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?