I'm scanning in my old photo prints. I've picked my scanning settings,
methods, and application to batch scan everything. So far so good. At
some point I'm going to replace the scanner but I have not decided which
yet. As a result of developing this scanning and adjusting process, I'm
learning more about what I want from a scanner, which should help me decide
what to look for in a new one.
So I'm doing the best I can with what I have now. At this stage of the
game, it's really more about learning how to do this properly and
documenting all the steps so that I can teach my wife how to do this. She
likes to have everything written down, or at least as much as possible.
Next I want to create a step by step process for adjusting the scans. For
example, the most common issue is that the photos were dark to start with,
and the scans are darker still. I'll end up with two sets of images, the
originals and the processed ones. The processed ones will serve as the
starting point for any futher retouching or printing. I don't intend to do
any resizing or retouching like dust or red-eye removal at this stage. I'm
looking for what adjustments I need to make to color levels, contrast,
brightness, gamma, balance, etc, and any filters / masks I should be trying
for things like sharpness.
I've tested various apps for things like balancing and adjusting different
values. What I need to come up with is a standard process, a set of
applications and steps, to adjust photos. But I also need to identify and
handle exceptions. For example, I could just use auto levels, contrast,
color, or comparable type of adustment, but I noticed that sometimes the
results are not as good as the original.
A fully automated process is not possible, because some "auto" adjustments
don't improve the image. After each adjustment, the image needs to be
compared to the original. Still, I'd like to get the process down to a
definate set of steps, followed in a certain order, so that each photo gets
processed in a similar manner. Exceptions have to be made, but that can be
part of the process.
In the end I hope to have a list of common issues, and the adjustment to
try for each, and the order to try them in. At each point the photo is
compared with the original, and a decision is made if there is improvement
or not. Then proceed to identify any other issues in the photo. If any
are found, the known ajustments are tested, and so on. The issues and
adjustments are made in specific order, as some adjustments are best left
until the end or they may cause artifacts or other issues. I know
professional photo retouching is not this simple or cut and dry, but I'm
looking for a very basic level of image processing steps that someone
without any experience can follow.
As another poster recently mentioned, there are volumes of books written
about post-processing and photo retouching. It's all a bit overwhelming.
So I'm curious if any of the experienced scanners out there have a standard
process they like to follow, or a particular application or batch method
that they use to when processing a set of scans.
The answer might be that each photo has to be handled differently, and
there is no way to standardize the processing of all photos, or that it
will give poor results. If that's the case, let me know. But if there are
some steps which you always or often do for your scans, or some application
that you always use on your scans afterwards, then I'd be interested in
hearing about it.
Thanks in advance
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