Scanning Resolution for printing photos

[sharonf]

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

 

[cut this out]

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

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

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