2 Questions in 1 post...

[Zeeke]

For some reason... my folks have roped me into scanning about 700 photos for a friend of theres (i wont get paid ) so im using photoshop to import the images and save them, at the moment im scanning 4 images at a time.. is it easier to scan the images seperately or is there a proggy that will auto cut out an crop the pictures??

Also.. for curiosity... when your out taking photos on the street, do you carry cards with your website address or email so if you take a photo of someone, you can offer them a card and say "Email me and ill send you some photos!"

Cheers if you can help with either

Tim

[Ant]

I am at work not home so I cant look this up but there is an option in Photoshop to scan multiples in one scan. This is what I use when scanning from prints.

Ant.

[losfp]

700 photos?!

There's not enough money in the country to make it worth my while scanning that many in (I used to scan all my happy snaps, but less often these days with digital cameras already providing a handy little thing called JPEG... and a slightly less handy thing called RAW )

If I HAVE to, I scan as many as will fit at one time, then crop/rotate etc separately once it's in photoshop

[mikephotog]

Are you scanning 4 images at once, then cutting them up in Photoshop?

Some scanner software will allow you to put selections around each of the 4 pics then scans in one pass....but produces 4 seperate images, no need to cut up in Photoshop.

Probably telling you how to suck eggs but.....keep in mind the end use of these images. If they are only for on screen use then 800x600 pixles is probably ok for horizontal images, and 600x400 for vertical images. This would cut down a bit on scan time.

However if they want to print them then you will need 1200 pixels x800 for a 6x4inch print printed at 200dpi. Don't bother with 300dpi as you will never tell the difference at that size on in inkjet printer. Don't forget the time spent saving/naming.

Be interesting to time the total scan time for one set of 4, then multiply it by 175 (700/4) to see how long this will take.

[Zeeke]

yerp... got 2 days to do it.. dunno how im gonna do it... I was told it was only a couple of photos.. but when this person walked in the door with 3 photo albums and a box of photos.... i was like OMG!! they expected me to print em all too... my lil Canon MP150 printer cant handle that, i use it to do the odd print or scan, otherwise i go to a professional.. and when the mp150 only gets about 12 A4 prints to a cartridge.. it'd be pushing it to its absolute limits! Now they just want me to scan all the photos and save them on cd individually

Tim

[Sheila Smart]

I know nothing about scanners but I feel that this project is going to take you a very, very long time! As they are not really "family", I would seriously suggest that:

(a) they decrease the number of images required by 90% (do they really need 700 snaps?)
or
(b) they take them to a photo lab and pay them to do it.

I feel that most folk do not appreciate how time consuming and boring this job could be.

Cheers
Sheila

[Zeeke]

Apparently they need all the snaps.. its in memory of a lost sister.. and they have to return the albums and photos to someone else who is apparently a "bitch" and doesnt want them to have the photos.. so they need a copy of everything.. and they went crazy at a lab pricing.. so now they expect me to do it... and i cant get out of it for some reason...

Tim
p.s. Yes im scanning 4 prints at a time.. and its damn time consuming!

[poiter86]

I have an old cheapy Canon lide 50 where the native canon software enables you to scan mutiple images at once and autocrops & rotates them. For your info, there was one setting in the software that I found & turned off for scanning multiple images. It was to do with autoexposure or auto colour on. Unless the multiple images were similar colouring, I found the auto settings could really screw the colour up on the scan, eg. 3 dark photos & 1 light one.

700 photos to scan ... good luck! If you're not getting paid for it, perhaps you can hint loudly at how much it might cost them at a lab and at least have a favour on the cards.

Cheers,

Pete

[Finch]

Tim,
I totally agree with Sheila's last comments. Most people have absolutely no idea as to how much time and effort goes into scanning so many shots. And they want this in 2 days????? If you attempt this, don't know if you are going to get too much sleep....

Giving these people some of the options Sheila posted would be the best thing to do

Cheers

Michael

[myarhidia]

Scanning & saving is not a difficult thing to learn or teach.

Have you thought of getting those parents of yours that "roped" you into this task to do it themselves

They may then appreciate what is involved.

[Zeeke]

Hard enough explaining to them how to turn the computer off.. ive set it so ya press the power button, the computer does a proper shut down.. like ya would shutting down through windows... but getting them to learn how to scan photos??? interesting!! heh..

