How long does it take you to scan ?

[QT Luong]

This is a survey on how long it takes you to scan one transparency or negative on your scanner of choice, from start to finish. If your scanner allows you to scan several transparencies at a time, use the largest batch, and divide the time by the number of images in the batch. This would include any cleaning of the transparency, mounting, pre-scanning, scanner adjustments, cleaning up the scan of dust spots, re-cleaning up the transparency (if applicable), and maybe an initial rough matching of the color of the file to the transparency. What would be excluded is time spent waiting while the scanner does the final scan (since you can do something else), and the time to prepare a ready-to-print master file. Indicate your scanner, the total time, and if you wish, a break-up of time in different categories such as scanner adjustments, dusting, etc...

[Daniel Geiger]

for 4x5 color trans on an epson 4990:
Cleaning trans: 4 seconds with canned air. I usually scan the image when it comes back from the lab, so little built up of grime.

Mounting in Epson holder: 10-15 seconds. Prescan: about 20-30 seconds (guesstimate). Rough scan adjusts (cropping, black-white points; usually no color correction, never any sharpening of any sort): about 30 seconds (guess); scan an approximately 800 MB file in 16bit RGB: 1-2 minutes + 1 minute saving (guess).

I do not do anything on the computer while the scanner is scanning. I noticed that the probability of scanning errors is greater if I do PS work while scanning.

Usually I scan in a bunch, and in a second step do the PS work. Opening file: 2 minute (Mac G5 dual 200 MHz with 3.5GB RAM and PS CS1; have to upgrade to CS2 for better large file handling). Spotting is painfully slowly in 16 bit using 9-13 pixel 75% feathered brushes with cloning tool and healing brush, usually about 10 minutes with a Wacom graphire tablet; the 30 inch screen reduces scrolling significantly, but the response time of the healing brush in particular is agonizingly slow in 16bit.

Global and local color adjustments take longest and ist most variable. I do it on a calibrated monitor (Monaco system). For a quicky, it may be 5 minutes of fiddling in curves, but I may spend a couple of hours. If I would have to spend more time on it, I consider the primary shot of insufficient quality. My style is "documentary", so combining images etc. is out of the question for me. Saving the master file also takes long (3-5 minutes). Then I reduce them to 8bit RGB 200 MB tif for submission to stock agency.

Unsharp for printing is done later and only takes 1-2 minutes, softproofing usually is quick (1 minute), setting up all the printing dialogs/color spaces/output papers/color sync etc for a Epson R1800 about 2 minutes, printing a 13x19 inch takes about 10-15 minutes.

Just got Dan Margulis' book on Lab color and will experiment a bit with that and see what it does to accellerate PS color operations. looks promising.

The above is a rough approximation with lots of variation, of course. Hope it provides you with the what you need. otherwise contact me offline.

[Donald Qualls]

I don't really have it broken down this way, since my scanner doesn't take long enough for the final scan to let me leave and do something else, but: I have to scan each frame individually; my scanner doesn't support batching other than a 35 mm strip, and the autoexposure isn't really sophisticated enough to get good images on a whole strip (especially given that scanning a strip will include the unexposed interframe areas). However, a 9x12 cm negative in my drop-in adapter to the 4x5 scanning opening will take me about 7-8 minutes from taking it off the drying clip to finished image ready to spot; spotting runs anywhere from zero (extremely lucky, or image is such I don't bother to spot) to 45 minutes. This is for B&W; I haven't shot color in large format, but in smaller sizes (like 6x9 cm) color images take about twice as long for the actual scan pass, but less time to adjust exposure (because I'm much more likely to leave it on "auto"); probably similar total time. In both cases, I'm scanning at 16 bits per channel (actual scanner range is 14 bits per channel, internally promoted).

My scanner is a vintage 1996 Agfa Arcus 1200 (flatbed with glassless film adapters), SCSI with Adaptec 2910 internal SCSI adapter; scanning at 2400 ppi (which interpolates 2 for 1 in the scanner-horizontal dimension -- optical limit is 1200 ppi, with microstepping to give 2400 ppi vertical) yields approximately 88 megapixels from a 9x12 cm negative. My cost was $135, shipped, plus SCSI card and cable. I love eBay... :)

[Frank Petronio]

On my Epson flatbed I only spend about ten minutes per 4x5, although sometimes I will scan it twice or rescan it again months later. I used to do scanning for my business and can dustbust pretty quickly. If you don't count waiting for the scanner and I/O on the computer, it isn't very much time. But the total time required to do a batch of scans means that I usually save them up and edit myself harshly before starting.

