35mm slide film scanning and editing

Question

I've begun scanning old family slides on a Canon flatbed which seems to be doing a fine job. I can make quite a few adjustments before I scan, and I'm confused about which to choose. Some of the adjustments seem to make the resulting digital image worse rather than better. I've been trying to test things out but there are so many combinations.
Can anyone give me a rule of thumb for when to use features such as:
AutoTone
Unsharp Mask
Remove Dust & Scratches
Fading Correction
Grain Correction
Backlighting Correction
It seems that the more corrections I can make before I scan the better. Is that correct or should I be making them after in a program like PhotoShop Elements (which I have not used yet).
Thank you very much for any advice.

Answer 1

As Barbara mentioned if you're scanning thru Photoshop Elements you can select any number of formats to save as (you don't need to edit at that time, just save). Photoshop's format is lossless and is iPhoto compatible. If you edit a jpg with iPhoto you go thru only one additional jpeg compression as subsequent edits are written to the library's database file and applied when viewed, printed or exported. With PSE, I've only seen one drop in file size take place after multiple edits of a jpg format file.
Scanning a 4x6 photo at 300 dpi will give the following sized in these formats:
jpg - 1.4 MB
psd - 3.8 MB
tiff uncompressed - 4.5 MB
If you save the scan as a .psd, i.e. a Photoshop Elements format, import into iPhoto and edit with PSE you can do advanced editing that requires layers without having to save the file to the desktop and import as a new file. iPhoto will also edit .psd files and keep the format for further editing by PSE but loses the individual layers. So if you want to keep the multiple layers in a psd file, i.e. text layers, duplicated edited layers, don't edit with iPhoto.
If you import into iPhoto first, you can organize them as you desire, i.e. keywords, albums, etc. and edit when you need to use one of the files. As you go along you'll become more proficient with PSE and can do better job.
Here are some tips on using PSE with iPhoto that may be of some help:
Using Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.
1 - select Photoshop as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.
3 - however, if you get the navigation window that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
NOTE: With Photoshop Elements 6 the Saving File preferences should be configured: "On First Save: Save Over Current File". Also I suggest the Maximize PSD File Compatabilty be set to Always.
If you want to use both iPhoto's editing mode and PS without having to go back and forth to the Preference pane, once you've selected PS as your editor of choice, reset the Preferences back to "Open in main window". That will let you either edit in iPhoto (double click on the thumbnail) or in PS (Control-click on the thumbnail and seledt "Edit in external editor" in the Contextual menu). This way you get the best of both worlds
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.
3 - however, if you get the navigation window that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
OT