The Scanning Project-6: The Print, and Some Final Thoughts on Editing

Many folks have prints without negatives, mainly family photos from generations past, but there are also collectors and museums who have tintypes, albumen prints and even daguerreotypes. The quality of these items varies considerably, often showing signs of age due to fading, paper support deterioration and glitches in the emulsion surface. Scanning paper and other materials that support images is a fairly straightforward affair, and getting like copies is not difficult. The challenge comes in when you go to revivify, if you will, the image, a task that has been made easier with software retouching.

I am always amazed at the quality of very old prints that have been toned, and even black and whites that have been stored even under non-archival conditions. This carte de visite (about 5x7") was probably made in 1880s or so and was found in great condition. I scanned it in color to retain the sepia tone color and then did some minor retouching in software. 

 In the days when film was used for print copies, which I did commercially for many years, I would make a 4x5 negative with a copy stand setup and hand the print off, if needed and after I did my contrast and dodge and burn thing in the darkroom, to an airbrush and retouch artist, who would use the tools of their craft to reconstruct torn and damaged areas.

The success the job was heavily dependent on the original print condition and what I could do in the darkroom, and at times the results were more interpretations than true to the original image. At times the person bringing the image in for work would supply what details they had, such as eye and hair color and skin tone, and the artist would hand color the print. While the final look was at times more sketch-like than photographic, it still kept a treasured memory alive for future generations to come.

There was a time when I did a lot of hand coloring, adding photo oils to black and white prints. While the negative of this image is still in my files the only way to copy this unique treatment was scanning the print itself. The print is 8x10" so there was no problem handling it in one pass on the flatbed scanner. Image copyright George Schaub

 While the discussions here are not aimed at professional digital retouchers, I will go over some ways that an image can be enhanced and salvaged that are available to all with basic image editing programs later in these postings.

Naturally a flatbed scanner is used for scanning prints. Most of these that are not pro units offer letter size (8.5x11”) as the maximum scanning size. You can scan sections and merge larger prints later. You can also scan numerous snapshot size prints in one pass, then crop from the full scan to make corrections later. Some scanners/software can even ID individual snaps for you and create a file for each separate print; either way works fine, as you will not be sacrificing resolution whether you batch or scan individually.

There isn’t much to say about edits, as you can, with most scanners, get a virtual copy of the color and contrast of the print, and the only batch sorting you might want to do is between color and black and white and by print size. 

This is not a mistake in the way I scanned this photo I found in an old album at a flea market. The print image had gone full tilt and was very close to disappearing altogether. I scanned it first "as is."

To bring it back to life so that I could actually see the individuals in this group shot I made a simple adjustment when scanning to enhance the contrast, something I could as easily have done later in image processing software. The point is to not become discouraged when you find a poor quality print, as there are many ways to enhance and improve the image. If need be an image like this could be handed off to a pro retoucher but for me this result is mission accomplished. 

 Some Final Thoughts on Editing

Each of us has our own editing “eye” and that is certainly a personal matter. However, I could suggest that you begin the scanning process by working with projects. For example, you might want to start sorting into sections such as family, nature, florals, artwork, etc. or whatever makes sense to you. This way you can learn as you go and not feel overwhelmed by having to edit everything in your film and print files all at once. Harvest images selectively rather than trying to edit a lot of work at once.

Editing is an ongoing process (and by editing I mean dividing work into keepers, and maybes and outs) that will take time. But keep in mind that it is the most time-consuming part of this whole process, as it should be. Once you do your edits you’ll find that scanning is quite mechanical (after you learn the workflow) and easy. Scanning is an important creative process, and editing is at its heart.

How many images should you decide upon before you first begin scanning? That’s up to you and just how many images there are in your collection. I suggest that you begin with about 100, including good and not so good quality images.

You can make this your test run to become familiar with the scanner, the software and the best workflow. By working with a select group you will begin to see what you can and cannot accomplish and how you can or cannot salvage marginal images, and this will in turn feed back into your editing procedures and decisions.

To sum up:

Scanning itself is a mechanical process; although you can be creative in certain choices you make it is often best to simply scan to gain all the information you can from the material and then interpret as you will later. Scanning involves a set of decisions and commands that will affect the outcome, and each step is quite clear in its implications.

Editing is a creative process, where you make decisions about what images are meaningful to you. Editing is an emotional and aesthetic process. It becomes refined as you work through your images, and in itself is a wonderful way to revisit images you may not have looked at for many years.

There’s art in the science and science in the art of scanning, just like in photography itself.

Next posting: How a Scanner Works