1. Goals

Remember that you have two goals in the scanning and e-mail process:

2. Hardware and Software

You probably already have all the necessary hardware: a computer and a scanner. You also need graphics software to adjust, transform and save the pictures on your computer, but that usually comes packaged with most scanners. Larger graphics programs, such as Adobe's Photoshop, Corel's Photopaint and JASC's Paintshop, are also great to use.

Make sure your computer has lots of storage space. A large multi-gigabyte hard drive is usually enough for a while, but saving your archives to CD's is becoming the way to go. Good CD "burners" run less than $200, and blank CD's (they can hold over 600 MB each!) run for 80 cents or less. You can store a few gig's of stuff on your hard drive, then organize it into 600 MB blocks and move each block to a CD. It's a great way to free up space!

About colors ...

... and what the heck is "TWAIN?" It's just the software that lets your computer, graphics program and scanner talk to each other. That's all. Just like the other stuff: your CD drive needs drivers, your video card needs its software, your mouse often needs it's software too. Like the "birds and the bees," they all do it.

3. Know your equipment

First, Know your scanner! Learn how it works and practice with test pictures. If you don't know your equipment you're just going to ruin some files or break the machine. And don't believe the stereotype, real guys read the directions! (Remember how important it was to follow tech data?)

Second, learn to use Windows Explorer. It lets you create, rename, copy, move, and delete files and folders. You have to organize your pictures and files on your hard drive, so get very, very, very familiar with this program. Remember, "Windows Explorer is your friend!"

NOTE: This is "Windows" Explorer for exploring your hard drive, not "Internet" Explorer for exploring the Internet. They're sorta similar, but Windows Explorer is what you need here.

4. Scanning

A. When you scan a picture, at first set the resolution as high as you reasonably can. I often scan at 300 to 600 dpi. You don't have to save it at that resolution; you're just holding it temporarily at that resolution. Once it's scanned, then you can save it at 300 or 150 dpi or lower. This gives your computer more information when scaling it down in size, often making it look a bit clearer. It makes your scanner "earn its keep" for you.

If your machine crashes when you do this or takes a lot of time "crunching the numbers," your computer may be slow or not have enough memory to juggle the numbers. Restart your computer and don't run anything else except the scanning stuff. Remember, the two things that really put a strain on a computer are graphics and internet. If you still have problems, scan at a lower resolution.

B. Scan it at "millions of colors" if it's a color picture (24 bit color, which is 8 bits each for red, green, and blue), or at least 256 shades of gray (8 bit) if it's a black and white picture (If you see bands in the gradual shading areas, try to scan at thousands of shades of gray, or 16 bit grayscale). You want to preserve all the colors and shades of the picture. Exceptions: If you're scanning line art or a poster with just a few colors, you can reduce the number of colors and shades. But if you're not sure, go ahead and scan at the higher scaling and reduce it later if you'd like.

C. Descreening: If you're scanning from a newspaper or magazine, you'll notice that the picture is made of lots of dots. When it's scanned, however, you see a mottled interference pattern (called "moiré"). Use the descreen process of your scanning software to remove most the moire pattern.

D. Balance the exposure if it needs it; your scanning software should let you do this. When you preview the picture you can adjust things such as brightness, contrast, and highlight/shadows/midrange response. Then, when it looks reasonable, do the scan. It probably won't be perfect, but you can fine tune it once it's saved as an archive.

5. Archiving

Now it's scanned ... but it's not saved yet. You still need to make some more decisions about the picture.

A. You can save it at a lower resolution, but remember: you want to preserve as much detail as possible. A 4X6 close-up portrait could be saved at 150 dpi, while a tiny but detailed picture of over 20 crew members probably should be saved at 600 dpi. Decide for yourself what resolution you need.

B. Save it as a TIF file, such as "b29.tif". This format does the best job of saving details with no distortion. Granted, a TIF file eats up lots of space, but preserving your photo is important. Storage media is cheap now, and huge hard drives and CD burners make archiving your pictures more affordable than ever.

About other formats:

C. I usually leave the archive picture "as is" as far as exposure is concerned; normally I fix just the e-mail copy. Occasionally, though, you may have to do some more work on it.

6. Sending

Now that the picture is safely archived you can share it with others. But sending it as a big TIF file takes lots of time, and web browsers can't read TIF files. You have to resize it and convert it. Here's how I do it:

7. Advanced Tips

Once you're comfortable with the contrast and brightness functions you can try these more powerful tools that can do wonders with pictures:

1. Color balance can compensate for a picture that's perhaps too blue or green.
2. Some tools, such as Adobe Photoshop's color balance tool, also let you adjust shadows/midtones/highlights for more control over the exposure.
3. If the colors are too intense or not deep enough, use the saturation or color depth tool to adjust them.
4. Sharpening (or unsharp mask, which is better) is commonly needed since the scanner often loses sharpness during the scanning process. However, I usually leave the archive "as is" and sharpen the copies instead. The unsharp mask gives you better control than the sharpen tool, and makes the image look more normal. Remember: use this tool sparingly, a light touch is best.
5. Curves is another powerful tool, giving you more precise control over specific exposure ranges.

There are more advanced tools and tricks you can use, such as using noise to improve pictures or using histograms, but I won't cover those here. Go to the links below for those tips and more.

8. Links

Once you're comfortable with these basic steps you can look for more in-depth advice. You can check out the following links for more advanced topics or special tips for your specific setup. Decide for yourself what tips work for you and what tips don't.

9. Final Tips

Here are probably the two most important tips I can give:

First, Take your time. Most mistakes happen when you're in a hurry. If instead you think about what you're doing and go one step at a time, you'll probably get it right the first time. Even if you make a mistake, you can easily back-track and fix it.
• And second ... Have fuⁿ!! If you're not going to enjoy it, then why do it? But if you take your time and follow the steps above, you'll soon enjoy what you're doing. And if you enjoy it you'll probably do a better job on it.

So go ahead: take your time and enjoy it!

I would like to thank Scott Burris, Karon R. Dey, and Sallyann Wagoner for helping me get the facts right. And, of course, thanks to Sallyann for hosting this page for all of us.