scanning 800 photos on Canon MP810

[dongle00]

Hello, all. I need some advice on scanning 800 (4x6) photos. I'm using the newest Macbook and a Canon MP810 printer/scanner. The photos have white borders that I want to crop. An automated process for that would save heaps of time. I plan to use some of the photos for slideshows and albums, and maybe email a few to relatives for reprinting.

Can someone with more experience help me out with the following choices?

Driver--There's one from Canon, one that might come with the Mac and third-party ones.

Software--There's Image Capture on the Mac, MP Navigator 3.0 from Canon and other titles, like VueScan and Silver-something. I don't mind paying a few bucks if it saves me a lot of time.

Settings--I'm thinking 300 dpi scans saved as JPEGs. Is that OK? I saw something called bit depth on Image Capture. Do I have to worry about that?

Thanks much,
Jack

 

[phrehdd]

Hello, all. I need some advice on scanning 800 (4x6) photos. I'm using the newest Macbook and a Canon MP810 printer/scanner. The photos have white borders that I want to crop. An automated process for that would save heaps of time. I plan to use some of the photos for slideshows and albums, and maybe email a few to relatives for reprinting.

Can someone with more experience help me out with the following choices?

Driver--There's one from Canon, one that might come with the Mac and third-party ones.

Software--There's Image Capture on the Mac, MP Navigator 3.0 from Canon and other titles, like VueScan and Silver-something. I don't mind paying a few bucks if it saves me a lot of time.

Settings--I'm thinking 300 dpi scans saved as JPEGs. Is that OK? I saw something called bit depth on Image Capture. Do I have to worry about that?

Thanks much,
Jack

Jack - go to Lynda.com. I think you can sign up for one free course as a trial (unless they stopped doing that). There is one for scanning. It is a very good series and will give you all the basics of flatbed scanning. If the trial is not available, then if you are willing to spend 25 dollars you can get 1 months worth of "training" on line from them. This is not bad as they cover lots of different softwares including Aperture, Lightroom, Photoshop and many more.

The catch here is that if you wanted to get rid of your borders, you need to line up your prints on the scanner exactly the same and then use items like Silverfast (which is ridiculously expensive). I don't know if Vuescan (sp) offers the same now but its a nice program and doesn't break the piggy bank.

Some softwares that come with scanners will try to figure out what is the image and lets you just "scan" that part of the photo. (Cutting out borders.) I think the catch is, you might have to do them one at a time.

I don't have a good answer for you on your scanning set up as I tend to scan at 400-600 dpi for my work. 300 should be fine if you don't print larger than the original. Also, set the printer for 1:1 size.

Best to you on this.

- Phrehdd