I'm trying to find the right way to do this.
I have a 35mm strip of film. I need to scan it so that eventually I can print it as a 8.5 x 11. I want to bring it into PSCS & manipulate it first & then take it to be printed. My scanner does do negatives but I'm not sure how to enlarge it that much. Should it be a large DPI setting? I'm just guessing.
My other concern is that lately everything I've scanned has a lot of digital crap in the color. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Is some digital pixelization to be expected? Is my scanner getting old? Is there a way to clean my scanner?
Thanks in advance,
Maryanne H

okay I think I figured out the size problem. I scanned this picture using 600 DPI & figured out how to change my size but the pizel crap is still there. When I blow it up 100% it looks bad. What am I doing wrong? Please I need help.
I've attached just a portion of the picture I'm trying to scan & fix. So that you would see the pixel garbage I'm talking about.
-Maryanne

I can't help with the colour problems when you scan but to get the best quality for enlarging you need to use the highest resolution your scanner and PC/Mac can cope with. The higher the resolution you use the more pixels you will have to play with.

Hope that helps :)

PamSav is right; you need to scan negatives at a higher resolution than prints. i have a dedicated 35 mm negative and slide scanner and i scan at 1800 dpi. also, on the dedicated i can do a 'pre-scan' that allows me to set filters for color, saturation and even film type. once i have those set, i do a final scan to get the image into the computer.

also bear in mind that film negatives degrade. some of that color problem may be film degradation. i'd also question that negative scanners that come with normal print scanners. i've never tried one of those, but i'm always a bit suspicious of 'combo' units that try to do more than what they were originally made for.

looking at that picture, i'd say it's mostly your scanner. you're getting a washed out look across pretty much all the colors and that isnt film degradation. if your scanner has optional settings, try turning them all off and scan just the raw image and see what you get and if you can scan at a higher resolution, preferably 1200 dpi or higher, try that.

also, post some specs on the scanner. maybe someone else knows something about that particular brand.

offhand, i'd say try a different scanner, though.

Craig

I ended up asking a friend that had an actual negative scanner to help. me. The color & quality was so much better from it.
Thanks all-M :pleased:

you're welcome :)

Craig