Image Sources

Newspapers & Magazines

Newspaper & Magazine Photos are to be avoided because of printing process Moire, which affects scanning quality. If these happen to be your only source you may not have any choice in the matter.

The ideal method of scanning images from newspapers and magazines is to scan very large and then scale down the images in 2-5 even steps gradually to the desired size. This tends to reduce the moire pattern.

Original Photos

Try to obtain original photos if at all possible. Their quality for scanning is the best, and you do not need to do much post processing.

Keep in mind that some parents may already have digital pictures you may use in flyers. Be sure to ask!

Original Slides

Slides are another option, but scanning equipment for these can be fairly expensive. Fortunately, slides will not usually be a common source of original photographic likenesses.

The Faces Program

Faces is a progam used by a variety of agencies to expedite the process of creating suspect composite sketches.

For more information and help with IQ Biometrix's Faces Program, click Here.

Scanning Methods

Scanning sizes explanation

When scanning, it is a good idea to scan as large as you possibly can, and then scale and crop the picture to fit your particular usage.

When scanning, the scanning software interprets sizes in inches based on actual images.

Keep in mind that DPI (Dots Per Inch) translates exactly into Pixels on your screen. A standard sized 3x5 inch image scanned at 300 DPI results in pixel dimensions of 900x1500, which is actually larger than most desktop monitor resolutions.

Picture Post-Scan procedures

Scaling of the original scanned picture for uploading to BeyondMissing, Cropping the photo to cut out white space or emphasize a particular individual.

Scale and Crop procedures

Please, when scanning photos, please crop them before using them in a BeyondMissing flyer. Example:

As you can see, the image in the flyer on the right is too small.

Specific Program Instructions

resizing images in Photoshop

resizing images in IrfanView

Color Correction

Brightness / Contrast

Examples of Brightness/Contrast

Gamma Correction

Gamma is similar to Brightness/Contrast above, but uses a curved plot (AKA graph) to determine brightness and darkness.

Setting up a Workstation for scanning

Basic System Suggestions

• A computer with a Pentium II 400mhz processor (or greater)
• 128 MB RAM or more, this is the memory used to load the picture editing programs.
• Adequate Hard Disk storage space for the Programs, work images and temporary files.
• Digital Image Editing Software, such as Photoshop or Irfanview.
  Link: Download Irfanview

Scanner Types and Computer Interfaces

• SCSI
  SCSI scanners are the most efficient, however the computer usually requires the addition an internal SCSI interface adapter, which increases the cost and initial setup time.
• Parallel (printer port)
  Parallel scanners are generally slower, but are easier to setup since most computers have parallel ports.
• USB (Universal Serial Bus)
  USB is the new scanner interface standard, all Pentium II and greater computers have USB ports.

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