very expensive and came with SilverFast, a professional scanning and imaging software.
I would also recommend not just backing up photos only to an external hardrive, but also to a disk as well. It may not protect from fire, but as I've learned the hard way, if your home is buglarized and your computer and external hard drive stolen, you will have the disks to recover the lost photos.
Safely storing your scanned photos
by DustyNicky - 9/30/08 11:16 AM In reply to: Well, I'm late, but here's my 2 cents- by Aimee H.I will jump in again and add that backup is an option, but what if a disaster strikes - like fire or flood.
I recommend an external storage option on the internet. Most sites do offer free storage to some extent, but you run out of that pretty quickly especially if you are storing images scanned at 3200 dpi or even at 600 dpi for that matter.
That's why, 'DustyMedia' offers sensible storage options to store your photos, as well as videos online where they will be more accessible and secure so you don;t need to worry about backing up or taking care of those external hard drives.
Check it out - www.DustyMedia.com
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