Ron Dial Loc: Cuenca, Ecuador

Well this may be more than you want to know:
1. What is the condidion of the negatives Smooth, flat, mounted slides? Or do they have bends and creases
2. Evaluate the surface of each negative. Any Water Markings
3. What size are they
4. you are using a flatbed scanner do you have an optically clear glass plate to lay over the negative to flatten them out. If you don't have one, go to a good glass shop and tell then you want an 8 x 10 or what ever size you will scan piece of optically clear perfect glass. Should cost about 30-40 dollars.
5. Go to www.aztek.com/consumables.html Read their instructions and Obtain some Kami scanning fluid and Kami Cleaning Fluid.
6, You are going to build up a little dam on your flat bed scanner, pour a little scaning fluid into the dammed area and them imerse the negative into the liquid making sure to remobe all bubbles, place the clear glass over the liquid and close the lid and scan for the highest resolution you scanner will produce. Use good software, then take the scanned image and examine it at 300 DPI or greater in Photoshop or other good software, fix any scratches and bubbles you find, Then save the scanned image as a TIFF or PSD file.
7 Use the Kami cleaning solution to carefully clean the scanner, and the negative, using the Kami whipes to clean the film. Permit the negative to dry. If there is a problem, repeat.
8. The purpose of all of this is to fill the very fine dust scratches and other marks that will be in the negative. Follow this process for near Drum Scan results. Works for color or black and white. Good luck and feel free to contact me with questions or problems.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Chances are the OP is doing prints from the term photos not negatives or slides.

Kate1948

Regardless of the scanner you use, the problem you're going to come across is the textured paper they used back then. It creates a dot pattern all over the image and trying to get rid of it softens the image.

There are some internet post that suggest ways of minimizing the pattern, but I didn't find any of the ones I tried particularly helpful.

My scanner of choice is the Epson line because I like their TWAIN software. But neither that nor PS resolves the textured paper problem.

Ron Dial Loc: Cuenca, Ecuador

If you are dealing with a textured print, you can try to take a photo using a good macro lens and a tripod with even light. Make sure the focus is tight with no shadows. I have had some success with this. Oh and use a full frame camera.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Epson has a wet system to deal with textured prints.