JT07 Posted April 12, 2015 Share #1 Posted April 12, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) After years of looking at boxes full of slides in my closet, I've finally begun the project of scanning to digital. I have a borrowed Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 and a 13" Macbook Pro Retina and I purchased Vuescan Professional Version. Once scanned I've been importing to Lightroom 4 95% of the scans will end up just be viewed on the Macbook Pro. If I do make prints, they would more than likely be 4 x 6, maybe 5 x 7. On a rare occasion I could see an 8 x 10. I'm scanning jpeg and at 4000 DPI, I'm getting almost 2 minutes per scan.... slow and painful..... at 2000 DPI, I'm down to about 50 seconds or so. I'm new to this and really feeling my way through as I go but can those more experienced then me offer some advice? I'm most interested in thoughts on... Raw vs. Jpeg Suggested DPI based on use described above. Am I ok at 2000? to save time Any workflow secrets or suggestions... Thank you so much for any input...... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 Hi JT07, Take a look here Slide Scanning DPI Help Needed. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Doc Henry Posted April 12, 2015 Share #2 Posted April 12, 2015 (edited) Hi JT, for my scans on a Nikon , I'm going to the max.capacity of the scanner, ie more than 5000 px in "Tiff", (but it's long, I agree) but never Jpeg , because it's compressed.TIFF allows a possible correction , in digital equivalent of the DNG.If you have photos you want to keep, do like me. An example : this picture is scanned in 5576 x 3729 http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/205842-i-like-filmopen-thread/?p=2795861 Best Henry Edited April 12, 2015 by Doc Henry Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbealnz Posted April 12, 2015 Share #3 Posted April 12, 2015 JT, I'm not a scanner, I've tried a couple but never really enjoyed the process. Of late my "scanning" has amounted to placing the developed negs (B&W) onto a light box and copying them with a "BEOON" copy unit (and using usually my Fuji X-E1 as the camera). This allows me the ability to share these with others on the net, but I'd be unlikely to print from them, for that I go the wet way. In answering (or trying to) your question though, and not wanting to suggest Henry is wrong, I'd be scanning virtually all with the lower resolution and then re-doing the ones you feel need the extra for printing. Or, try a print from the lower resolution scan at the max size you feel you'll be at (8x10" perhaps?) and make the decision then. Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pop Posted April 12, 2015 Share #4 Posted April 12, 2015 If 95% are just to be shown on the screen, I would aim for a resolution which is adequate for that purpose, unless you want to be able to zoom in to a very large scale of magnification. From there on, you can easily calculate the required resolution, knowing that a "full frame" slide is just about 1 x 1.5 inches. So, for a scan with a shorter side of 1000px you need a resolution of 1000 dpi. On the other hand, if you want to be able to print the complete image, you should expect the printer to require something like 300dpi (for printing, that is). Multiply the shorter side of the print (8") by 300 and you have the number of pixels the short side of the scanned photo should have: 2400. Knowing that the shorter side of the slide is 1" (again) .... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaspart Posted April 13, 2015 Share #5 Posted April 13, 2015 I'm currently scanning my Kodachrome slides of travels I did some 20 years ago with a Nikon scanner and Vuescan in order to have them printed in photobooks. After some testing I ended up scanning them with a resolution of 3000dpi. As I'm not doing much postprocessing (they are slides meant to be projected as they are afterall) I'm fine with jpeg's, knowing that I could always re-scan a particular one with higher res and raw if needed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted April 13, 2015 Share #6 Posted April 13, 2015 After years of looking at boxes full of slides in my closet, I've finally begun the project of scanning to digital. It is a good time to be self critical and edit your collection only scanning those that are worth it. In which case scan at the highest resolution you can and only do it once. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT07 Posted April 13, 2015 Author Share #7 Posted April 13, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) thank you all for the great feedback, I really appreciate it.... Based on all your helpful feedback, I'm leaning toward a two part process. Doing a very critical review while viewing on a light box with loupe and then dividing the slides to three batches. Batch 1. The real keepers, best of my best. I'll scan at 4000 DPI (my scanners max). Batch 2. The images that are not my best work but good enough for future computer only viewing. Also sentimental pictures would fit in this batch. Example I scanned all 250 slides I shot on my honeymoon... Batch 3. Slides that aren't good enough to fit into batch 1 or 2 above. These just get stored in archival sheets With a really critical review I'm thinking percentage wise, something along the lines of ... Batch 1. 10% of my slides Batch 2. 40% of my slides Batch 3. 50% of my slides I think that makes the entire project manageable and breaks the process down by planned end use. For the 4000 DPI scans, do I scan in RAW or TIFF? Thanks again everyone.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted April 14, 2015 Share #8 Posted April 14, 2015 TIFF. Most raw files are camera-specific and TIFF based anyway. You can run your TIFF files through Adobe's (free) DNG converter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted April 14, 2015 Share #9 Posted April 14, 2015 Scan as TIFF files. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Henry Posted April 14, 2015 Share #10 Posted April 14, 2015 (edited) Hi JT, here a picture scanned recently in Tiff (about 5200 x 3500 -19,6 Mo) without any correction (RGB calibrated) Slide Kodachrome 64 Tiff > Jpeg for posting http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/205842-i-like-filmopen-thread/?p=2797417 another slide http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/205842-i-like-filmopen-thread/?p=2797488 Best Henry Edited April 14, 2015 by Doc Henry 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT07 Posted April 15, 2015 Author Share #11 Posted April 15, 2015 Hi Doc, Beautiful work, thank you so much for sharing and thank you all for the great input. It's been a great education.... Tiff it is.... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyoung Posted April 15, 2015 Share #12 Posted April 15, 2015 From memory, scanning a 35mm slide on my Coolscan V at 4000dpi takes about 40 seconds. On an Epson V750 at 6400dpi it takes a couple of minutes. Try and get hold of a faster scanner? Unfortunately the Coolscan V hasn't been made for a while. I always scan at max res, and save as a tiff, you can always throw resolution away later! And storage is cheap. Gerry Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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