I am trying to scan and print some older photos. They are about 20 years
old. The original prints still look good to the naked eye. However when
I scan them I usually end up getting some noise and/or dust in the
pictures that I can't see in the originals. I can usually clean them up
with my photo editing software but on some of them it is time consuming.
I have been playing around with different scanning resolutions to try to
cut down on the noise but so far I haven't gotten the results that I
want. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I am using an Epson
Perfection 2450 photo scanner. I want to make prints from these pictures
so I'm trying to get as good a scan as possible.

Sharon

Sharon,

It might be worth your while reading through a previous post (27/12/05)
"Profiling 35mm film scanner........". There are some incidental
comments about Epson scanning software being 'aggressive' and how to cut
down on the noise.

Leo

sharonf wrote:
> I am trying to scan and print some older photos. They are about 20 years
> old. The original prints still look good to the naked eye. However when
> I scan them I usually end up getting some noise and/or dust in the
> pictures that I can't see in the originals. I can usually clean them up
> with my photo editing software but on some of them it is time consuming.
> I have been playing around with different scanning resolutions to try to
> cut down on the noise but so far I haven't gotten the results that I
> want. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I am using an Epson
> Perfection 2450 photo scanner. I want to make prints from these pictures
> so I'm trying to get as good a scan as possible.
>
> Sharon

"sharonf" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:43b95c80$0$30901$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I am trying to scan and print some older photos. They are about 20
> years old. The original prints still look good to the naked eye.
> However when I scan them I usually end up getting some noise and/or
> dust in the pictures that I can't see in the originals. I can
> usually clean them up with my photo editing software but on some of
> them it is time consuming.

Obviously, if at all possible, try getting the images (and scanner
platen!) as spotless as possible.

> I have been playing around with different scanning resolutions to
> try to cut down on the noise but so far I haven't gotten the results
> that I want.

600ppi scanning resolution will probably get all detail in the
original print. 1200ppi and quality(!) down-sampling might improve the
image (very) slightly. In my experience it's hard to totally avoid
retouching.

> Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I am using an Epson
> Perfection 2450 photo scanner. I want to make prints from these
> pictures so I'm trying to get as good a scan as possible.

If you prints are same sized, the above would suffice. If you need to
print at alternative sizes, things depend on the actual magnification.

Bart