ian_dunross

<p>I have an Epson V700, and its scanned results look nice. I've been mostly doing scans of prints from the 19070s and before.</p>

<p>But the scanner broke recently. I have a HP G4050 gathering dust, which I had never personally used before. For these old prints, the quality themselves aren't great, but then again, I wouldn't want to lose any more detail from using a bad scanner.</p>

<p>With the Epson, I was scanning at 48bit-depth at 600 DPI. For using the HP, I am hoping to use similar settings.</p>

<p>Will there a noticeable difference between the two scanners? I imagine I have about maybe 2000-3000 more prints to scan, and then I'm done. Would it be worth it to get a new Epson?</p>

<p>I know this has been asked before, but I'm curious if there are new answers given the advancements in tech.</p>

<p>I have a lot of old 3x5 and 4x6 photos I need to digitalize. I can either use an Epson 750 flatbed scanner, which seems to produce very good quality scans<br>

-or-<br>

I could use my 5DsR with the 100mm Macro lens to photograph the prints</p>

<p>Which would be better? And if I use the camera, how can I ensure an even lighting and that the picture is completely flat?</p>

<p>Scanning seems to produce good results, but the tiff files are huge (about 300mb each at 600dpi), and even at 4 prints per scan, it's very slow</p>

<p>That for all your responses! I've neglected this thread for the past 2 days, but have been catching up on all the posts this morning. Not sure if I fully understand what everyone has said though...</p>

<p>I remember someone asking what the <strong>purpose</strong> of these scans are. These are old family photos, and I am scanning those for the purpose of preserving them in digital format (to archive them, view them later, prevent further degradation, etc)</p>

<p>One of the reasons I wanted to do these scans in an unprocessed way is because I've always regretted the destructive edits I have to photos I took on digital camera. I am a novice at best in Photoshop and making adjustments to white balance, curves, saturation, etc</p>

<p>So I want to avoid making these edits in the scanning software when I scan. What I want to know is whether I am missing out on anything that cannot be done later in Photoshop or Lightroom?</p>

<p>If it's just a matter of "processing" them now or processing them "later", I'd rather leave it to later. </p>

<p>Thanks again for all your responses!</p>

<p>Thanks for all your responses! I haven't had time to read every one of them yet, but will this afternoon.</p>

<p>I have one question though: What's a good resolution to scan at? Using tiff and 48bit color depth, some of the file sizes can be a bit overwhelming.</p>

<p>800dpi - 372mb<br>

1200dpi - 828 mb<br>

2400dpi - 3.21gb</p>

<p>Wouter, thanks for the response.</p>

<p>I thought tiff is already a raw format file, same as DNG, PSD or NEF?</p>

<p>I plan to do all my post processing work at a later date with Lr or Ps. Right now, I just want to gather the all the available data from my scanned photos.</p>

<p>I am using an Epson V700 to scan 20-30 year old photos.</p>

<p>In this context, is there anything I am missed out by using Epson Scan instead of SilverFast AI or VueScan? In other words, do they offer anything other than just post processing? Do they so anything "special" that I won't be able to do later in Photoshop?</p>

<p>I have a very large photo library (about 42,000 photos). Here is how I currently manage it:<br>

First, there are the top level folders by year:<br>

2001<br />2002<br />2003<br />…<br />…<br>

Then, there are events folders. The device used is indicated in the (brackets):<br>

2012:<br /> 2012-05-16 Hawaii (Camera)<br /> 2012-08-17 BBQ (iPhone)<br /> 2012-11-29 Birthday Party (Camcorder)<br>

The problem thatI'm getting too many events in a year: I can have upwards of 20 events folders in a year. This is making getting to my pictures very difficult. The photos feel isolated and balkanized.<br>

I want to find a way to manage my photos so that they naturally flow from one to the other. I want to be able to easy find an event, but also to be able to view photos around that event easily.<br>

What is the best way to organize my photos? Should I use some kind of software?</p>

Peter,

Could you go into some detail with regards to the advantages of SilverFast vs the built in application? I understand

SilverFast is more complicated, but what are some of the benefits I might get out of it?

Is SilverFast just editing these I images? If so, is it just like an automated photoshop workflow?

Les,

Culd you go in some details as to the precise benefits of using Silverfast over the bundled software?

<p>I recently came across a large cache of old family photos - from the 50s - 70/80s mainly. B&W and color photos. No negatives. I purchased an Epson V700 expressly for scanning them.<br>

However, I am rather a novice at scanning. What are your recommendations as to what software to use to scan the photos?<br>

I read on SteveHuffPhoto that SilverFast SE is much better than the included Epson utility. It produces sharper images. I downloaded a demo of the program and it seems to rely quite heavily on manual fine-tuning of the settings. I have no idea what those settings should optimally be.<br>

Should I go with another software that's easier to use? Or should I stick with SilverFast SE? If so, what are the settings I should use?</p>