Scanner settings for posts to LF Forums

[Peter Lewin]

Apologies in advance for a very beginner's question: can you suggest scanner settings (or "save as" procedures) for scanning a 4x5 B&W negative in order to post the resulting image to the LF forums? I'm using an Epson 4990, Epson's scan software opened in Photoshop Elements 4.0 for Mac. As a brand-new user of scanners & digital software, I'm slowly learning how to make some minor fixes (burning & dodging), but can only meet the LF Forum size requirements with a lot of trial & error with the bpi settings. If I limit the question to just B&W scans of 4x5 negs, are there obvious settings which will meet the Forum requirements?

[Tom Westbrook]

It's best to scan at the highest quality you can and then use Photoshop to save a copy of your final image (after adjustments) so its within the Forum size limits. The limits are displayed when you attach the file, but for JPG files are about 175kb and max dimensions of 650x650 pixels.

Search for posts on scanning in the forum for more in depth information on that. For how to save a file so its within certain limits in Photoshop Elements, check the manual--in regular Photoshop one would use the Image/Image Size... option from the menu to downsize it.

Hope that helps.

[Ash]

Scan the file as best you can, and do all the changes you like.

Save the file at full resolution.


Then reduce the Image size to 800x600 or 640x480.

Then save a copy of the file in JPG format.


That's the best way to do it :)

[Daniel_Buck]

if your only intent is to post them on the web, or email, then I would scan in a few times larger than you need, so that you can do any minor cropping or rotating (if you need to) as well as levels and curves. Then when you downsize you can do a slight bit of sharpening (for web, I like USM or SmartSharpen at 0.3 pixels, 50%) As with most things in photoshop, there is usually more than one way to do something, sharpening is one of them!

If you only need to scan in for the web or for sending to folks, no need to wait for a 10 minute scan, you can do a quick 400 or 600 dpi scan, that would do just fine :-)

However, if you are going to print them digitally or keep them in a digital state for archiving, then I would do as other suggested, scan it in once at a nice and high resolution. The 4990 probably won't get much better passed 2400dpi. If you need to, you can scan at 2400, then 4800, downsize the 4800 to match the 2400 and see if the downsized 4800 looks better. If it does, then maybe do 4800dpi for the real good negatives.

A little tip, if you are downsizing and saving multiple resolutions, make sure you don't accidentally overwrite your original file! An easy way to steer clear of this is to go to Image/Duplicate (in photoshop) after you have saved your original. Close the original then work on the duplicated image that doesn't have the original file's name attached to it. This removes most possibilities to accidentally overwrite your original. :-) I speak from experience on this one :o haha!