Scanning Film DPI for Editing

"measekite" wrote in message

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 8×10 and occasionally

11×14.

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.

So much of this depends on the quality of the picture. If its a Kodachrome 64 negative with a Nikon, it may be worthwhile to scan at a very high resolution. But if the negative is from a Kodak 110 Instamatic, such a high resolution would not likely be needed since the quality is probably not here to begin with. Scanning negatives at a higher resolution than larger prints does make sense since the negatives are invariably smaller.

Here’s a suggestion. Scan the exact same part of an image (a very small but detailed section–just a face perhaps, or even text like a sign or license plate) at various resolutions and then drag these images into a single Photoshop file, spreading the versions out side by side. Be sure to add text stating the scanned resolution near each image to identify each. Your file should be the same resolution as the highest scanned resolution. When printing, you will probably have to reduce the resolution to the highest your printer can handle. Change the resolution to 1200 AFTER all versions have been added to the file. Make sure to uncheck resample when changing the resolution. and print. They will be different sizes due to the difference in resolution, but you should be able to tell at what point quality begins to suffer. Choose the next higher resolution.

Peadge 🙂

In article <RBkFd.1213$>,
says…

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 8×10 and occasionally 11×14.
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.

For high quality inkjet prints you want about 300 dpi in the image to be printed.
So if you scan at 3200 dpi you would get about a 10x enlargement. Visit scantips.com for a good discussion.

—
Robert D Feinman
Landscapes, Cityscapes and Panoramic Photographs
http://robertdfeinman.com
mail:

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:01:58 -0500, Robert Feinman
wrote:

In article <RBkFd.1213$>,
says…

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 8×10 and occasionally 11×14.
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.

For high quality inkjet prints you want about 300 dpi in the image to be printed.
So if you scan at 3200 dpi you would get about a 10x enlargement. Visit scantips.com for a good discussion.

??? He’s scanning negs not prints…

—

Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui

"Hecate" wrote in message

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:01:58 -0500, Robert Feinman
wrote:

In article <RBkFd.1213$>,
says…

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 8×10 and occasionally

11×14.

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.

For high quality inkjet prints you want about 300 dpi in the image to be printed.
So if you scan at 3200 dpi you would get about a 10x enlargement. Visit scantips.com for a good discussion.

??? He’s scanning negs not prints…

35 mm (1.378 inches) scanned at 3200 equals 4409 pixels. If he reduces the resolution (without resampling) of the scanned negative to the suggested 300 ppi, the 35 mm will become 14.697 inches, or a little over 10 times bigger. Plenty of room to play with, I suppose.

Peadge 🙂

Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 18:31:42 -0800, "Peadge"
wrote:

For high quality inkjet prints you want about 300 dpi in the image to be printed.
So if you scan at 3200 dpi you would get about a 10x enlargement. Visit scantips.com for a good discussion.

??? He’s scanning negs not prints…

35 mm (1.378 inches) scanned at 3200 equals 4409 pixels. If he reduces the resolution (without resampling) of the scanned negative to the suggested 300 ppi, the 35 mm will become 14.697 inches, or a little over 10 times bigger. Plenty of room to play with, I suppose.

Oh, sorry, it’s because I read dpi, which, of course, isn’t a relevant measurement in this case. If the poster had said ppi I’d have seen where he was going.

It’s only enough from if you’re not intending to crop the neg in any way, something which is not that common. I generally find almost any image can be improved with cropping, if only because most cameras don’t show you 100% in the viewfinder.

—

Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui