flatbed scanner direction-

[tramp]

hello, to all [if anyone remembers me] as i haven't been on for a long time. questions as usual -

i need suggestions in buying a flatbed scanner to scan old family album black/white photos. i've had considerable experience in scanning colored slides [ approximately 4500] with a nikon ls-40 and manipulating them in ps 6.0. i would consider myself knowing enough in ps 6.0 about levels, curves, color correction and batch scanning. beyond this, i know little else in its usage. the b/w photos [which i currently want to scan] are in an old album with sizes-
1- 1 5/8" square [ plus white border]
2- 1 1/16"x 1 1/2" [ " " " ]
3- 2 3/8"x 4 1/4" [ " " " ]
4- 3 1/16"x 5 1/2" [ " " " ]
5- 3 1/4" x 9 1/4" [ " " " ]
6- 4" x 6" [ " " " ]
7- 5" x 7"
8- 8" x 10"

i don't know about the function of a flatbed , but i assume the scanning procedure is similar to a that of my ls-40. money is not a problem in my choice, but my ultimate goal is to have as good a resulting image possible . i would not necessarily need one with a slide or negative capabilities [since i have that in my ls-40], IF i could get a flatbed without them and still have plenty of resolution. however, in order to get a high resolution it may come with the flatbed anyway. my slides scanner photo files were 2900 dpi resulting in a 29mb tiff file, after "optimizing" them in ps they then were converted to jpeg 12 [highest resolution] becoming a 8-10mb file. scanning plus "optimizing" in ps took 20-30 minutes per slide. questions-
1- i'm not sure "resolution wise" [ and it's resulting file size] it would take to get "nearly" as "good as possible" reproduction possible from the print. i don't want to pay anymore than necessary, but i still want a scanner that i can achieve as close to the best scan possible.
2- what "features" would you suggest? i would suppose dust and scratch removal would be one, which would be the same as using "ice" [ for the same thing] in my ls-40 during scanning.
3- some of the album pages prints are "glued" on both sides of the sheet. and cutting each print out is NOT an option as the ones on the reverse side would then get cut into. . it seemed like there was one flatbed i read about where one could lay the album page on the scanner and scan the multiple ones "individually". that looks like an option that would be best in this case.
4- would you suggest doing as i did in scanning my slides? applying "ice" [ dirt/ scrach removal] at scan time,THEN do any "optimizing" in ps 6.0?
5- i would need to know if i i would have to change "color settings" or anything else in ps 6.0 to accomodate scanning in b/w? if so, what "specifically" would need to be reset and at what?
6- or, would it be better to use the flat bed sodftware? one thing i wouldn't like about that is having to "learning" it.
7- as far as file size is concerned i would want it to achieve at least a 8x10 size. so, what resolution would that require and the resulting file size? what would be the scan time itself in minutes on whatever that "resulting" file size may be?
8 also, suggest any other features i possibly would want in a flatbed
9- i know this is long, but i need answers to the above. please advise-
10- thank you-

tramp

p. s. is roger rowlett still on this site?

[Clemmie]

Any modern flatbed scanner - which I define as being new enough that it connects to the computer via USB (rather than Parallel plug or SCSI card) - should provide quite sufficient resolution for the task at hand.

Looking thru your 'original' sizes, to take the smallest to an 8x10 print, will require a scanner capable of at least 2400 dpi. I base this on what is currently considered to be a 'photo quality' print being 300 dpi, and your smallest original will require almost an 8X enlargement to make an 8x10. You'll find most scanners today achieve 4800 dpi on a multi-pass scan - and many of those, with software-based interpolation, will achieve 9600 dpi (with a few claiming 19,200 dpi) - so there is plenty of 'reserve capacity' available for your needs.

Of several tried over the years, Hewlett-Packard is the only brand that's actually worked for me on a consistent basis, so that's what I'll recommend. Their current scan control software is quite good, without a serious 'learning curve' involved.

Flatbeds, by their very nature, allow you to lay the album on them. They do a single-pass 'prescan' of the full coverage area, and display that on the screen. Then, using the scan control software, you drag the boundaries in with your mouse to define the area you wish to concentrate on. The scanner then performs its multi-pass scanning, concentrating on that defined area, to create the 'scan file' for a particular picture - which will be a rather large .tiff or .bmp file, depending on your settings.

For resizing the 'scan files' to desired printing dimensions - and saving them to a more compact format like .jpg, fine-tuning them for a particular print density like 300 dpi, etc. - I recommend IrfanView. It's a free program - download from http://www.irfanview.com - that is quite simple to use. So simple, in fact, there are no written instructions for it. It'll only take a few minutes of looking thru the menus to figure it all out.

One thing to keep in mind in viewing the results, is that you will NOT get as sharp a result from scanning old prints, as you are likely accustomed to getting from your negative scans. Life just doesn't work that way. In fact, quite the opposite - the better the scanner, the likelier it will pick out every little imperfection in the old prints. But, with a good scanner and a little effort, you can get scans that are pretty darn good. Good enough, with a little touch-up, to make prints that look a bit better than the originals.