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Tutorial 1: Basic Scanning of Photos, Film and Flat Art

This is the first in a series of brief tutorials about publishing a family history website. In this first article I'll discuss some of the best ways we've found to digitize old family photos, 35mm slides, negatives and flat artwork such as paintings. Other tutorials discuss fixing image defects, archiving and sharing files, using an inkjet printer to make photographic quality prints, and publishing your family history website.

The first step is to convert your documents and photos into digital files. An inexpensive flatbed scanner is all you need to create digital files of photographs, slides, negatives, flat artwork and even some 3-dimensional objects like coins.

What is a flatbed scanner?

Flatbed scanners are essentially digital cameras and they work much like photocopiers. You place the photo, film or artwork on a flat glass "platten" where it is photographed by a kind of digital camera that scans from below the glass. Light is directed onto the scanning surface either from above, for transparent objects (film and slides), or from below for opaque objects like documents and photos.

Good monitor adjustment or "calibration" is critical to working with digital files and publishing a high quality, image-rich family history website.

Even today's moderately priced flatbed scanners such as the Epson 4490 Scanner (less than $200) are capable of extremely high quality scans. In fact these scanners can even produce digital files from 35mm negatives and slides that are suitable for enlargement. Just a few years ago you needed a dedicated, and expensive, film scanner to make decent enlargements from 35mm film stock.

What about film scanners?

Film scanners are expensive instruments that are designed to scan and digitize negatives and transparency (slide) stock only. They usually support both small and large format film and are now used mainly by professional photo labs. You don't need a dedicated film scanner for ordinary website work.

Scanning basics

Remove photos, paintings or documents from frames so they lay flat on the scanner glass. Mats should be left in place however, since they often contain historical information. Most scanner lids are loosely hinged so they can accomodate thick objects such as books. Turn on the scanner and start your scanning software (see below). Most scanners require a few minutes to warm-up before making the first scan.

We generally scan the entire photo and mat. Leave a generous space around the image because the final crop will occur in the photo editing step.

Scanning software has a variety of settings that are used to control how the scanner captures the image. These are like the settings on a camera. I'll outline only those settings that you'll need to make scans from old photos and documents. See the books above for information about film scanning.

Scanner software

Flatbed scanners generally come with their own scanner software. Some of this software is good, but some is not so good. I'd suggest that you try the software that comes with your scanner but be prepared to buy stand-alone (third-party) scanning software if you are not satisfied.

I can recommend Vuescan from Hamrick Software. This is the scanner software we've used for years. Vuescan is relatively inexpensive ($50-$90 depending on license) and supports virtually every scanner on the market. The interface is easy to use and the scans are excellent.

Scanner settings for family photos

I generally scan photos and documents at 300 dpi and use color photo mode, even for black and white photographs. Selecting color photo mode will retain the original's color and texture, so, for example, sepia-toned black and white photos retain the sepia color. I scan line art such as drawings at 600 dpi. Set color balance to white balance or neutral. You'll have to try both to see which setting works better for your different originals.

The resolution (300 dpi or 600 dpi) of your scan will normally be reduced in subsequent steps prior to posting the images to the web. However, the added resolution will be useful when processing images.

Once you've created your digital file you should make a backup copy of the original on a disk and put the disk in a safe place. You'll be making many changes to the file in subsequent steps and you'll want to be able to get back to the original.

Scanning 3-dimensional objects like coins

Flatbed scanners can also be used to "photograph" 3-dimensional objects like coins or other family heirlooms. Virtually anything that fits under the scanner lid can be scanned. I've scanned coins, pinned insect specimens (in display boxes), and a hand lens magnifier for our 'Bugs site.

[Tutorial #2: Restoring Images]

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