Project Software and Workflow

Forums

1 reply [Last post]

Submitted By: smadden

Joined: Oct 8 2007

Posts:

Project Software and Workflow

Posted: October 8, 2007 - 9:33am

I (like many I'm sure) am embarking on a project to digitise my family's hard copy photo history for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. Being a computer geek but not quite the photoshop guru, I want to use software to save time and make up for my lack of experience and confidence in pro editing skills. I am almost finished scanning, most done at 600dpi on an HP 4670. The photos have every conceivable wrong done to them from cutting, scaping, scotch tape, fading, polaroid fade, etc. So I'm going to need to establish A - workflow, B - which software. The end result I am looking for is a DVD (I like Movies to TV) and a coffee table book form a service bureau. So on many I need print quality not just NTSC.

I am thinking that I need to

1 - Correct Colour.
2 - Blowup size in many cases.
3 - Repair damage.
4 - create missing data to square off.

Let's leave neat presentation effects for later....

So my questions for discussion are, what order should the workflow take, is there obvious steps I have missed, what is the best (with cost as a factor) software to use for the job?

From early investigations I have not seen any odds on favourite for colour correction.

Bowup seems to be between Alien skin Blow Up and Genuine Fractals.

Repair has Image Doctor and Akvis retouch.

Missing data has a zillion stamp tools.

So without igniting a religious flamewar, what do you think? Hey, maybe its fodder for a standing article in Shutterbug and a good opportunity for the software guys to send me full versions to use.<grin>

In all seriousness, like some technical websites that keep a constant update on how to build the best PC for the buck, including product recommendations, it seems to me this kind of info would be in demand by a number of people wishing to preserve their heirlooms on now attainable technology.

Regards, Steve

Submitted By: David B. Brooks

Joined: Apr 19 2011

Posts:

Re: Project Software and Workflow

Posted: October 8, 2007 - 9:59am

>>I want to use software to save time and make up for my lack of experience and confidence in pro editing skills.<<

There is no software that will make up for not investing the time to do editing with deliberate care, or that can make up for a lack of skill. There are lots of software packages that have automated features that largely don't work simply because the software cannot "see" what the image is as you see it with your eyes, it can only measure the data content and if it doesn't conform to typical standards make it fit better in the realm of mediocrity.

And you are asking for advice a little late, as it would help to do the best possible quality scans with a photo instead of a document scanner, and one that has the best scanner driver, Lasersoft SilverFast Ai 6.5 - and then output as fully corrected a scan as possible in 16-bit per RGB channel files.