Scanning loads of photos

[GNEP]

In the midst of dividing our collective stuff up, I am letting all our old photos go to her.

I want to scan in a load of them beforehand though, so I have a question.

Is it best to just scan them all in on the standard scanner settings (I have a CanonScan LiDE 20) and then adjust colour balances etc later when I have more time, or should I really put the effort in now and try to get the scans perfect first time? I have photoshop and PSP if needed, plus the standard tools that came with the scanner.

I mean, the scan itself, even if slightly off, can always be "corrected" later, right?

G

[UtwigMU]

Based on your case, I'd say you want fast raw scans.

If auto settings produce satisfactory results (generally good, can be better corrected latter), just raw scan all the images, save as .tiff and edit latter.

I suggest trying an auto scan and no auto scan, both with colour correction latter in Photochop.

Keep to the one that produces better results.

Levels, Curves, Selective colour are your friends.

Also Variations and Hue saturation brightness.

Get black, white and midpoint right first, then tweak colours with either levels or curves on appropriate channels or variations.


Also check Photoshop help for "color casts removing", there's a great guide for creating custom curves for your scanner.

Then you could just batch process raw images with your custom curves and edit latter.


After that you should also retouch images (dust, scratches, hair, red eyes, etc...)

[GNEP]

Cool. Thanks Utwig. I'll do a trial run tomorrow and report back. The scanner can scan multiple photos (and save as separate files) so for speed I think I'll try that as well.