Scanning Photos = The Safer Photo Restoration Method

When it comes to Photo restoration, there are a few ways of getting your photo to your photo restoration specialist. The easiest one to think of is by post, and not to discount the postal service, this isn't the safest route. We always recommend sending your old photos by special delivery as these can be tracked (if something ever did go wrong, which is thankfully rare!). But the safest and most efficient way to do photo restoration is dealing in scanned photos, or scanned negatives and slides.

If you are asking for a quote, then it's best to scan in your photo as your photo restoration specialist can see the photo for themselves and give you an accurate estimate; and also provide a small preview of the photo restoration works free of charge so you can see how the photo repair is going to 'pan out'. This is much safer than using postal methods as your photo doesn't have to be shipped over the country, which is a godsend if the photo is the only one in existence, which is most commonly the case with old photos in need of repair!

When you are scanning your old photos, be sure to look out for a quality or resolution setting (the setting will be measured in 'DPI'), be sure to set the value to the maximum possible as this re-creates your old photo on your computer in a huge format. This is great for us, as this gives us a huge canvas to work with. A scan with a smaller 'DPI' setting isn't ideal for any photo restoration work as the digitally created photo doesn't contain enough information to re-construct damages or for colourising the photo. Skin tones, for example wouldn't be as vibrant and realistic looking on a small, scanned image.

The only downside to scanning, is if you are not familiar with computers, but software programs these days are extremely user friendly, anyone can do it. There really is no downside to scanning your old photos. It's a much safer alternative to using postal methods, and is instant, thanks to high speed internet.

Don't risk losing your beloved photographs in the post. If you do not have a scanner, it would be wise to invest in one as they are worth the cost, not only financially, but of sentimental value too. You can get a good scanner for cheap as the technology is fairly common now. Although 'all in one' scanners/printers are not the best, they certainly do the job. If the resolution is high enough, then there's nothing the photo restoration specialist cannot fix up on their end.

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Scanning Photos? The Best Scanner Settings

Everyone has a photo scanner these days. Most of us will slap an old photo or document on the glass from time to time - and then kind of just hope for the best. Finally, here are the settings - simply explained - for getting what you need from your scanner.

So, you've fired up the machine, you have laid down your image on the scanner glass - what now?

Umm, can you back up just a sec? The glass. I don't know about you, but the glass on my scanner gets all kinds of dust and smears on it. So best to give it a bit of a wipe with a cloth and maybe Windex. If you have a can of air - blow the dust off the glass too. Check the photo for dust too while you are at it (but don't spray it with anything whatever you do!)

OK. The photo is back on the glass and you're thinking that this is a bigger job than you imagined. Calm down - it will all be over in a jiffy. Because, there is really only one setting that you need to worry about and that's resolution - or dots per inch (or "dpi"). This is important because dpi (or ppi - "pixels per inch") sets both the quality and size of your image (I am going to use "dpi, but read "dpi or ppi").

Scanner resolution: 96 dpi or 300 dpi
Your scanner should have a setting for "resolution" and it should give you some choices either in dpi ("dots per inch") or ppi ("pixels per inch') - for all practical purposes they are the same thing. Your choice - depending on your scanner - will be something between 50 and 10,000 dpi. That narrows it down eh?

The choice you make will depend on whether you intend to use your pictures on computer screens and monitors; or if you will want to print them. Your average PC has a default resolution of 96 dpi, and print requires 300 dpi. So use these settings for those uses. If you are going to email or post the images, scan at 96 dpi. If you will want to print, scan at 300 dpi.

(Why 96 dpi for screens but 300 dpi for print? Because of the way computer screens are back-lit and normal viewing distances for computer work, you can get away with less dots. In short, the greater the viewing distance, the less dots you need. Normal viewing distance for reading is pretty close and there is no back light; so you need 300 dpi for print.)

Picture size: moving off 96 and 300
Scanning at 96 or 300 works great for most situations. But not all.

For example, what if your picture is really small? Let's say you have an old passport photo - sized 1" x 1.5". And let's say you want to email it to a cousin, but you may want to print it later. You scan at 300 just like the article said. You will have plenty of resolution to print it. But will be the same size as the original - really small.

If you want to boost the size of your image, increase the dpi setting on your scanner. Just do some simple math to work out what the setting should be. If you would like that old passport photo to be 4" x 6" when printed, then scan at 1200 dpi.

