photo archiving

[sanantonio]

I am in the process of scanning a large number of old photos. To save time
I've scanned multiple photos at once creating a large image containing 6 or
7 small photographs. Now that I have all the photos scanned I need to cut
each one out of the larger image. I'm looking for a faster way to accomplish
this. I'd like to create a script/macro that would help save time. After
outlining the smaller photos I would like it to cut the image out and paste
it into its own file. I can do this manually but it would be very labor
intensive.

Can anyone help with this problem?

 

[CSM1]

I am in the process of scanning a large number of old photos. To save time
I've scanned multiple photos at once creating a large image containing 6
or
7 small photographs. Now that I have all the photos scanned I need to cut
each one out of the larger image. I'm looking for a faster way to
accomplish
this. I'd like to create a script/macro that would help save time. After
outlining the smaller photos I would like it to cut the image out and
paste
it into its own file. I can do this manually but it would be very labor
intensive.

Can anyone help with this problem?

Some Scanners offer a multiple photo Auto crop function where you place
several photos on the platen and the scanning software will create a
separate file for each photo.

I know that a Canon Canoscan 8400F scanner has this function. (Found in the
Simple mode).

From the Canoscan 8400F Manual:
Multi-Scan >>
With this button you can place multiple items on the document glass of the
scanner and have the scanner automatically detect them and create the
corresponding number of separate image files. If an item is slightly askew
(less than a 10 degree tilt), then the image is automatically straightened.
See Positioning Items on the Scanner.


After you have scanned a large image with multiple photos, the only way I
know is to crop each one manually.

 

[tomm42]

I am in the process of scanning a large number of old photos. To save time
I've scanned multiple photos at once creating a large image containing 6 or
7 small photographs. Now that I have all the photos scanned I need to cut
each one out of the larger image. I'm looking for a faster way to accomplish
this. I'd like to create a script/macro that would help save time. After
outlining the smaller photos I would like it to cut the image out and paste
it into its own file. I can do this manually but it would be very labor
intensive.

Can anyone help with this problem?

Crop before you scan, depends on your scanner/software. Some scanners
do auto scan, I prefer to crop the scans manually, use an Epson V700.
This way you can set different properties to each scan, if necessary,
and speeds up the editing. No more cut/new document/paste routines.

Tom

 

[Barry Watzman]

If you saved these as JPEG files, this really isn't a good idea. JPEG
is lossy compression. While a high quality JPEG has a loss of content
that is truly not detectable, every time that you manipulate the photo,
it gets decoded and re-encoded, and the individually insignificant
losses in JPEG encoding can become cumulatively significant.

Aside from that, as you note "To save time ....". Sure, you saved time
then, but now you have a problem that's going to require you to go back
and expend much of that time that you save (in fact, it's not out of the
question that when all is said and done, that this will not save you
time, but rather COST you time).

I think that there are other arguments against what you did, for example
you could not possibly optimize the scanning parameters (contrast,
brightness, gamma) for each photo when the scan is a layout of multiple
photos on the glass in a single scan. Overall, I would not recommend
having proceeded in this manner. I think it was short sighted.

 

[Per Larsen]

If you saved these as JPEG files, this really isn't a good idea. JPEG
is lossy compression. While a high quality JPEG has a loss of content
that is truly not detectable, every time that you manipulate the photo,
it gets decoded and re-encoded, and the individually insignificant
losses in JPEG encoding can become cumulatively significant.

If he saves each photo in a non-lossy format (e.g. tiff, png, or others)
after cropping, then there will be no more quality reduction (well,
until saving as jpeg again, that is).

 

[Colin_D]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:
At w I am in the process of scanning a large number of old photos. To
save time

I've scanned multiple photos at once creating a large image containing 6 or
7 small photographs. Now that I have all the photos scanned I need to cut
each one out of the larger image. I'm looking for a faster way to accomplish
this. I'd like to create a script/macro that would help save time. After
outlining the smaller photos I would like it to cut the image out and paste
it into its own file. I can do this manually but it would be very labor
intensive.

Can anyone help with this problem?

At what ppi did you scan the multiple photos? If the individual photos
are 120 size, mostly 2¼ by 3¼, as images in our old albums are, and you
want to print them bigger, say 6 by 4, then they should have been
scanned at minimum 600 ppi so 6 by 4's can be printed at about 300 ppi.
Much less and you're likely to get pixelation troubles.

I use Photoshop to process the images. The scans are imported directly
into PS from the scanner at 600 ppi, in color, about a 100 MB image per
scan, rather than saving each scan and then opening again to process.

A lot of older photos are fading, and the resulting browny-yellow images
will show up with the faded areas lighter than other areas if you scan
in grayscale. If you scan in color, and then select the blue channel
image, the faded areas will appear the same as the unfaded parts of the
image, and a surprising amount of detail will emerge from quite pale areas.

In Photoshop, pressing Ctrl-3 will display the blue channel (Ctrl-1 =
red, -2 = green, and -~ = full color). The choose Image\Mode\Gray
scale, and discard color. The scan size will then reduce to about 33 MB.

Then I make as many copies of the scanned page as there are individual
images (Image\Duplicate), and crop each image in turn out of the
duplicates. The usual touch-up and resize follows. If I am sizing all
images to 6 by 4, I set the Crop tool to that size, at 300 ppi, drag the
crop rectangle to cover the image, then double-click to crop and resize
in one step.

Colin D.

 

[Barry Watzman]

That's true, but there is still the issue that when scanning multiple
photos laid out on scanner glass as a single photo, the scanner exposure
settings (brightness, contrast, gamma, whatever they are called in the
scanner software) are not optimized for any one photo, and content
(detail) may be lost forever (not from compression but in terms of the
scanning exposure settings).

It's not a good approach to take.

 

[Per Larsen]

That's true, but there is still the issue that when scanning multiple
photos laid out on scanner glass as a single photo, the scanner exposure
settings (brightness, contrast, gamma, whatever they are called in the
scanner software) are not optimized for any one photo, and content
(detail) may be lost forever (not from compression but in terms of the
scanning exposure settings).

It's not a good approach to take.

I agree with you completely on those points. I was just pointing out
that even if you have saved scans in jpeg-format, you do not actually
need to loose quality on further saving as you can always work in a
lossless format using the original jpeg files as 'a digital negative'
which are never updated after editing.

 

[Robert Peirce]

If he saves each photo in a non-lossy format (e.g. tiff, png, or others)
after cropping, then there will be no more quality reduction (well,
until saving as jpeg again, that is).

It sounds to me like he is just trying to make contact sheets.
Otherwise why scan at so small a level and store as jpeg? On that
basis, he may be better off just saving the sheets.