old heritage photos

[ScrappyEthel]

Okay all you scanner savvy people I need your help !! :help: I have been looking through the forum trying to find an answer but am lost! :yikes: I have scanned in several old heritage photos and saved them at a large resolution and now they are TOO big to open! :yikes: My computer virtually locks up every time I try to open one. They were saved as bmp files and now in hindsight realizes I should have saved them as Jpg as I scanned them, is there anything I can do to change them to jpg? Or would it just be quicker to delete them and go scan them all again at jpg? I would really like to use what I have as I have to travel out of town to get to my aunt's house who has these pics to scan.

Thanks for any help on this! ;)
Brenda Fain (ScrappyEthel)

[diturpin]

OK Brenda, I'm not a scanner person, What are you trying to open them with? Photoshop? Have you tried other "smaller" programs? I was thinking about maybe something that came with you computer that wouldn't require as much memory to run as does Photoshop.

I don't know if that would work, but it's the only thought I have. Good luck.

[debbers]

A Jpg is only smaller on disk ... not in memory.

What size ARE the files? In both kb on the hard drive and the dimensions in pixels? You should be able to right click on one, open the properties and see what the dimension of the image is in pixels. Here's the steps for it in Windows Explorer:

Right Click on image
Select Properties
Select the Summary Tab
Click the Advanced Button

deb

[ScrappyEthel]

Deb here are the stats

Width 8987 pixels
Height 12827
Horizontal resolution 1199 dpi
Vertical Resolution 1199 dpi
Bit Depth 24

Thanks!

[ScrappyEthel]

Diane, Yes, I have tried to open it in Paint and it does the same things. But I walked away for a while and went back and it did finally open and was HUGE.

See you are from Nashville, I am from Sweetwater about halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga.

[Victoria]

Is there any way that you can choose to resize the scanned photo? You would choose to keep the proportions and resample with a smaller size.
What program did you use to scan the photos? I use HP Image Zone, and when I have scanned, in the Edit option, there is a resize option. By selecting the custom size, I can change my pixel size, to a more manageable size. I just reopen my jpg file with the HP Image Zone program and go from there. I can do the same in PSE , but I think it uses more memory, so the scanning program may have the option you need.
Hope this helps.

[debbers]

Yes, that's a HUGE image - Just to give you an idea of how large that image is: you're looking at a 29 inch wide image by 42 inches in that file at print resolution (300dpi).

For the most part, people scrap at either 2400 or 3600 wide - so I agree with Victoria. Scan your image again and adjust your software to whichever settings complement the size you scrap at (2400 or 3600 pixels for a 12 inch page).

I can see why Paint might be so slow to open it. That size of file would bring my 2 meg system to a VERY slow crawl, but it would work sooner or later. I'm not familiar with Paint to suggest how to resize the file to a smaller one, but that might take more memory on top of what the image is making already.

deb

[ScrappyEthel]

Thanks for your suggestions ladies, Guess I will just delete these and get back with my Aunt and rescan the pics at the proper settings. Thanks for your pointers!
Have a blessed day.

[Janet]

If you don't have a ton done, I'd rescan them. The file size isn't awful IF you're planning on doing heavy cropping. But if your computer is locking up, then flat out it's too big.

Pesonally, I scan my own heritage photos at anywhere between 10-15MB as an end file size. That's even too big for many folks here, but it's what works for me (my stock photos are 50 mb when I'm done with my workflow, so 10-15 seems like nothing to me).

I would suggest scanning them as TIFF files - as that's a lossless format. Jpeg is a Lossy format - meaning everytime you work on them and resave, you do lose some of the information in the image. While it's not a huge amount and you may not really notice it all that much, it is there. If I'm scanning my heritage photos, I want that TIFF on file somehow for an archive. I do convert all my TIFF scans to JPEGS - put the TIFFs on disc (2 copies - one goes to the safe deposit box) and then are deleted from my computer. The jpgs stay to be scrapped. :)

[ScrappyEthel]

Thanks to all of you who have offered advice. I obtained all the old photos yesterday and am beginning the long process of scanning today.

Another question I have is can I fill the scanner bed full of smaller photos and it be okay? or is that one of the problems of it creating too big of a file?

Holding off on scanning till I hear from you all. Thanks again and Happy Friday!

[diturpin]

Diane, Yes, I have tried to open it in Paint and it does the same things. But I walked away for a while and went back and it did finally open and was HUGE.

See you are from Nashville, I am from Sweetwater about halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga.

I know just were you are! We have friends that live in Sweetwater. We lived in Knoxville for many years before hubby was transferred with work. I grew up in Rogersville, just NE of Knoxville and hubby is from Oliver Springs, near Oak Ridge.

**I** (not an expert here, so maybe they'll chip in later) scan grouping of similar colored and sized photos and then cut them apart immediately. However, I do not scan a small 2x3 photo and a large 5x7 at the same time cause I may want to use a higher resolution on the small one where I don't need so much on the larger one. That may not be a good reason, I don't know the technical side of this. I do find I get better scans if I don't mix color and b/w as well.

Hope that helps and hope the experts here will chime in soon!

[ScrappyEthel]

Well, hey neighbor! Thanks for responding, That is cool. Sweetwater is relatively very small on the map so was not sure if you knew where it was.

Do you know if anyone in the TN area do laptop crops and meet-ups? I think it would be WAY COOL if we did. Couple friends of mine who digiscrap meet sometimes at each other's homes and digiscrap and would love to join others if this does occur.

I go to paper crops on a regular basis and take my laptop and digiscap, but am a loner in that dept and so many people are intrigued by it and then you get negative comments on those who are married to paper scrapping. I still do some paperscrapping but more and more am converting to all digital. I Love it and learn so much just playing around in photoshop cs2 and from this website.

Well, I probably am just gonna scan each photo individually, just think overall and in the longrun it will be best. Thanks for your advice. Have a blessed day.

[debbers]

Ethel,

I've scanned them both ways, single and multiple. In the end, I'm lazy - and it seems like WAY more work, and WAY more opportunity to do something wrong doing multiples.

So I just do them individually now.

That said, Photoshop CS2 has a crop and straighten tool that will take a whole file of multiple pictures and make individual files from them. I haven't scanned a slug of pictures since I learned about it. So if that is what you are using, you might want to consider trying it.

deb

[ScrappyEthel]

deb, I tried the crop and straighten but it did not look like it did anything to me, I scanned in the pics then from the menu bar chose: >image > rotate > straighten and crop image.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your help.

[debbers]

Ethel, I'm not familiar with those menu options, but I only have CS2, not the newer version of Photoshop. No clue what might have changed between the two versions, but mine definitely just finds the borders of the pictures, straightens then and crops them into individual images.

In PSCS2, it's under File > Automate > Crop and Straighten Photos

When I used PSP, I don't remember something automatic to do it, but there was an AWESOME straightening tool that I still go back and use manually when I need it.

I guess it'll depend on which program you have and how it does it.

deb

[ScrappyEthel]

Well do I feel like a FRUITLOOP! :doh: I just now looked and I had my Adobe Photoshop Elements open not Photoshop CS2! :annoyed:

Yes, the steps you gave me worked! WOO HOO! :yahoo: That is exciting, thanks for the info and sorry I had a brain fart! :eek:

[debbers]

Oh my goodness, Ethel, do not worry about it one whit! You could not have had Photoshop at all, and my information wouldn't have done you any good.

I've got 3 graphics programs on my computer at home, and even more than that at work. I get working on one, go to open an image and EEEKS, it won't open. Why? It's the wrong one!

All the time!

deb