(Get it? Multiply every inch of your original photo by the scanner resolution to get the final size.)

Scanning images for video
A lot of TV and video media use 72 dpi. But I would ignore that fact when scanning photos for a video project. If you are editing photos into a video editing timeline (as I often do in my life story videos) then the program will take care of any necessary resolution adjustments. Just make sure that you keep in mind that the standard definition video picture frame is 720 pixels wide, and that HD video is 1920 pixels wide. Any image you use for standard definition video or HD should at least be as wide as the picture frame - and wider if you plan to zoom in.

Resolution for scanning negatives
Calculate your scanner resolution settings in the same way you would a photograph. If it is a 35mm negative (around 1" x 1.5") then you will want to scan at a minimum 1200 (makes a print 4" x 6") - and 2400 is better (and 4000 is even better - but your file size is getting pretty big at this point). The larger the negative, the lower you can go - just ask yourself will it be used on the computer or printed - then do the math.

All those other settings

Your scanner will probably have all kinds of other widgets and what-nots. If you have an editing program, then you are probably better off leaving them all unchecked and doing your fixing in your editing program.

If you are not going to edit in a photo program, then there is little harm in checking the "unsharp" box (it actually makes the photo sharper - go figure).

A word about old photos
Most old photos have a lot more information than you can see. In a lot of cases, the old photo was printed in a sandwich with the original negative. There is often a ton of information in them and they will repay a scan at a high resolution.

If you involved in a genealogy or a family history project then you will be handling a lot of old photos. And you will probably notice that many of the older images - those that were taken and processed before the color revolution - are really pretty good. I do a lot of photo restoration associated with family history and life story video projects and am constantly surprised by how early - and how well - the black and white photo technology was perfected. And I am often shocked - when the image is carefully scanned and restored - how much fresh detail is revealed. Sometimes you discover new people in the shot! So really crank up the resolution on those old images and see who you can discover in the detail.

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Tips for Scanning Your Photographs

Unless you are a teenager who probably has never seen a film camera, you will probably have quite a few old photos that only exist as hard copies of images captured on film. These could be pictures from your school and college days or old black and white or even sepia prints of your parents and grandparents. Like all pictures, they will deteriorate with age and the old way for you to preserve them is to digitize them by scanning them into you computer or save them on CDs or DVDs. Here are a few things you can do to ensure your scans are of the best quality and that you have saved the pictures in a way that matches what you plan to do with them.

• The first thing to note is the higher the scan resolution, the better the image quality. Resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi) and the higher the number of dots, the sharper and more detailed the photo. Most scanners have the option of selecting the dpi of the scan with 72 usually being the lowest and 600 the highest on a normal flat bed scanner (professional grade photo scanners can go up to 4000 dpi or more). Very high resolution scanning can often show up defects in the original that are not normally visible, but these can be fixed using photo editing software like Photoshop.

• Having said this, high resolution scanning is not always the best option for a particular objective. High resolution scans can take up a lot of space and if you want to send a picture by email, a 300 plus dpi scan will take a long time if it doesn't get rejected by email service provider at all. A rule of the thumb is to use 72 dpi for scanning photographs for emailing or for loading to a website; 150 dpi for normal storage; 300 dpi for archiving or creating master copies and the highest resolution when scanning slides or negatives.

• There are 2 file formats commonly used for saving images. JPEG compresses the data and is best for on screen viewing or emailing. Some quality is lost in a JPEG image, but it is usually not noticeable. If you want to maintain flexibility and be able to use the image for onscreen viewing or printing, the TIFF format is best. You can convert a TIFF image to JPEG for online transmission etc. but a JPEG shouldn't be converted back to TIFF because of the quality being lost in previous step.

• If you have a choice of pictures to scan, use the best ones available. While you can improve the quality of the image using photo editing software, the better the original image quality, the better will be the final result.

• If your scanner gives you the option of black & white or color scans, use the color option even for monochrome photographs. This will give you more flexibility in choosing the grayscale while using the photo editing software.

• It sounds funny but a lot of people forget to clean the photographs of dust, grime and fingerprints before scanning and then wonder why the mage has so many defects. Always clean the pictures and the scanner glass before doing any scanning. It may save you a lot of time editing in a software.

You'll learn even more with Proud Photography - one of the best online photography schools available today at http://www.proudphotography.com/

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