Epson V500

[JeremyLangford]

I just got an Epson V500. I am using it for scanning 35mm color negs. After I scan I edit them in Adobe Lightroom, and then host them on the web.

I was wondering what DPI and size I should set the target size to when I scan. I know that I want to have my finished edited picture at 530px on the longer side and 72dpi when I put them on the web, but I dont know if I need to scan at a larger dpi and/or size so that I will lose less quality when I do some editing and post-processing (I change things like white-balance, saturation, exposure, etc.)

Also, what bit should I be scanning at so that I can have enough extra space to not lose quality when editing. I am currently doing a 24bit TIFF.

Any insight or help will be greatly appreciated.

,thanx

 

[srtiwari]

Jeremy,
I have a V700, but I believe the Software is the same. I can tell you what I do.
I tend to scan at higher resolutions, and then lower it in the editing program (such as PhotoShop, Elements etc.) to whatever size I want, whether for print, or the Web. That way, all the editing can be done only once.
Subhash

 

[fbf]

For web use, 300dpi is enough. If you do plan to print them later on, 2800 dpi is good enough for 8x10 print.

 

[infrequent]

i suppose the general rule of thumb is to get the best quality possible for originals / archives and downsample it for web / print use. storage is cheap!

 

[JeremyLangford]

I have found that 300dpi is good enough for me because I could not tell a difference at all between a 2000px 600dpi scan and a 2000px 300dpi scan, even after I edit them and take the dpi and size down for web use.

However, I can tell a huge difference between a 550px 300 dpi scan compared to a 2000px 300dpi scan (simply because there are so many more pixels in the 2000px 300dpi scan)

Does 2000px on the long end, and 300dpi sound like a good size and resolution to scan at when I want to edit the picture, and then use it on the web?

 

[infrequent]

Does 2000px on the long end, and 300dpi sound like a good size and resolution to scan at when I want to edit the picture, and then use it on the web?

yeah, should be fine for web use only. try it out and post some examples.

my point was that if you are going to the trouble of scanning, it might be better to get all the quality you can and archive that. then you won't have to scan it again for a hq print.

 

[williams473]

My buddy who is a graphic designer said that for web display, anything over 72 dpi is extraneous, because a CRT or LCD monitor is limited to the fineness of resolution it can display - 72 dpi is all you need for that. For printing, it depends on how big you want go as I understand it, but I too am unclear about what is the optimum dpi for say, an 8 x 10.

This kind of stuff makes me want to go back to the old enlarger, when a print is as good as your paper and enlarging lens, and that's it! Then I think about mixing all the chemistry and the water bill and happily fire up my scanner. Just gotta keep reading! But I've always stuck to the 72dpi rule for the web and it works fine - if you convert your tifs to jpg for web display, make sure you do a little extra unsharp masking to snap up the "print" to match your tif.