The skinny on scanning

January 5, 2008 12:52 AM

I'm intending to self-publish a short run book of photography - I need advice on image preparation (from original neg and tranny) for what will most likely be an offset printing process.

I am/was a photographer, and for 8 years I put at least one roll of film through my camera every day - most of which I've never printed. The book is principally for my children, their chidren and friends, but that's just a bit of background.

Back in the day, if an image was to be published, it needed to be drum scanned, so what I really want to know is - can I use a high end desktop scanner (ie: Nikon Coolscan 9000) to attain the level of quality required for excellent reproduction (scanning medium format and 35mm).

I'm also interested in any other thoughts/suggestions you may have, including printers who specialise in this type of work, other scanners that I should consider, et cetera.

posted by strawberryviagra to media & arts (12 comments total)

You need one bit of info to fill this question out: what size book/images are you printing? Also, are you printing B&W or color?

I've seen books from blurb.com and they are REALLY nice, and very reasonable price-wise.

Short run offset printing will make you cry as far as price goes.
posted by jedrek at 12:57 AM on January 5, 2008

Ah yes - good point.

The images would be no greater than 6x8 inches - they'd sit within (be framed within) a larger page area.

Mainly black & white, but I need to also consider colour (albeit, to a lesser extent).

I'm prepared for a bit of crying - the book will be of significance, so I don't want to skimp on the printing costs, but then, I haven't even looked at that aspect of the project yet (I'll check out blurb.com in the meantime - thanks for that).
posted by strawberryviagra at 1:10 AM on January 5, 2008

Review of ScanCafe.

Going from my own desktop negative scanning experience, the quality could be better, but it is good enough to get nice vibrant prints at full-page resolution. The time/effort of checking for dust in the resulting scans, and rescanning if necessary, got to the point where I just developed a higher tolerance for that sort of blemish. Now I plan to try ScanCafe, they're easily cheaper than the cost to my free time of doing it myself.
posted by -harlequin- at 1:27 AM on January 5, 2008

I'm not concerned about the time-frame - I've done many hours of scanning, and many more in the dark-room (if I ever smell fix again, I'll vomit violently), manually spotting images and burning and dodging while printing have made me luuuuuurve using photoshop - plus I'll need to scan anyway in order to undertake the editing process.

I want to know about quality - has anyone actually published an image using a similar scanner to the one I referenced above?
posted by strawberryviagra at 1:41 AM on January 5, 2008

I'd try to scan them professionally with an Imacon, the Coolscan is OK but pales in comparison
posted by matteo at 6:30 AM on January 5, 2008

If this is going to be The Family and Friends edition I recommend testing the short run print process against Off Set before you go all in.

The short run machines are out there now do some amazing things and many of them are using liquid based inks instead of powder.

Check out what Apple has to offer through iPhoto. Start off here, or a similar template app, get the layout the way you want it, get Apple and company to print one proof copy, take a look at the quality then decide if you still want to go the off set route.

The books available from Apple go up to 100 double sided pages in large book mode. Further, you might be able to give the printer the resulting file postscript that comes out of iPhoto and save yourself the trouble of having to do a layout from scratch.
posted by bkeene12 at 7:17 AM on January 5, 2008

...the book will be of significance, so I don't want to skimp on the printing costs,...

Given the implied importance of the book, I would highly recommend you enlist the aid of a graphic designer/artist to help you with the project. They have the training/experience to be able to prepare your photos correctly for print, avoiding a lot of needless trial-and-error. This is especially necessary when going with offset.

Alternately, most good presses also provide design services.

Personally, when it comes to something like this, I would prefer to work with a local press. One where I could work with people face-to-face throughout the project, rather than via remote.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:10 AM on January 5, 2008

IMO you should have some firm decisions on the final product before deciding on the input; the printing method, quality, layout, sizes, pages, binding, paper type, finish, number of copies, price, etc.

Then discuss the scan requirements with the printer since the best scans are calibrated to the output technology. Think Zone System.

The print shop may provide the scanning and prepress services if you decide to go offset. At least they will have specifications for you and may recommend a local service for whatever layout, scanning and prepress you need.

Certainly the Coolscan can make excellent scans, it is a quality product. But the entire printing process is more important than any one component.
posted by Fins at 8:14 AM on January 5, 2008

AsukaBook have peerless image quality for the price, which is expensive but not outrageously so. You'll have to register and say you're a pro photographer to get details from them, however.

I'd get a pre-press shop to do the scanning as well. It'll be about the price of the top-end scanner anyway.
posted by bonaldi at 6:25 PM on January 5, 2008

I'll need to scan the images in any event - I have several thousand rolls to edit. I may as well do them properly for archival purposes (I won't actually scan every single image, but you can appreciate the editing process will be quite large in the first cut). It may well be that I get the pre-press people to re-do the images that I commit to the book, but what I really need to know is - will a semi-professional, 4000ppi optical resolution desktop film scanner be good enough.

Has anyone had an image published from one of these machines?

Thanks for the info so far.
posted by strawberryviagra at 1:19 AM on January 6, 2008

Some comparisons between the Imacon, Minolta and Nikon 8000
posted by strawberryviagra at 3:11 AM on January 7, 2008

Here`s an excellent article on drum scanning
posted by strawberryviagra at 5:21 AM on August 7, 2008