Scan to Photoshop to Print

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

"measekite" <measekite@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:CAkFd.1209$8Z1.898@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...
>I have an Espon 4180 flatbed film scanner that I am happy with. I am scanning
>Fuji negative film at 24bit - 3200 dpi. I then edit and crop the results in
>Photoshop. Sometimes I crop a horizontal photo to print as a portrait. In
>that instance the cropping is severe.
>
> I want to be able to print at least as large as 8x10 and occasionally 11x14.

> QUESTION: Is it necessary to scan at 3200 dpi or can I get the same results
> with much lower dpi. If so what is the best dpi to scan without loosing any
> quality in the above situation.

You probably want 200-300 ppi in the printed image. If you are scanning 35mm
negatives you would need the 3200dpi scan to get 11x14 prints, especially if
you do much cropping. (300ppi x 11x14 = 3300 x 4200 pixels)

If you are scanning from medium or large format negatives you could get by with
less resolution on the scan.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

In general it is better to scan at the higher dpi, especially with flatbed
scanners because focus and resolution is not as accurate as with dedicated
film scanners.
CD/DVD storage is cheap, you do not have to fill up your hard drive.
Make sure you save your original scan in some lossless format, tiff or psd.
As you become more experienced you may want to revisit early scans and
process them differently: you can always downize an image file but you can
not put in what was not there to begin with.

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

This is an ongoing argument, but there is some consensus.

I do not know what dpi input you are feeding your printer. I am going
to assume the neg is a 35mm frame, although I don't believe you mention.


If that were so, a 3200 dpi scan would produce an image of about 4800 P
x 3200 P (P=pixel). If your printer handles 300 dpi input comfortably
(most will produce a quality result at that resolution). At 300 dpi
input file, the largest print you could produce would be 16" x 10.6"
(approximately).

Most scanning experts agree that using the highest optical resolution
your scanner offers, and then downsampling to the reduced resolution
does the least damage to the data. Also, I do not know off hand how
Epson is handling the data it discards if you scan in a lower
resolution, some scan at optical resolution and then downsample, some
intervene mechcanically and skip certain steps and sensors in the array

So, in general scanning at optical resolution of your scanner and then
downsampling on a quality piece of software, is the best method, and
then after you have the resolution you need, resharpen slightly with
unsharp masking.

Art

measekite wrote:

> I have an Espon 4180 flatbed film scanner that I am happy with. I am
> scanning Fuji negative film at 24bit - 3200 dpi. I then edit and crop
> the results in Photoshop. Sometimes I crop a horizontal photo to print
> as a portrait. In that instance the cropping is severe.
>
> I want to be able to print at least as large as 8x10 and occasionally
> 11x14.
>
> The scanning takes a long time. I also have to reduce the pixel count
> to print on my 1200 dpi Canon IP4000 printer.
>
> QUESTION: Is it necessary to scan at 3200 dpi or can I get the same
> results with much lower dpi. If so what is the best dpi to scan without
> loosing any quality in the above situation.