Film Scanning & Cataloging

[schimmey]

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Hi. As some of you will be aware I have purchased a Nikon 5000ED. After having a little fun with it I am getting down to serious work now & was wondering how other members store, file & post develop scanned images to the final print for film based images that they have scanned.

 

I guess it is a matter of personal preference & choice & everyone will have their own way. I as yet have to find mine. I have tried various systems but, bearing in mind that a particular image may need to be 'tweaked' to satisfy certain requirements (e.g. an exhibition wanting only 10x8 format), how do other members sort, file & develop particular images. Do they have a complete digital reference library so that they can trace/view a particular image for reference & then every time a print is needed put it the scanner & edit etc. If so, do they keep reference notes on particular scanner settings for that image if they have used it before to get it much like the 'original/1st print'.

 

Your ideas/experiences would be welcomed.

 

Thanks,

 

Paul

[wda]

Paul, I also scan from a 5000D. All files are imported into LightRoom where I manage them through the Library module. A bigger question is where to store them.

 

Whereas I used to segregate my digital files according to subject or project, now they all go into one file for the year. But, and this is important, early in my work flow I add important keywords to help me find pictures in the future. If you adopt such a practice it doesn't matter where they are stored. Whenever possible I try to do a first edit of new images as soon as possible, trashing immediate out-takes. Later I refine the process and get rid of more.

 

When I scan I tend to produce quite big files at 16 bit because most are destined for stock use. Digital files from camera are stored in their raw state because LightRoom is non-destructive in its processing module. That means that I can derive any number and variety of sizes etc as exported files and still have the original file intact.

 

Finally, make sure you back up your stock on a regular basis to an external disk drive. With high value files I even back up to a removable storage away from the computer. You hope you will never need them, but one day you will! Whereas you can rescan, assuming you retained the original films, digitally originated files have no such life insurance once the recording media is reformatted.

 

I hope this helps you.

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[Philinflash]

Paul, first of all: Nice Image! If that is a scan of a print (or even a neg) well done.

 

But with respect to your questions, do I take it that you are proposing to pull out the original neg (or print) and re-scan it every time you need an reproduction? I have a hard time figuring out why you would want to do that. Personally, my approach is to scan once but trying to make the scan the "best" I can that one time. It really fries me to scan anything more than once. Everytime you take the original out of its safe resting place, you are flirting with the possibility of doing something adverse to the original. I tend to scan at resolutions that are higher than what I can see ever using for the final product. This produces over-large files but storage costs are coming down every day so I am not too worried about costs. They are slower to load, etc, however.

 

I store everything in folders oriented to the date of the original exposure. Where my records are not complete in that department, I guess. This sometimes involves reviewing calendars and parallel documentation. I use Photoshop CS4 and the associated Bridge for organization. I make liberal use of the information panel, especially plentiful applications of tags. Later, I can search quickly by tag or other associated criteria.

 

Once I have my 'master' file for the image, I make sure not to mess with its integrity. If I do something with the image, I make sure to start new lineage of files. It might be better to lock up the file so that it can only be copied but, to be honest, I don't do it myself. Every subsequent iteration of the image is derived from the original or one of its derivatives. I then group all of these children image files together in this same date oriented folder, using the Bridge Stack capability. In this way, I can see all of the variants of the original scanned image for later selection or further modification.

 

In the rare case (for me) where I want to establish a folder that might be, say, subject-oriented, I copy images from where they were above to the new folder. But my core image bank is back in the folder per above.

 

Bridge has some neat features for doing filtered searches so you should be able to access your images very easily if you have been disciplined about tagging files.

 

David's suggestions above for backing up files and off-site storage are excellent points no matter how you structure your storage media. With large-capacity hard disk storage media becoming so cheap these days, I find stand-alone USB-connected auxiliary hard disks easy to work with. But I also write copies of original scan files onto DVDs and put them in the bank vault, just to be sure.

 

I hope this has been responsive to your question.

Edited June 28, 2009 by Philinflash