h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was finally going to get the last 6 months or so of baby pics online (or at least get the paper ones scanned in). I had the brilliant idea that things would be much simpler if I just used one of the computers to hold the photos, since the digital camera just works with the laptop (has XP) And while PhotoDeluxe doesn't really like the laptop (because of the XP) it usually works well enough, with patience. So I scanned in 23 photos--and the program shut down. Nothing saved, of course. Did it again--scan, shutdown, argh. Decided to go ahead and try downloading the thingy needed to increase the cooperation. Downloaded fine, can't make work... So, decided to do the photos one at a time. Scan, fix redeye, reduce resolution, convert to jpeg, save. Managed to do 6 of them (I have *three rolls* to do). Then the scanner decided to scan monochromatic--a nice lovely magenta...

I'm hoping hooking the scanner back up to the desktop will help. Last time the scanner played the monochromatic thing (that time yellow) it took moving to fix it...

places handmade cushion on the desk
...I do not want dents in that pretty face of yours

It was the top of my head, to avoid breaking the glasses, but thanks

When the scanner acts up, does a complete shutdown, turnoff, and reboot do the trick to fix the issue? Try that first before you totally disconnect.

When I'm processing photos at w*rk ... I usually work in a methodical way. Scan an image, save the unaltered scan to disk, scan the next, save to disk, etc ... until all of the raw scans are completed. *Then* I open each saved scan and do the refinements, in an orderly way, step by step. You can always work in small batches. Don't hesitate to save several versions at different stages of the same photo as you work on it. You can always delete the extra files after you've finished and are certain that the finals are saved and archived safely. I've been forced to use this method because of the size of the enlargements I regularly do, but it should help things along in this case as well. It's a big mistake to put a lot of effort into retouching photos without saving them regularly. Yes, it's a time-consuming, tedious process that takes patience, but it pays off in less lost time if your equipment is acting up. Your photo processing program might be running out of memory when you're trying to process lots of photos at once, so save often, and try quitting the program deliberately from time to time (when you've saved your work, of course) ... then restart it to clear the "log jam" of data. You'll find out soon enough how many photos your program can handle at a time. As you open photos, each one is held in RAM memory until you've saved it and closed it ... so don't let the photos get too deep on screen unless you're loaded with RAM. Watch your disk storage space too. You'll need room to save everything ... if it gets tight, save the photo files to removable media, like CD-Rs or Zip disks.

Keep on trudging through this task and you'll be surprised how fast you'll be done. Perhaps you can skip some of the "perfection" you're trying to achieve with redeye reduction and special techniques. Often, no one really notices the difference except you ... and each small step you add will amount to a lot of extra time with such a large batch of photos. You can always go back and fix a few at a time later on... if you feel up to it.

I hope this helps, Amy. Forgive me for rambling on about basics ... I always tend to start there when troubleshooting.

If you have more trouble, tell me specifically what exactly you're doing when this is happening. I might be able to help. I've faced these problems for many years on the professional level ... and I've lost a lot of hair over it ... so I can sympathize with the head banging frustration.

AW, you are a great teacher.

Awwww. Thanks, Paul.

The way I normally do things (on the desktop, which, like I said, amazingly actually works for this) is to scan in one roll (no more than 25 photos),and then, one by one, reduce redeye if needed (generally is--Faith seems to have really big pupils), reduce resolution, convert to jpg, and save. It just takes longer to have to select the scanner and the mode for eack and every picture. I've downloaded the patch that should make XP and the program cooperate better twice, but I'm not certain where Firefox puts it... Next time I'll use IE for that, I think.

Anyway, the hardware problem the scanner was giving me is one I've had before (just different color) and I'd tried all that stuff you suggested then, and it didn't work until we moved from the old apartment to here. But maybe just plugging it back into the desktop'll work--I'll see when I get a chance...