I have about two thousand family photographs that I am trying to
digitize by scanning them. To speed up the process, I am scanning four
photographs at a time, arranged as follows:

xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
----------------
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx

where each group of x's denotes a photograph, and the - represent
spaces between the photographs.

When I scan the whole thing, I get one big image with the four
photographs in each corner, and white spacing between each image (from
the scanner's lid).

My question is whether there is any tool or photoshop plugin that will
automatically split the four photographs from the single scanned
image? Right now I have to manually select each photograph, crop it,
and save it. If I can automate this task, it will make my digitization
project go *much* faster, considering I still have two thousand of
them to do!

I wrote a program with a few simple edge detection filters in C++ and
tried to use it on the image, but the edges are not easy to
distinguish from edges within the photographs. I have a hard time
making the program detect the correct edge automatically.

If not a photoshop plugin, is there any other 3rd party tool that can
accomplish this? Or even somewhere I can learn how to correct my
program to do this for me? I am fairly competent at programming and at
math, so I should be able to follow even a relatively complex
algorithm/workaround.

Thanks,
rasteroid

Rahul Mittal <rasteroid@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I have about two thousand family photographs that I am trying to
> digitize by scanning them. To speed up the process, I am scanning four
> photographs at a time, arranged as follows:
>
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         ----------------
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>         xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>
> where each group of x's denotes a photograph, and the - represent
> spaces between the photographs.
>
> When I scan the whole thing, I get one big image with the four
> photographs in each corner, and white spacing between each image (from
> the scanner's lid).
>
> My question is whether there is any tool or photoshop plugin that will
> automatically split the four photographs from the single scanned
> image? Right now I have to manually select each photograph, crop it,
> and save it. If I can automate this task, it will make my digitization
> project go *much* faster, considering I still have two thousand of
> them to do!

You do not mention which version of Photoshop you use. Photoshop CS does
have this feature. It's called "Crop and Straighten Photos" and can be
found uder the "Automate" menu.


--
Johan W. Elzenga            johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl
Editor / Photographer      http://www.johanfoto.nl/

On 21 May 2004 12:44:30 -0700, rasteroid@hotmail.com (Rahul Mittal)
wrote:

>I have about two thousand family photographs that I am trying to
>digitize by scanning them. To speed up the process, I am scanning four
>photographs at a time, arranged as follows:
>
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        ----------------
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>        xxxxxxx--xxxxxxx
>
>where each group of x's denotes a photograph, and the - represent
>spaces between the photographs.
>
>When I scan the whole thing, I get one big image with the four
>photographs in each corner, and white spacing between each image (from
>the scanner's lid).
>
>My question is whether there is any tool or photoshop plugin that will
>automatically split the four photographs from the single scanned
>image? Right now I have to manually select each photograph, crop it,
>and save it. If I can automate this task, it will make my digitization
>project go *much* faster, considering I still have two thousand of
>them to do!

Have you made sure your scanner software is unable to read four photos
placed on the glass into four separate files?

Microtek can do this and even use different color and curve settings
for each of the images.

Michael

> You do not mention which version of Photoshop you use. Photoshop CS does
> have this feature. It's called "Crop and Straighten Photos" and can be
> found uder the "Automate" menu.

Thanks Johan,

I am using 7.0, which has File->Automate, but no such thing as "Crop
and Straighten Photos". I will look up the feature you point out and
see if an upgrade is warranted.

Sincerely,
Rasteroid

> Have you made sure your scanner software is unable to read four photos
> placed on the glass into four separate files?
>
> Microtek can do this and even use different color and curve settings
> for each of the images.
>
> Michael

Thanks Michael,

I just checked HP's website for updates to the software, and it's a
230 MB download, which is in progress right now. Not sure if they
support the feature, but I'll go through the software upgrade anyhow.
If the software doesn't support it, I'll write to HP to see if they
can add the feature into their next version, especially if other
vendors already have this.

Sincerely,
Rasteroid