workflow for old photos?

[ehackett]

Lightroom Version

6.14

Operating System

1. macOS 10.15 Catalina

Good day,

I've got a couple of shoe boxes full of family B&W photos--1940s mostly--prints, no negative. I would be interested learn others' workflows for handling such images. In addition to dust, grit, and some curling/fraying/etc., the photos are not sharp at all--some camera shake, some camera lens. Any techniques or plug-in (looked at a couple) that might improve these images would be most welcome. Here's what I am doing:

scanning into TIFFs with Epson V600 @ 2400 dpi (for the 3 x 3s; and a bit higher for small prints (1 x 2) and some in-scanner adjustments that I won't go into (this is a LR board).

In Library:

BW preset--high-contrast B&W
LR general preset--sharpen face

Auto-tone (just in case--often doesn't matter and so I undo)

White balance (just a peek, again, and usually doesn't much help.

Exposure (usually up or down a bit) +/- 1

Contrast up 1

Clarity up 1

Then off to Develop:

Crop (I know this is on open question: I like to see the image as intended before anything else)

Spot removal--usually a fair amount of this, and I am not very good at it...visualization does help

Exposure

Contrast

Highlights, shadows, whiles, blacks--as in a recipe, "season to taste"...sometimes working with the curve helps here, sometimes it isn't any easier that sliders.

Clarity

Sharpening (usually around 50 @ 1.0

Finis....

Suggestions about what to do, in what order, in what menu (Liv, Dev, Print), and lessons learned from experience.

Thanks and best wishes,

Ed

 

[Replytoken]

What scanning software are you using?

--Ken

 

[Paul_DS256]

some in-scanner adjustments that I won't go into

True, but you may want to share. Except for the dust removal you are likely further ahead making your adjustments in LR6. I think a lot of those V600 adjustments are for people who are using the scanner to do post processing of the scan.

 

[ehackett]

What scanning software are you using?

--Ken

Epson Scan 2 ... also came with Silverfast.

Best wishes,

Ed

 

[Paul_DS256]

Here's a few links that may be helpful:

• http://www.abalook.com/new-blog/2020/4/30/slide-scanning-part-1the-scanning-device
• https://www.colorexpertsbd.com/blog/lightroom-tutorial-restoring-old-damaged-photos/
• https://archivehistory.jeksite.org/chapters/chapter2.htm

 

[Replytoken]

Epson Scan 2 ... also came with Silverfast.

Best wishes,

Ed

You may want to try out Silverfast or VueScan. Both are pretty powerful and offer many options that Epson's stock software does not. I use VueScan with an Epson flatbed scanner when scanning photos.

--Ken

 

[ehackett]

Thanks, Ken--I've used VueScan with an old Nikon film scanner and think well of it....just hadn't made the connection.

Best wishes,

Ed

 

[ehackett]

Here's a few links that may be helpful:

• http://www.abalook.com/new-blog/2020/4/30/slide-scanning-part-1the-scanning-device
• https://www.colorexpertsbd.com/blog/lightroom-tutorial-restoring-old-damaged-photos/
• https://archivehistory.jeksite.org/chapters/chapter2.htm

Thanks! Those are very helpful, esp. the last....

Best wishes,

Ed

 

[charleskinghorn]

Another long-time scanning instructional site: https://www.scantips.com/.

 

[ehackett]

Another long-time scanning instructional site: https://www.scantips.com/.

Thanks! Looks very helpful....

Best wishes,

Ed

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

Do you know this resource?
https://thedambook.com/dyp/

However Peter Krogh describes a camera scanning approach he is going deep into the whole proces. I found it very valuable

 

[ehackett]

Thanks--no, didn't know it.....have seen the camera approach and thought to give it a try

best wishes,

Ed

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Peter Krogh did a 'Talk' for B&H (50 minutes) still available here-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNWSdZ2VATI
And this article has a lot of info-
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explor...ut-a-scanner-digitizing-your-film-with-a-dslr

 

[ehackett]

Using Silverfast SE 8.8 to generally good effect. Online training for Sf is scarce and a bit thin, and with all the versions and variants available it is hard to know which features operate in the installed version. A lot of trial-and-error learning, but probably better results than the controls allowed by the Epson controls for the V600….and free (because ICE is unavailable for updated scanner driver.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions and helpful leads to training.

best wishes,

Ed

 

[PhilBurton]

Using Silverfast SE 8.8 to generally good effect. Online training for Sf is scarce and a bit thin, and with all the versions and variants available it is hard to know which features operate in the installed version. A lot of trial-and-error learning, but probably better results than the controls allowed by the Epson controls for the V600….and free (because ICE is unavailable for updated scanner driver.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions and helpful leads to training.

best wishes,

Ed

Ed,

Can you post which Silverfast settings you found best, and which ones to not use or avoid. In principle the same settings might also apply to Vuescan.

Phil Burton