I have been using PictureIt for my photoediting so far.
Now I am thinking of moving to Photoshop 7.
What is the memory requirement for it ? My current machine has Windows ME with 256 MB of ram.
I am planning to have it upgraded to 512 - that is the maximum that old machine can accommodate.
Do I have to move to other machine for memory or 512 MB would be enough ?
Other point is I am not professional photographer, however, like to play with these tools.
Would PhotoShop Elements be suffiient ?
Thanks
From: Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: OT:- Scanning for Dummies Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:23:47 -0500
"Peter Jordan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I've finally started to scan some of my 35mm trannies, and quickly come to
>the conclusion that I don't know what I'm doing.
>
>I can make scans and some of them look OK, but I have 1001 questions to ask
>around, how to prepare the trannies, the optimum dpi, final image size, best
>format to hold the scan files in etc.
OK. What scanner are you using? (what resolution ate you scanning at?) What image processing software are you using?
For images I intend to print I always scan at full resolution (that's 3600 dpi for my Kodak RFS 3600) in 16-bit color (48 bits total or 16 bits per color). This results in 90-92 megabyte files.
I have Photoshop 7 so I can do most of what I need to do in 16-bit mode before saving to 8-bit for archiving and printing.
First, use a blower of some kind to get your slide as clean as humanly possible.
16-bit mode with my scanner gives basically a RAW file of what the CCD saw, so it's usually quite dark. My first few steps in Photoshop use the Levels adjustment to get the image *roughly* where I want it to be.
My first adjustment is of just the bright (right-hand) end of the histogram. Then I fine-tune the image rotation (it's never quite square in the slide scanner) and then crop out the black edges around the border (I make sure my original scan area is slightly larger than the viewable portion of the slide).
At this point I can be sure that whatever shows up at the left-hand edge of the histogram (dark end of the scale) is actually dark parts of the image, rather than the unexposed border (well, slide mount, actually) so I use the levels adjustment again to set the darkest point. Then I use levels a third time to set the mid point to *approximately* where I want it.
Save after every step :)
The next step is removing dust specks with the clone tool. If you (and your lab) have been careful this won't take much time - I recommend doing your scans as soon as possible after having your slides processed. View the image at 100% magnification and clone out those little black spots.
At this point you can decide how tricky you want to get. Taking the simple route, you just make final tweaks with the levels tool, convert to 8-bit, save and you're done. I recommend doing a *little* sharpening at this point. I sharpen enough for a 12 x 18 print; that's as big as my printer will do and pretty much as large as I care to go with 35mm film anyway. Smaller print sizes will require more sharpening and that can always be done later at the time of printing.
Remember that with scanned film, sharpening is always the *second-to-last* step before printing: After sharpening you should do a second search for dust specks that you didn't catch the first time around (the sharpening will inevitably bring out some that weren't visible, or weren't objectionable, before).
For more advanced techniques...
>Is there a book or a site along the lines of Scanning 101 that will help me
>understand the basics.
Photoshop for Photographers, the book that several others have recommended.
-- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
_________________________________________________________________
Fretting that your Hotmail account may expire because you forgot to sign in enough? Get Hotmail Extra Storage today! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es