If you don't count the time that you could be multitasking, it really isn't too bad, but you need a nicely set up to take advantage of multitasking. I used to have a swivel/caster chair and two tables that I would sit inbetween, about 4 feet apart. It was a simple matter to swing between the scanning workstation on one and the imaging workstation on the opposite. It impressed the clients too.

My friend takes forever with his Imacon; another can cruise with her vintage Howtek (still run by a PowerMac 9500 604 processor!)

[paulr]

It takes me forever (for a good scan). I haven't timed it since I upgraded computers (finally let go of my slow, 6-year old mac, and replaced it with a pretty speedy 5-year old mac ... if that makes any sense).

It takes me about 15 to 20 minutes get the neg completely dust free, wet mounted on float glass, all the little bubbles gone, all the streaks from spilled scanning fluid gone. Then about a minute to get it positioned properly on the scanner (a 4870) and any new dust blown off.

On the old computer it took about ten minutes for the scanner to scan the neg at full optical resolution), and then about 40 minutes for the VueScan to to process it (downsample, adjust the curves, etc.)

All told, I budgeted an hour and a half per scan, to include set up and clean up.

I'm hoping the new computer will cut the processing time down to 15 minutes or so, but it's still a big project.

Low res scans take hardly any time at all. I recently scanned 25 prints for the web in less time that it takes to do a single wet mounted neg.

[Ed Richards]

22-26 minutes on 9950f with Vuewscan at 4800 dpi optical, downsampled by Vuescan t0 24oo for noise reduction. The scan time is limited by the data transmission - at 2400 it is much faster.

I scan directly after drying the neg so cleaning is not a big problem, I do a preview to adjust cropping to fit the negative and to make sure everything is OK, then scan. Iwill do low CPU/memory intensive stuff like word processing while the scanning is going on. I scan for maxium data and do not do any indivdual tweaking in Vuescan. It runs into time - last shoot was 40 sheets, so with processing 6 at a pop in a 3006, then scanning, then tweaking and doing a small jpg for filing, it adds up.

[Brian Sims]

I'm using an Imacon 646 and a Dell Precision 670 single processor with 2 gigs of ram. For a 4x5 scan for a 300-400mb TIFF file it takes about 5 minutes start to finish. I clean the film with air only, and the Imacon doesn't have any glass to film contact. This duration is IF the exposure is good and the scene or how I visualized the scene didn't require backflips. If it is a tricky shot, then it might take 20 minutes--because then I like to load the shot into photoshop, mess with it with some preliminary adjustment layers to see if the file will give me what I want. Based on this trial, I might rescan the film. The 20 minutes includes the trial photoshop work. I've done some 2 1/4 and 35mm scans for other photographers and it only saves a couple minutes based on smaller file sizes. I suppose if I was batching multiple frames it would be faster.

[George Stewart]

16-bit color MF (6x7) 3200 DPI on an Imacon 343 takes about 15 minutes total from initial mount to completion of final scan.

16-bit color LF (4x5 or larger) 2540 DPI or less (approximately 1GB file size) on a Creo IQSmart2 with oil mounting and platen instalation = about 3o minutes.

[Ralph Barker]

I probably average about 30 minutes per image for the whole process.

[Kirk Gittings]

I recently had to prepare a "work in progress" portfolio for the Eliot Porter Award that I was up for (which I didn't get--I lost to Sam Abel). So I had to scan some new work related to a book project that is scheduled for publication in 2008. I needed to scan 7 new images and get them as far as high level "working" prints, B&W, unmatted. That was 5.5 long days for me and two regular days for my assistant (mainly spotting the scans). So It is about 1 long day per image to "working" print level. Then I sit with the print for awhile and do some final tweaking (that may be as much as another full day) or perhaps start over completely. Two of these images I will start over completely on.

[Keith S. Walklet]

From taking the film out of its sleeve to starting the final hi-res scan with the Nikon 8000 takes roughly 15 minutes per image. It seems that each step takes between one and two minutes. That time breaks out as follows:

1+ minutes to mount the film in the holder, inspect for flatness, blow any loose dust particles off. I've mostly gotten around film flatness issues with this scanner by trimming my frames two-up instead of individually. This places the trailing edge of the film well out of the scan zone. A small halogen desk lamp helps with a visual inspection of the film for dust and flatness before I put it in the scanner, so I don't usually have to readjust.