Tim

[TonyH]

Tim,

have you thought about photographing the photos, you may find it a lot quicker and you may be surprised at the results.

Regards to handing out cards, yes, I always try to. If you need some doing let me know as Printing is actually my "real job".

Good luck! Big Job

Tony

[LOZ]

and they went crazy at a lab pricing.

Zeeke Her memory has a price so sad.

[Zeeke]

ill do as much as i can, if they dont like it.. tough..

Ok.. since im a shamateur photographer.. do i really need cards?? i mean, i can see why they would be handy.. but what would you have on em??

Tim

[mikephotog]

I echo the previous suggestion, shooting them on your DSLR may be quicker.

These people are expecting WAAAAAAY too much, regardless of their sad situation.


I actually doubt that you would get them all done in the time frame give.

And they haven't even taken them out of the albums and sorted them by size/horizontal/vertical etc to make it quicker for you ??????

When all said and done....here is you final way out of it.
"I was told it was only a couple of photos.. but when this person walked in the door with 3 photo albums and a box of photos"

[TonyH]

Tim,

regards to cards, they could direct people to your website if you have one, with a view of perhaps selling your photos? They could assist in extra revenue as in the situation that happens when you hand a card to someone who is talking with another person about your service and hand a card on for you. Word of mouth is fantastic but it is very rarely backed up with a reliable brain for important things such as phone numbers, websites etc.

Just a thought.

[radar]

Hi Tim,

read this on another mailing list:

Code: Select all

In PSCS2 Try FILE->AUTOMATE->CROP AND STRAIGHTEN.

Not sure if that works, don't use PS, just remembered that it should split up the images that were scanned. If you take a photo of a few images, it should also work on that.

HTH,

André

[BullcreekBob]

For some reason... my folks have roped me into scanning about 700 photos for a friend of theres (i wont get paid ) ....
Tim

700 Is a lot of photo's to scan because of the manul steps involved.
I would photgraph them, sure there may be a quality loss compared to a scan but they are after memories not art.

Tell them how much it would cost to get 700 photos printed at your local shopping centre camera lab, then remind them that the printing is the easy, non labour intensive part.

At home we have an Epson RX510 printer/scanner and it does pretty decent scans from slides and negatives seperating them into multiple files. An envelop of snaps with the negs still there only takes around 15mins for 39 exposures.

Scanning from prints I find quicker to scan individually rather than multiple and spilt taking 3 - 5 mins per image. So for me 700 prints to be scanned would be 2100 to 3500 minutes or between 35 and 58 HOURS.

Bob in Bull Creek

[Zeeke]

thanks for the info Radar.. ill give it a shot..

Tony, thanks for the info aswell.. might look into it

Cheers for the help everyone

Tim

[MATT]

Good luck Zeeke,

Maybe someone on the SUnny Coast could help?

Unfortuatley I'm in Bilo, Or I'd take them to work and scan them on the colour lazer/printer/scanner thingy at work A3 at a time them cut them up later, it saves to JPG 600dpi


Maybe OfficeWorks or similar could do something like that at fraction of what a Lab would cost??

Just ideas

MATT

[firsty]

If you must do it just scan/photograph them and put onto a cd and hand them over while saying your printer is broken
and tell them Havey Norman will print them for 39 cents each (.39x700=$273.00)
there is no way I would print them

[johndec]

As others have said, there is no way you will scan that many pics and do them any justice in the time frame allowed. Just photograph them and then you can straighten and pp them as (your) time allows. Once you have set up the tripod and lighting, you should knock them off in a few hours.

If that's not good enough, stuff 'em

[big pix]

I would set up a copy setup somewhere bright but not sunny and shoot them......... with your macro...... use a piece of black card with a hold for the lens between the original and camera to cut down on reflections........ just give them the CD of images.......

[Michael E]

Hi

I have a Canon scanner and if you select the area (6x4 7x5 etc) in the scanner then just keep changing the photos and hitting the scan button (no preview etc) after you have 10 scans in PS run an Action to Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Auto Colour, Save as JPG, close. Do all the Horz then Vert and all the same way so you don't need to Rotate. Should get it down below a minute per scan.

Michael