Drum Scan File Size of 4X5 Color Slide

[David A. Goldfarb]

LZW Compression in the TIFF format is lossless.

[Mike Mahoney]

Lee, talk to your print shop first - they will tell you what scan resolution and file type are required based on the print size and quality you want.

There is no way to get a quality 20 X 24 from a 30MB file.

[Chen-Wah Lee]

I tried the various recommendations given above and here are the results: 1) Howard's recommendation: 21.3M. 2) Mateo's recommendation: Doc:105.6M/105.6M. 3)Ellis' recommendation: under IMAGE SIZE : Pixel Dimension 105.6M- Width/Height:6832/5400 pixels; under DOCUMENT SIZE : Width/Height:25.1/20inches, Resolution 270 pixels/inch. I tend to believe the file size is 105.6M but I will take the CD back to the lab and kindly ask for their verification. I used to do conventional enlargement and am interested in digital manipulation recently - a long way to learn for me. In Hong Kong, most professional digital labs charge HK$50 (US$6) for a 20M (20M is the minimum size) drum scanned file and the charge goes up directionally proportional to the increased image size (HK$250/US$30 for a 100M image).

[Julio Fernandez]

Kee: you have to do more than ask about file sizes, formats etc. You have to look at the histograms to see how well the slides were scanned and evaluate the lab's work. Not all 100 MB files are created equal and you can't simply arrive at conclusions on quality by the kind of specs. Drum scanners require expert technicians for best results. The results from good drum scanners, expertly used can be fantastic but that is not always necessarily the case. If you intend to get on seriously with Digital, two books I recommend are Photoshop 6 Artistry by Haynes & Cumpler and for color management, Real World Photoshop by Bruce Fraser. The Evening book is excellent but it does not cover as comprehensively important aspects of Photoshop and digital photography. The Fraser book covers very well the workspace conversions and you should be aware when you load up the files what and why you are doing. As for the comment, 'what can you expect, it is a computer' that gentleman probably has an ice-box not a refrigerator, after all, you can not trust 'artificial ice'.