Alex Husick Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 Hi Damien, I'm new to your site and have a question for you or the team. My current project that I am about to embark on is the scanning of our family history albums and slices, a couple of thousand. Plan to capture the photos for long term family access, and with only minor editing or labelling as I go along. I plan to purchase an Epson V600 scanner with it's associated (bundled) software which is:- comes with a comprehensive software package, including DIGITAL ICE technology for dust and scratch removal, ArcSoft PhotoStudio for image enhancement, and Easy Photo Fix for restoration of faded images. Included Software:- Epson Scan with Epson Easy Photo Fix technology Epson Event Manager Epson Copy Utility ArcSoft PhotoStudio ABBYY FineReader Sprint Plus OCR So my question is, is this a good starting point for an amateur wanting to scan all of the family photos? Best Regards, Sincerely, Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 Hi Alex, The Epson range of scanners are great. For most of your photos, you'll be very happy with it. I feel obliged to point out that the V600 only has a Dmax of 3.4. Dmax indicates how sensitive the scanner is for very dark detail. If you had mentioned to me that you were scanning negatives, I would have encouraged you to stretch your budget to the V800 (or V700 if you could still find one for sale) which has a Dmax of 4.0. But as long as most of your photos and slides are sufficiently well exposed, you'll be happy with the 3.4 of the V600. Do you already own any editing software? Or would you be relying entirely on that which comes with the scanner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Husick Posted August 2, 2019 Author Share Posted August 2, 2019 Thanks for the feedback and suggestion. Am retired so can't stretch the budget, so the V600 will have to do. No negatives to speak of, however I should mention that most all of my slides were underexposed 1/2 stop to give me good density. I would overcome this during printing with Cibachrome by timing exposure a bit longer. Hope this works ok with a Dmax of 3.4, won't know till I try I guess. Other editing software is an older version of PhotoShop and a hodge podge of downloaded N&H stuff, etc. Hoping to rely entiredly with the Espon software bundle for most if not the majority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 The Photoshop is all you need. And Bridge of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Husick Posted August 2, 2019 Author Share Posted August 2, 2019 Thanks again, one last question for now, I plan to order the scanner tonight from B&H Photo. In regards to labelling the photos what are my options? At first I thought I would scan the photos to PDF and use Photoshop to overlay a label with names, places, dates, etc. Is PDF a good storage format? Also I would name each file with as much details as possible? JPEG permits labelling using Microsoft Paint, or something like that doesn't it. Anything to suggest that I am not aware of? Thanks for your kind attention, Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Oh gosh no. Tiff or PSD are the ONLY format to use. I assumed you'd found me because you found this article. But maybe not? Make sure you read it, it's SO important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 And make sure you have Bridge installed. Instructions for doing so in this free module. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Husick Posted August 2, 2019 Author Share Posted August 2, 2019 Boy am I out of date with this..... unfamiliar with with TIFF or PSD so will do some boning up on it. Also Unaware of Bridge so likewise. What thoughts do you have about labelling? Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 When you were researching the specs of the V600, you would have seen that it can scan in 48-bit colour. This is very important for the quality of scans. Tiff and PSD are the only two formats which can store that high-quality data. Bit depth explained by cake Bridge has been around for a long time. Which version of Photoshop do you have? (Oh, you'll do your labelling in Bridge). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 You still around, @Alex Husick? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Husick Posted August 6, 2019 Author Share Posted August 6, 2019 Re: Tiff and PSD, what about PNG as alternative? Easy to open I understand by lay people like an old aunt, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 Whoa, no, hang on. Of course you'd never send a TIFF or PSD to anybody else. TIFF and PSD are the format that you scan in, and save your master file. Then do your editing. Once you finish editing the masterpiece, and safely saved that TIFF or PSD, then you'd save a copy as jpeg for sending around. And no, NEVER png format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/02/trash-those-jpegs.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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