Scanning

I finally got my new negative and slide scanner, the Nikon 9000ED. This will do up to 120 sized negatives. Sweet machine but damned expensive.

So I tested a 120 negative and scanned it in as a 16bit image. It came out to a whopping 525MB for single image. In photoshop if I do Image Size it shows that it is 4000dpi and the image size is the same as the negative 6cmX7cm. Photoshop has never been one of my stronger suits. How do I make this so it is a manageable file and still look decent. I sort of want to get this sorted out so that I have it right from the start as I want to start to scan a bunch of my physical files so that I can reduce the number of filing cabinets that I have full of slides and negatives.

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Hi,
I scan, archive film and create a digital database for the National Parks as my day job so I should be able to answer a lot of your questions. I just have a few first to be clear on what you are asking. First how are you scanning it in to begin with? What size and resolution...high or low? 300dpi? When I scanned 120 negs I did them at a scan size of about 24 inches by 24 inches at 300 dpi. Of course you may not need them that big. It's best to scan it large and at a high res so that in photoshop you can reduce the size if need be and not lose any quality or have interpolation occur. As for the image size in PhotoShop you have all three boxes checked at the bottom which is incorrect. I think I usually have it on Constrain Proportions so that it will scale properly according to the resolution and original size. I think that the original scan is where to start. What scanning program do you use? Hope this helps a bit. If you want to give me more details I can help you more for sure!
Julé
they call me scanner girl here!

SSIM - The people that make Eclipse fluid and PecPads, also make an excellent negative cleaning fluid. I pretty much agree with Jule-Annes comments. I would knock down your final file resolution though. If you are printing Dye Sublimation as finals - you do not require anything near 4000dpi.

Sheldon, what size, in pixels, did you want your scanned image to be? If know that, then you can determine what you PPI for the scan should be.

For example, lets say you wanted the longest side of the image to be 3000 pixels so that if you printed the image at 300 dpi, you can print a decent 10x8 picture.

So, take 3000 and divide it by 2.67 which is the length of the longest side of your 120 negative frame. That gives you approximately 1124 ppi which you can round up to 1200.

You need to decide what the purpose of your scan is. If you want the very best quality from the 9000ED, you're doing the right thing already - but I would only do this for really important negatives that you plan to make exhibition prints from someday. For other negatives, try scanning at 2000dpi or even 1000dpi (keep the magnification at 100%). That will reduce your file size. Also, if your negatives are exposed properly and won't need much post processing, you can try scanning at 8 bit. That will cut your file size in half.