'Tis a Puzzlement

[Konical]

Good Evening,

Over the holidays I had occasion to visit various family members, two of whom had relatively recent additions to their families. I took photo equipment, of course, and shot B & W (6 x 7), E-6 (also 6 x 7), and some 35mm color negative, mostly as back-up. Because I dragged along a couple of monolights to bounce off ceilings, my results are highly satisfactory, with the E-6 color (Provia) looking really terrific. Besides the usual family recording purpose, I intended to have a couple of the color transparencies made up as jigsaw puzzles by one of the companies which provides that kind of service. The puzzles were to be next year’s Christmas presents.
Now, I’ve run into a glitch. After making an inquiry to one of the companies, I was told that sending them the transparencies is unacceptable; they require a scan instead. That information was not on their web site, although a similar restriction appears on the sites of some of their competitors.
One specific question I hope someone can answer: Is my run-of-the-mill Epson 2450 scanner likely to provide a scan of a 6 x 7 transparency which will be of high enough quality when enlarged to the intended puzzle size of 16 x 20 inches? Second question: Has anyone out there tried the picture-to-puzzle process? If so, with what results?
I do find it a little surprising (and frustrating) that companies in the business would not simply have high-quality scanning equipment available.

Konical

 

[copake_ham]

Good Evening,

Over the holidays I had occasion to visit various family members, two of whom had relatively recent additions to their families. I took photo equipment, of course, and shot B & W (6 x 7), E-6 (also 6 x 7), and some 35mm color negative, mostly as back-up. Because I dragged along a couple of monolights to bounce off ceilings, my results are highly satisfactory, with the E-6 color (Provia) looking really terrific. Besides the usual family recording purpose, I intended to have a couple of the color transparencies made up as jigsaw puzzles by one of the companies which provides that kind of service. The puzzles were to be next year’s Christmas presents.
Now, I’ve run into a glitch. After making an inquiry to one of the companies, I was told that sending them the transparencies is unacceptable; they require a scan instead. That information was not on their web site, although a similar restriction appears on the sites of some of their competitors.
One specific question I hope someone can answer: Is my run-of-the-mill Epson 2450 scanner likely to provide a scan of a 6 x 7 transparency which will be of high enough quality when enlarged to the intended puzzle size of 16 x 20 inches? Second question: Has anyone out there tried the picture-to-puzzle process? If so, with what results?
I do find it a little surprising (and frustrating) that companies in the business would not simply have high-quality scanning equipment available.

Konical

You might want to try a "bricks and mortar" approach for this kind of specialty item.

I've seen these "puzzle photo" products at a photo store here in NYC. I've not inquired but such a store itself may do the process or at least have the capability to scan the transparency for you.

If you use your own "run of the mill" scanner - try to use TIFF rather than JPEG. In fact, the printer experts here would know if you should maybe even use TIFF (CMYK) which is a format option with my Nikon scanner.

 

[Woolliscroft]

The scanner might not get you an exhibition print, but by the time it is cut into pieces the quality won't show so much anyway and if it is a present for children, they will probably notice even less. Failing that, get it professionally scanned, or get it printed and then scan the print, which will probably be much larger than the original and will thus giver the scanner more information for the same resolution.

David.

 

[bdial]

The TIFF vs JPG decision really depends on what the puzzle vendor can accept. It's likely that they want JPGs only. Also, a TIFF from a high resolution scan will be quite large, not a problem if you are mailing a CD, a minor problem if you have a high-bandwidth link, could be a problem if you are on dialup. Aside from all that, a scan of the transparency should be fine for the purpose of cutting it up into a puzzle. Try to scan at a resolution that will yield at least 300 dpi at the finished size.