Scanning slides and digital printing

[cnhoff]

Hi,

 

i am shooting slides mostly and now want to scan them on a Nikon

scanner for making some prints of the files.

 

8*10 will be my largest printing size.

 

At what settings should i scan them, what compression should i use and

are there some simple Photoshop tricks you can suggest to a novice to

the digital darkroom?

 

And finally, what resolution, format, file size etc. should i give to

the lab?

 

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks

[scott_eaton]

Scan at the highest resolution your scanner can handle. You can always rescale smaller, and higher rez files give you more room to work with exellent utilities like Neat Image or Noise Ninja.

 

Use *no* compression. Make TIFF files for working and storage, and only use JPEG for sending files to a lab, or showing on the internet.

 

Best advice I have is not to worry about Photshop, but trying different slide films of varying exposure lattitude (Astia to Velvia for example), and shooting various subject matter to get a feel of how they scan. When you've got a good feel for the basics and getting good scans, *then* start playing with Photoshop adjustments.

[dglickstein]

Christian,

 

This is exactly what I am doing now. Everything said above is right on. I suggest also reading:

 

http://www.photosafari.com/Articles/ScanningImagesWithNikonScan.asp

 

It should help with the settings on the scanner. Enjoy and good luck.

 

dG

[steve_dunn2]

<p>Ditto. I always scan at the highest resolution my scanner supports, even if I'm only planning to make a 4x6" of the picture. This gives me more flexibility for cropping, more flexibility for fixing geometry problems (like the look of buildings leaning backwards if you take a shot of a tall building from ground level), and the possibility to make a bigger print later if I decide I want to.</p>

 

<p>Lossless compression is harmless and saves disk space; use any common TIFF compression method except JPEG (yes, some software supports using JPEG compression within a TIFF). But make sure that your lab supports the file format and compression option you choose; not all TIFF compression options are available in all programs. PNG compression seems to be free of compatibility issues, AFAIK, and the compression is quite good, but you'll have to check if the lab supports PNG.</p>

 

<p>Or give the lab a JPEG you saved at the highest quality setting your software supports. It'll be much smaller (Scott, wasn't it you who said a few weeks ago that one lab you've used no longer accepts TIFFs due to bandwidth issues?), and I doubt you'll see any image quality issues in a print from a highest-quality JPEG. Don't use this as your format for saving your master copy of the file, though, as it's a lossy compression method (i.e. it intentionally throws away some image data). Use a lossless-compression format for that.</p>

 

<p>Ask the lab what resolution, format, etc. they like. The native resolution of the Fuji Frontier, for instance, is 300 dpi; some other lab equipment uses different resolutions (there's something, perhaps a Noritsu, that uses 400 dpi). If they tell you their preferred resolution, you can figure out the pixels dimensions; a 4x6" print at 300 dpi is 1200x1800 pixels. Don't worry about file size unless they tell you a maximum size; make your file the right resolution and the highest quality, and the file size will be whatever it is.</p>