petego4it Loc: NY

I do have a couple of large portrait light boxes on stands. Would those work?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

https://www.hamrick.com

https://www.silverfast.com/silverfast9/

Either or both of the links above should get you to a scanner driver that works with the 4990 on Mac OS 12.6.

The Epson V600 is decent, for around $299. If the native driver doesn't suit you, Epson has a free download of SilverFast for the V600 that is worth a try.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

YES. I used two 24"x32" Westcott soft boxes with CFL photo lamps in them back in the mid 2000s, to copy lots of items for video slide shows.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Nice work. Nice explanation.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I'm flattered! However, I'm deep into other projects with my son just now. We're booked for several months.

There are dedicated companies that do this work commercially. They are expensive, because the labor involved is substantial if done here in the USA. Many send their work to India, which means long turnaround times and risk of loss of your photos.

There are systems that can automate loose print scanning*, but they do not yield results that I find acceptable for my use.

*At one time, Epson had a scanner that could quickly scan snapshots to files. It isn't in their current line-up, though. It wasn't very good.

elee950021 Loc: New York, NY

Petego!

In 2017 Park West Camera Club celebrated its 80th Anniversary! We restored approximately 100 black and white vintage prints from the 40s and 50s to display at a planned exhibition at New York City's Soho Photo Gallery in Tribeca. Their storage was less than stellar and many had the usual signs of foxing and silvering, water damage, cracks and surface abrasions. The club set up a restoration and preservation team.

All your efforts basically depend upon the sizes of your original source materials, whether prints, slides or conventionally printed ephemera and other objects and keepsakes. Smaller than 11x17 or so, you can use a flatbed scanner. You can do larger sizes in sections! For anything larger, using a camera and lights is preferable.
And much faster once set up. Using a "standard 2 equal lights @ 45 degrees set up" to photograph the originals (on a table, copy stand or an art easel), we sorted the images from largest to smallest and using a Nikon D800 as the main camera (36 MP full frame) we were easily able to color balance the 3200 degrees tungsten lighting and square up the camera. After several hours of copying (we had two stations with members helping to replace photographed images).

Next, several members with photo restoration skills took several days to remove all the imperfections mentioned previously and restored the images to almost exact likenesses of the originals. Printed by those members with 16x20 printers, we then mounted the prints for exhibition at Soho Gallery.

Also on display at the gallery, Park West CC had several hundred current members' digital images continuously rotating and shown on a 40" monitor. A reception with pizza, sandwiches, cakes and desserts capped the Park West CC 80th Anniversary!

See: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBBFhQtOSUE >

Be well! Ed

PS. Personally, I would keep all documents and ephemera in your slide show even if damaged and not restorable to
to provide a full picture of your activities.

Steved3604

Great ideas here -- pretty much covers it. I use a scanner when I have a few pix and/or need high res quality. For a project like yours I would use a digital camera. Polarized light and camera filter if possible. No glass. Magnets. Pre sort for definitely in the show (or out). Sort by size. And use a remote trigger on the camera. Once set for a size don't touch the camera. Just move pix to correct location -- hit remote shutter actuation. Also, if beneficial, write notes between pix or describe pix and a take pix of written notes to separate certain chapters/sizes/etc. Pre-planning (if there is such a thing) and planning will save time in the long run. Almost forgot -- shoot a few tests and go though the post process to be sure there are no "Oh, my gosh -- I forgot to do that" mistakes. GL

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Google "shoebox scanning".
When I was in the photo lab business, this was an offering many labs started with high speed print scanners. Many of them are still offering it, by the box.
Good luck!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

All you need is a flat wall and a simple method of holding the originals in place. approximate 45 degrees is not hard to establish and once you determine the evenness of lighting and exposure you can work very quickly and efficiently. All you need to move is the camera for varis size originals. Once your polarization is set, you do not need to change it. I have done significant-sized collections of prints, artwork paintings, etc. in a day's work—very consistent results.

petego4it Loc: NY

actually learned there is an update. now wondering if technology has advanced so much that this 10 year plus old scanner may not give the best result?