Old photo scans

[Pat M]

Hi everyone, I am new in this section of Photo restoration, having posted mainly in Retouching group.
Recently I asked a question on the Retouch group, but had little response so thought I would try here.
My cousin has sent me some old family photos that she scanned. The photos have a lot of noise and wavy lines. I think mainly because of the setting on her scanner.
Could any one possibly please advise on how to scan old photos so that they are at least a little clear and not covered in wavy lines and lots of noise.What dpi is best etc..
I promised my cousin that I would restore the old photos, as I have done quite a few for family and friends in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, in the past.But after seeing the scans she has sent to me, I think it would be close to impossible.
I feel sure that the actual photgraphs are not as bad as the scans.
So am writing here for some general advice.
Thank you.
Pat

[mistermonday]

Pat, what you are seeing may be textured paper that was used in the 70's mostly. The noise may be noise or something else. It would be best if you could attach a sample for folks to look at.
Regards, Murray

[Pat M]

Here is a link to an example of the pics, thank you for any help
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/u...t/scan0004.jpg

[Dave.Cox]

If that is an example of what you are attempting to restore, you don't have much to work with. I think your first step would be to get your cousin to send you the originals. That way you will know if there is enough there to work with, and you can make an attempt at a better scan.

Dave

[Pat M]

Dave
Yes that is true - not much to work with here. But I live in Australia and my cousin lives in UK. So not a good idea to send the photographs by airmail.
I was thinking on the lines of perhaps she could set her scanner at a different setting to get a better scan.
Pat

[0lBaldy]

it does not look like a scan to me... looks more like a copy made with a camera with flash to me

None-the-less, a rescan, in color, is in order.. if lines are a problem rotate the picture 180 degrees and make a second scan... merge those in Photoshop and use the best of both

scan in COLOR at the highest resolution capable with the scanner and at a size of at least 5X7 or larger with all automatic settings turned OFF (no levels, no color corrections, no brightness/contrast, no dust/scratch elimination etc..) this should produce large files which can be uploaded online to a host like mediafire.com (100 Meg per file, free) to which they can send you a link to the site that is hosting the large images. and if you wanted.. you could post the link here at RetouchPRO also

[Pat M]

Thank you OlBaldy,
I will relay your instructions to my cousin, and hopefully she can send me somthing a little better than this. I appreciate all your help.
Pat