Splitting scanned photographs

R
Posted By
rasteroid
May 21, 2004
Views
834
Replies
4
Status
Closed
I have about two thousand family photographs that I am trying to digitize by scanning them. To speed up the process, I am scanning four photographs at a time, arranged as follows:

xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
—————-
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx

where each group of x’s denotes a photograph, and the – represent spaces between the photographs.

When I scan the whole thing, I get one big image with the four photographs in each corner, and white spacing between each image (from the scanner’s lid).

My question is whether there is any tool or photoshop plugin that will automatically split the four photographs from the single scanned image? Right now I have to manually select each photograph, crop it, and save it. If I can automate this task, it will make my digitization project go *much* faster, considering I still have two thousand of them to do!

I wrote a program with a few simple edge detection filters in C++ and tried to use it on the image, but the edges are not easy to distinguish from edges within the photographs. I have a hard time making the program detect the correct edge automatically.

If not a photoshop plugin, is there any other 3rd party tool that can accomplish this? Or even somewhere I can learn how to correct my program to do this for me? I am fairly competent at programming and at math, so I should be able to follow even a relatively complex algorithm/workaround.

Thanks,
rasteroid
Related Tags
scan split

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N
nomail
May 21, 2004
Rahul Mittal wrote:

I have about two thousand family photographs that I am trying to digitize by scanning them. To speed up the process, I am scanning four photographs at a time, arranged as follows:

xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
—————-
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx

where each group of x’s denotes a photograph, and the – represent spaces between the photographs.

When I scan the whole thing, I get one big image with the four photographs in each corner, and white spacing between each image (from the scanner’s lid).

My question is whether there is any tool or photoshop plugin that will automatically split the four photographs from the single scanned image? Right now I have to manually select each photograph, crop it, and save it. If I can automate this task, it will make my digitization project go *much* faster, considering I still have two thousand of them to do!

You do not mention which version of Photoshop you use. Photoshop CS does have this feature. It’s called "Crop and Straighten Photos" and can be found uder the "Automate" menu.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/
XT
xalinai_Two
May 21, 2004
On 21 May 2004 12:44:30 -0700, (Rahul Mittal)
wrote:

I have about two thousand family photographs that I am trying to digitize by scanning them. To speed up the process, I am scanning four photographs at a time, arranged as follows:

xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
—————-
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx–xxxxxxx

where each group of x’s denotes a photograph, and the – represent spaces between the photographs.

When I scan the whole thing, I get one big image with the four photographs in each corner, and white spacing between each image (from the scanner’s lid).

My question is whether there is any tool or photoshop plugin that will automatically split the four photographs from the single scanned image? Right now I have to manually select each photograph, crop it, and save it. If I can automate this task, it will make my digitization project go *much* faster, considering I still have two thousand of them to do!

Have you made sure your scanner software is unable to read four photos placed on the glass into four separate files?

Microtek can do this and even use different color and curve settings for each of the images.

Michael
R
rasteroid
May 23, 2004
You do not mention which version of Photoshop you use. Photoshop CS does have this feature. It’s called "Crop and Straighten Photos" and can be found uder the "Automate" menu.

Thanks Johan,

I am using 7.0, which has File->Automate, but no such thing as "Crop and Straighten Photos". I will look up the feature you point out and see if an upgrade is warranted.

Sincerely,
Rasteroid
R
rasteroid
May 23, 2004
Have you made sure your scanner software is unable to read four photos placed on the glass into four separate files?

Microtek can do this and even use different color and curve settings for each of the images.

Michael

Thanks Michael,

I just checked HP’s website for updates to the software, and it’s a 230 MB download, which is in progress right now. Not sure if they support the feature, but I’ll go through the software upgrade anyhow. If the software doesn’t support it, I’ll write to HP to see if they can add the feature into their next version, especially if other vendors already have this.

Sincerely,
Rasteroid

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