Getting Old Photos into iPhoto

You love your digital camera and the convenience of iPhoto, and it would take an act of Congress to force you to use film again.

And yet the past haunts you. You have boxes of negatives and slides that you haven't seen in years. If you could get them into iPhoto, you could organize them into albums and share them through Web albums, slide shows, prints and books, and even movies and DVDs.

To bridge the gap between pixels and print, you need a scanner. Here's an overview of what to look for, and some strategies for getting those old photos into iPhoto.

Scanning the Options

Before you buy a scanner, take stock of what types of media you'll need to digitize. Do you have negatives, prints, slides, or all three? Not all scanners are ideal for every task.

Flatbed scanners. If you'll be scanning printed photos, a flatbed scanner is your best bet. Place a photo face down on the scanner's glass, and a sensor glides beneath it and captures the image.

Repeating this process for hundreds of photos can be tedious. If you have a closet full of photos, you may want to look for a scanner that supports an automatic document feeder so you can scan a stack of photos without having to hand-feed the scanner. Some flatbeds include photo feeders that can handle up to 24 prints in sizes up to 4 by 6 inches. Other scanners accept optional document feeders. Just be sure to verify that the document feeder can handle photosmany can't.

Film scanners. A print is one generation away from the original image, and may have faded with time or been poorly printed to begin with. Worse, many photos are printed on linen-finish paper, whose rough texture blurs image detail when scanned. Bottom line: you'll get better results by scanning the original film.

Many flatbed scanners include a film adaptor for scanning negatives or slides. With some scanners, the adaptor snaps on to the scanner's bed. A more convenient option is a scanner with the adaptor built into the lid, such as Epson's Perfection 4990 Photo. The Perfection 4990 can scan negatives, mounted slides and, unlike many flatbeds, medium-format film, such as the 120 format popular in old cameras.

A flatbed scanner with a film adaptor is a versatile scanning system, but a film scanner provides much sharper scans of negatives and slides. Unfortunately, this quality will cost you: film scanners cost more than flatbeds.

Many film scanners provide a dust- and scratch-removal option called Digital ICE (short for image correction/enhancement). Developed by Kodak's Austin Development Center (www.asf.com) and licensed to numerous scanner manufacturers, Digital ICE does an astonishingly good job of cleaning up color film. However, it doesn't work with black-and-white negatives.

Scanning Right

Whether you use a flatbed or film scanner, you'll encounter enough jargon to intimidate an astronaut: histograms, tone curves, black points, white points. Don't fret: all scanners include software that provides presets for common scanning scenarios, such as scanning for color inkjet output. Start with these presets. As you learn about scanning, you can customize settings to optimize your exposures.

The right resolution. A critical scanning setting deals with how many dots per inch (dpi) the scanner uses to represent an image. Volumes have been written about scanning resolution, but it boils down to a simple rule of thumb: If you're using a flatbed scanner and you plan to print your scans on a photo inkjet printer, you can get fine results with a resolution of 180 to 240 dpi. If you plan to order photographic prints from your scans, scan at 300 dpi. Scanning at more than 300 dpi will usually not improve qualitybut it will definitely use more disk space.

Film scanners are different. A film scanner scans a much smaller original for example, a 35mm negative instead of a 4 by 6 inch print. To produce enough data for high-quality prints, a film scanner must scan at a much higher resolution than a flatbed. The film scanner I use, Minolta's Scan Elite 5400, scans at up to 5400 dpi.

This difference in approach can make for even more head scratching when it comes time to decide what resolution to use. Just do what I do: use the presets in the scanning software. I typically choose my film scanner's "PhotoCD 2048 by 3072" option, which yields a file roughly equivalent to a six-megapixel image.

Special circumstances. If you plan to apply iPhoto's or iMovie HD's Ken Burns effect to an image, you'll want a high-resolution scan so you can zoom in without encountering jagged pixels. Experiment to find the best resolution for a specific image and zoom setting.

In a related vein, if you plan to crop out unwanted portions of an image, scan at a higher resolution than you might normally use. Cropping discards pixels, so the more data you have to begin with, the more cropping flexibility you have.

Format strategies. Which file format should you use for saving images? iPhoto works best with JPEG images, but the JPEG format is lossy: it sacrifices quality slightly in order to save disk space. If this is the last time you plan to scan those old photos, you may not want to save them in a lossy format.

When scanning my old slides and negatives, I save the images as TIFF files. Then, I use Photoshop Elements' Process Multiple Files command to save a second set of photos in JPEG format. This gives me JPEGs that I can use in iPhoto, while my original, uncompressed scans are safely archived.

(If you don't have Photoshop Elements, you can perform this automation chore using a utility such as Yellow Mug Software's EasyBatchPhoto, available at www.yellowmug.com.)

Photos, Meet iPhoto

Once you've scanned and saved your photos, you can import them into iPhoto.

Filing photos. To take advantage of iPhoto's filing features, you may want to have a separate iPhoto roll for each set of related photos. In the Finder, move each set of related photos into its own folder, giving each folder a descriptive name, such as Vacation 1972. Next, drag each folder into the iPhoto window. iPhoto gives each roll the same name as its corresponding folder.

You can delete the folders after you've imported their shots, since iPhoto will have created duplicates in its iPhoto Library folder. (If you prefer to retain your existing filing system, you can set up iPhoto to not copy the photos to the iPhoto Library folder; see page 211.)

Turn back the clock. To make your iPhoto library chronologically accurate, change the date of each roll to reflect when its shots were taken, not when you imported them. First, click on the roll's name (if you can't see it, choose Film Rolls from the View menu). Next, type the desired date in the Information pane.

Time for retouching. You can use iPhoto's Retouch tool to fix scratches and dust specks, and its Enhance button and Adjust panel to fix color and exposure problems. For serious retouching, though, use Photoshop Elements or Photoshop. To learn more about digital retouching, I recommend Katrin Eisman's Photoshop Restoration and Retouching, Third Edition (New Riders, 2005).

Plug in to photo enhancement. Old photos do fade away, typically acquiring a blue or red tint as their dyes, well, die. If you have patience and a good eye for color, you can improve an old photo's color using iPhoto's Adjust panel or Photoshop.

If you have $49, you can buy a Photoshop plug-in that does the job for you. Digital ROC, from Kodak's Austin Development Center, does an amazing job of improving faded photos. Digital ROC also works in Photoshop Elements. You can download a trial version of it, and more, at www.asf.com.