1+ minutes for previews of the scan which is when the position of the "film offset" is adjusted, initial white/black point positions established and scan area defined.

1+ minutes to fine tune the focus of the scanner by checking at least five points on the transparency (usually the near the four corners and center) for significant variance (which would indicate the film wasn't flat and needed to be remounted).

1+ minutes to run the test scan at 1x sample, 1000 dpi at 14bit.

1+ minutes to save the scan and open it in Photoshop where I evaluate the histogram to make sure I haven't clipped any highlights or shadows, and I throw some quick curves on the file to see what its potential looks like.

1+ minutes to go back to reset the scanner settings to 4000 dpi, ICE on, 16x sample and superfine scan mode for the final go, which depending on how substantial the curve adjustments I made were, will run about 90 minutes to complete.

I don't do any color correction at the scan level. Like Kirk, I find working on the file with Photoshop typically takes at least one day per image, depending on the sophistication of the editing I need to do. I should add that I am overdue for a computer upgrade. By ensuring the film is clean going in, and using the ICE setting, I don't need to spend as much time spotting. For really dirty film, I give them the Pec Pad and cleaning fluid treatment, which also takes a couple minutes.

I'm in the middle of a scanning session using the Nikon. I'll get more precise times for my Epson 4870 when I finish with the medium format (slight quality edge with the Nikon) and work on some 4x5 transparencies. Seems to me prep takes about the same amount of time, though more test scans are necessary because of the imprecise nature of the EpsonScan histogram. Cleaning the 4x5 also takes longer.

[Henry Ambrose]

For a typical job where I've made good film under good conditions I can have the 6-7 selected color negatives scanned, dust spotted and globally corrected in about 4-5 hours to one day. This includes making quick digital contact sheets from all the film I shot for my selection (20ish 4X5 sheets) and small RGB files for web based client selection. So to get to something good enough to show the client to pick from (which is not too far from a print ready file) is about 45 minutes to one hour per 4X5 negative. When converted to 8 bit my files are typically about 125MB.

To get them really ready to print and printed (usually three views selected by the client on 8x10 -11X14 prints) can take another half to full day. The end results of that sesson are prints, CDs with 125 MB files for further printing and smaller CMYK files for the client's reproduction use.

I've also spent multiple days on one photograph that was a difficult scene or poorly shot or required a lot of manipulation to resemble the print I had in mind at the time I tripped the shutter.

[Ted Harris]

Scanning only to produce a raw scan:

1) From 5 to 15 minutes to load the holder, dust the transparancy or negative and set the scanning parameters

2) 15 to 40 minutes to perform the actual scan depending on number of passes/samples/size of the original (from 6x12 to 5x7)

I'll do some accurate timing on the next 5x7 chrome I scan which is likely to be tomorrown.

[Keith S. Walklet]

Just ran through the same process with the Epson and was surprised it took me a little less time, mainly because the preview process was a little bit quicker. But I'd guess it takes minimum between 8 and 10 minutes typically for the entire prep/parameter/test process described in my earlier post, longer for more troublesome film. The 4x5 scans themselves take 45 minutes to an hour to scan without ICE and 5 hours with it, so I tend to spend more time cleaning the film to avoid having to use ICE on all but those images with lots of sky or water. Since these scans are at 3200 dpi in 16 bit mode, they end up around a gig in size. First thing I do is open them up in PS, spot the file in its hi res state, save it, resize it to 8x10 at 300 dpi, save it as a discreet file and begin editing with the intention of using the Layer Transfer process.

[timparkin]

Depending on the amount of work and whether I do a full resolution scan is is either 2 hours or about half and hour.

1) Prep film and mount on scanner drum - 20 mins for four 4x5's or 9 6x7's etc..

2) 20 mins for 2000dpi scan, 1 hour for 4000dpi scan of 4x5

3) Spotting for a large print of 4000dpi with lots of sea and sky could take 30 mins or 2000dpi of woods about 5 mins. Dust control pre scanning is imperative.

4) Post processing images can take anywhere between 10 mins up to an hour or two on occasion. That excludes going back to the image a month later and changing my mind completely ;-)