While scanning is fine for those heirloom photos, is it suitable for scanning all the family photographs? Isn’t that a bit tedious, you ask. Not really. There are some advantages. Remember the photos, which yellowed and discolored in my original albums? With editing software, I was able to restore many of those images. While I use Photoshop, there are more affordable editing software programs on the market.
Correct
the Color of Old Photographs using Editing Software
Some of these programs
might come bundled with your scanner, computer or camera. Or you can pick
up a program like Photoelf (at photoelf.com), which can easily perform minor
editing tasks, while also being a great tool in organizing your image files.
When scanning images, I
rarely scan larger than 200ppi. If the image is too large, it slows down
my computer, and since I am usually printing at least four images to an 8 ½ x 11”
page, there is no reason to go larger. Sometimes, if the original image is very
small, I will scan at 300ppi.
A caution - when using
JPEGS, each time you save the file, it deteriorates. Continue to make changes,
and save over and over again, and you will notice a significant loss in the
photo quality. The solution, save your originals on a file, and make a
copy of that file to use in your scrapbooking. In fact, it is a good idea to
save your scanned files on a CD or DVD, as your “originals.”
I currently use a HP
Scanner. Since most of my photos are snap shot size, I can scan about six
photos at a time. The scanner recognizes I have more than one picture on
the glass, and it will scan each picture individually. My old scanner was
unable to do this, which meant it would scan all six images on one JPEG file.
(Or if it could do this, I never figured out how!). I then made six copies
of the image, and cropped each one. This was a bit tedious.
If possible, I would
suggest scanning all of your photos before beginning your scrapbooking. It
will make it easier to organize your photographs. I wasn’t able to do
this, and it is one of my regrets.
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