How should I scan old faded photos to preserve them with minimal quality loss?
Asked 11/6/2018
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2 answers
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I’m digitising old family prints that have sepia fading and want the scans to stay as faithful to the originals as possible. My current plan is to use an Epson scanner at 600 dpi, 24-bit colour, TIFF, original size, with auto exposure off. Should I apply sharpening/unsharp mask and colour or histogram adjustments during scanning, or is it better to leave the scan as neutral as possible and edit later? I want to minimise any degradation and keep a good archival copy.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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I do quite a bit of old photo scanning for various purposes. I have a similar process as you describe and will sometimes go up to 1200DPI for color if the situation calls for it, however that can generate some quite large files. The only thing I do at scan time is set the white point to yield an image as close to the physical one as possible. Any clean up, shifting or dust removal is done after the matter in photoshop. This ensures the scan is effectively a "copy" of the photo in digital form.
Preventing degradation of the image has more to do with how its handled than the scan. You should be using lint free gloves, make sure your scanner bed is clean, blow the dust off frequently, and put the image right into a proper archival sleeve when you are done with it.
Originally by user41399. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user41399
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For preservation, aim to make the scan a faithful digital copy of the print, then do corrections later on the file.
A good approach is to scan to TIFF at 24-bit colour, with auto adjustments off, and only make minimal scanner-side changes such as setting the white point so the scan matches the print as closely as possible. Leave sharpening/unsharp mask, dust cleanup, colour correction, and other tonal edits for later in an editor. That way you keep a clean “master” scan and can make different edited versions without repeatedly rescanning.
600 dpi is a reasonable choice for prints; going higher can help in some cases, but it also creates much larger files.
To minimise degradation, handling matters as much as scanner settings: keep the scanner glass clean, remove dust frequently, handle prints carefully (ideally with lint-free gloves), and store them in archival sleeves after scanning.
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