35mm

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alexdigital

Is it better to scan in a 35mm negative to the original size or to
select a target size like 4x6 before it imports into Photoshop? Or is
better to just scan in the 4x6 photo prints from the developer? The
file size must be under 100mb. The inkjet prints will be around 11x14.
thanks,
alex
 
alexdigital said:
Is it better to scan in a 35mm negative to the original size or to
select a target size like 4x6 before it imports into Photoshop? Or is
better to just scan in the 4x6 photo prints from the developer? The
file size must be under 100mb. The inkjet prints will be around 11x14.
thanks,
alex
Click to expand...


Hi.

It does not really matter what size in inches you scan to, the important
part is the number of Pixels involved.

It is always better to work from the original. In this case that would be
the Neg.

A 35mm neg scanned at 2800 Ppi and 8 bits Colour Depth, will provide a file
size under 30MB, and should print to about 16 inches on the long side.
Provided it is not being cropped.

The above statements may produce contrary claims from the theoreticians,
but in practice it certainly does work. Some of those people will claim 35mm
is incapable of producing Prints larger than 10 x 8, but do try it and then
make up your own mind.

If you are going to make Colour adjustments, it might be best to scan at 16
bits, if your Photo Program can handle that colour Depth. And if your
scanner is capable of a higher resolution scan, I would always advise to go
for the maximum file size, as that gives more options for cropping etc.

Roy G
 
There is no "better" way.
You scan using the DPI Setting for whatever the final product will be.
For email and general web display 300 DPI is plenty.
With the screen resolution size set for the intended display viewing.
320x240, 640x480, 800x600 or anything by anything.
A typical 4x6 photo lab print is 200 to 300 DPI.
So flatbed scanning it at this resolution is ok.

For archiving 35mm slides and negatives you want pull as much information out of
them as you can. So 4000+ DPI is not uncommon. But you end up with 50+
megabyte files.

Hope this helps.
 
There is no "better" way.
You scan using the DPI Setting for whatever the final product will be.
For email and general web display 300 DPI is plenty.
With the screen resolution size set for the intended display viewing.
320x240, 640x480, 800x600 or anything by anything.
A typical 4x6 photo lab print is 200 to 300 DPI.
Click to expand...

Just remember that typical screen resolution is about 96 ppi.
So flatbed scanning it at this resolution is ok.

For archiving 35mm slides and negatives you want pull as much information out of
them as you can. So 4000+ DPI is not uncommon. But you end up with 50+
megabyte files.
Click to expand...

At 8 bit color depth and no croping I get a tad over 60 megs and at 16
bit color dpeth it's pretty close to 128 megs.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what he is asking with "original size" which is roughly
an inch by inch and a half, but as Michael said, you just scan to get
the number of dots or pixels for the screen width.

As the aspect ration (length ot width) of a 35mm negative or slide is
not the same as most computer screens you either scan to use the full
lenght of the slide, or scan to get full screen height and then crop
off the end(s) of the image.

If you are going to be printing 11 X 14 from the scans, but all means
scan the negative or slide (not a print) to the highest resolution you
have available. Scanning at 4000 dpi gives plenty for printing an 11
X 14 at 300 dpi. Still it takes a really good image to blow up that
far. I've printed at 200 dpi and was happy with the results, but they
were definately not salon quality prints<:-))

For printing normal size prints scanning prints of the same size at
300 dpi should work fine. OTOH for the best quality and detail you'd
still scan the negative or slide and I find it normally easier to scan
a film strip than a bunch of photos.

http://www.rogerhalstead.com/scanning.htm may be of some help, but I
think Michael covered it well.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
 
fwiw I scan everything at 4000ppi, targeting A3 (12X18"). This results
in beautiful, ultra-sharp images when I've done my job
photographically...and it taught me that a camera lens wasn't as
wonderful as I previously thought before I enlarged that far. For
example, one of my favorite Canon FD lenses turned out to be soft in
corners at most apertures when compared to older (1960s) Leica and
Canon screw mount rangefinder lenses.

My 4000ppi files are 120MB before I crop, and I do tend to crop more
than some would recommend from 35mm. I get away with wasting storage
space this way because I use 120G Maxtor external hard drives for
primary storage and backup...but I will need to start saving on CD very
soon.
 
fwiw I scan everything at 4000ppi, targeting A3 (12X18"). This results
in beautiful, ultra-sharp images when I've done my job
photographically...and it taught me that a camera lens wasn't as
wonderful as I previously thought before I enlarged that far. For
example, one of my favorite Canon FD lenses turned out to be soft in
corners at most apertures when compared to older (1960s) Leica and
Canon screw mount rangefinder lenses.

My 4000ppi files are 120MB before I crop, and I do tend to crop more
than some would recommend from 35mm. I get away with wasting storage
space this way because I use 120G Maxtor external hard drives for
primary storage and backup...but I will need to start saving on CD very
soon.
 
fwiw I scan everything at 4000ppi, targeting A3 (12X18"). This results
in beautiful, ultra-sharp images when I've done my job
photographically...and it taught me that a camera lens wasn't as
wonderful as I previously thought before I enlarged that far. For
example, one of my favorite Canon FD lenses turned out to be soft in
corners at most apertures when compared to older (1960s) Leica and
Canon screw mount rangefinder lenses.

My 4000ppi files are 120MB before I crop, and I do tend to crop more
than some would recommend from 35mm. I get away with wasting storage
space this way because I use 120G Maxtor external hard drives for
primary storage and backup...but I will need to start saving on CD very
soon.
Click to expand...

You might want to consider DVDs instead as with 120 meg files you
can't quite get 6 on a single CD where as you can get *about* 38 on a
DVD.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
Roger
 
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