rkm
Well-known
I'm about to pull the trigger on a Plustek 8200 AI. I'm aware that there'll be a learning curve, but I'm wanting to get a realistic idea of how much time I'll be spending on scanning and post processing. I also want to formulate a plan of attack, a workflow.
My goals are two-fold, no make that three-fold...
1. to see what I've shot
2. to share my images online
3. to produce high quality images suitable for self-publishing in Blurb photo books for myself.
I have a bunch of old colour slides and 35mm which I'll work my way through eventually, but my IMMEDIATE project is to scan the 2 rolls of HP5 I've been shooting weekly (I have a backlog of 10 rolls). I've made a project for myself of shooting this much for the period of one year (and maybe more). It's important to me that I can get into a rhythm of developing/scanning/post-processing weekly, because otherwise, it'll never happen.
I'm anticipating that I'll buy Lightroom as well for editing and file management. I also have Photoshop, though not the most current version. I'll be doing all of this on the Mac Pro in my recording studio, which has 8GB of ram.
QUESTIONS:
- I'm aware that the files the Plusteks produce are a lot larger than they need to be. Do you always scan at 7200 and then reduce your file size from there? And subsequently produce smaller JPG versions for online sharing etc?
- Or, are you better off doing a bunch of lower resolution scans as previews (or perhaps at a suitable size for sharing online), and then returning to your favourite images to do a higher resolution scan, and more attention in post processing (for the purpose of publishing in a Blurb book)?
- What are your scan settings for colour, for black and white?
- Do you prefer to obtain a basic scan and do work in post, or dial in the scan software to get you a close to finished image out of the scanner?
- How much time did you spend at first? How much time do you spend now that you've found your groove (assuming that you did)?
Any input would be greatly apreciated.
PS - My reasoning for choosing a Plustek, is that from what I've read here, the image quality for 35mm is the best that I'll get within my budget. My other options were the Epson V700 (which may be quicker with batch scanning, but seemed like it might be more finicky to get good results), and an older Nikon Coolscan with Vuescan (but I can't seem to find any at reasonable prices, and if they're old they may break?).
My goals are two-fold, no make that three-fold...
1. to see what I've shot
2. to share my images online
3. to produce high quality images suitable for self-publishing in Blurb photo books for myself.
I have a bunch of old colour slides and 35mm which I'll work my way through eventually, but my IMMEDIATE project is to scan the 2 rolls of HP5 I've been shooting weekly (I have a backlog of 10 rolls). I've made a project for myself of shooting this much for the period of one year (and maybe more). It's important to me that I can get into a rhythm of developing/scanning/post-processing weekly, because otherwise, it'll never happen.
I'm anticipating that I'll buy Lightroom as well for editing and file management. I also have Photoshop, though not the most current version. I'll be doing all of this on the Mac Pro in my recording studio, which has 8GB of ram.
QUESTIONS:
- I'm aware that the files the Plusteks produce are a lot larger than they need to be. Do you always scan at 7200 and then reduce your file size from there? And subsequently produce smaller JPG versions for online sharing etc?
- Or, are you better off doing a bunch of lower resolution scans as previews (or perhaps at a suitable size for sharing online), and then returning to your favourite images to do a higher resolution scan, and more attention in post processing (for the purpose of publishing in a Blurb book)?
- What are your scan settings for colour, for black and white?
- Do you prefer to obtain a basic scan and do work in post, or dial in the scan software to get you a close to finished image out of the scanner?
- How much time did you spend at first? How much time do you spend now that you've found your groove (assuming that you did)?
Any input would be greatly apreciated.
PS - My reasoning for choosing a Plustek, is that from what I've read here, the image quality for 35mm is the best that I'll get within my budget. My other options were the Epson V700 (which may be quicker with batch scanning, but seemed like it might be more finicky to get good results), and an older Nikon Coolscan with Vuescan (but I can't seem to find any at reasonable prices, and if they're old they may break?).