A supervisor - everyone needs someone to ensure they produce the highest quality work.   Below is our overall supervisor here at Stunning Cat Productions.  She demands the finest of everything.

A large monitor - we're using a 19" NEC monitor for editing.  I try to keep the lighting in the room dim, with no lights on behind me so that there will be no glare on the glass.

A big hard disk - photos take a lot of space.  The largest files I have are scanned 35mm slides (which are not too germane to this discussion) which as uncompressed files can be up to 30-50MB!  The uncompressed files I take with my digital camera are close to 5MB.  If you have a few working copies of the files, the space on your hard disk will fill quickly.

A CD-writer - we use an HP 9200, for archiving photos on a durable medium, and for distributing photos.  As of now, I archive photos to CD shortly after getting files onto my hard disk.  Previously, I only archived the files once I've edited them, or files for which I did not have an original photo elsewhere.  Having recently lost a hard disk (actually 2 in 2 months, but the other had nothing to do with photography), I now put a copy of my files on CD as soon as it goes on computer.  Did I mention you should backup your files?  Ideally, you should have at least 2 copies of important files archived in 2 separate places.  CDs are inexpensive, and provide 650MB of storage each, so it never hurts to make a couple of copies.

A word or two about file storage here:  Why a CD, and not a zip disk, floppy disk, backup tape, etc?  I chose to go this way for several reasons.  I use CD-R (i.e. the record once type), so I don't have to worry about accidental erasure or overwriting.  They have lots of space, 650 MB, and can be bought in bulk for less than a $1 apiece, encouraging storage.  You can also distribute files easily with them - most systems today have a CD or DVD reader (note that if you use the read/write version, CD-R/W, regular CD-roms may not read them), so we can send files to others (this becomes a big deal when you are trading access to photos for a CD and prints of the electronic copy).  Since DVD roms will read CDs, my totally uninformed guess is that this medium will be able to be read by standard home computer systems longer than some of the other currently available media.  This being said, in the future if you are going to get a system without a CD-reader, remember you will need to copy your files to something you can access (though there are still places where I could get my old 8" floppies read from the pre-IBM PC era, I'd hate to have to pay someone to read my files for me).

I chose a CD-writer also because of my file storage format.  There are many common file formats for storing graphic images: TIF, JPG, GIF, PCX, TGA, BMP to name a few.  Mr. Sid and JPG2000 are newer formats that use wavelet compression algorithms (don't ask - I have no idea) to compress file size with less loss of image quality than some of the other (notably JPG) compression algorithms.  I use TIF (of TIFF) files for storing images and for saving images I'm still working on if I stop mid-editing.  TIF files are lossless, i.e.  you get an exact record of the image and do not lose any quality when you save the image.  It has some other advanatages, such as being common, so most image software will recognize it, and it will allow embedding of ICC profiles (when and if I'm really brave, I'll discuss color management and ICC profiles - until then, look on some of the photo sites in the links).  The disadvantage of TIF files is that they are big.  So, you need lots of storage space for them, and thus the CD-writer (see, this actually had something to do with the CD-writer).

A photo quality printer - We're using an Epson 1270 photo printer.  The prints coming out of this printer are absolutely fantastic.  We had an HP Photosmart printer (the original) previously, but the new printer produces a much better image.  Epson (of course) recommends using their own papers for the printer, and the older photos look very nice on the heavyweight matte paper, but we've found that the Pictorico Premium Watercolor Cardstock paper is absolutely terrific for reproducing old photos.  This paper adds just a bit of texture that gives the photos a classic touch.

Epson is claiming a life expectancy of prints on the 1270 similar to that of modern color photographic prints, if the print is stored in the right conditions (for those who don't know, there has been an issue with color changing for some with the 870/1270 models especially, but not necessarily only, if left to open air and sunlight - see rec.photo.digital for more than you ever wanted to know).  Some inkjet printers will only give prints that last for a year or two without color change even under the best of conditions, so whatever printer you use, you will want to check the specs on longevity of the prints.  For those who are nuts about archival prints and wish to spend more money, the Epson 2000 photo printer is designed to produce prints with a >100 year life expectancy under the right conditions and with the right papers.  This printer uses pigment-based inks, which reportedly will last much longer (though you will need to look at some of the reviews - apparently some of the pigments show up as different colors in different lighting).

A graphics tablet - we use a Wacom graphire USB tablet.  We picked it up for $79 on the web.  A pen-based graphics tablet is much easier to use than a mouse to trace a line on a photo.

The following represent our means of obtaining an image of a vintage photos.  Case 3 has details on using them to get an image for editing:

A flatbed scanner - We use an HP Scanjet 6200C, which will provide an optical scanning resolution of about 1200 dpi.  I've read that most prints will not provide more than 300 dpi of information, so we usually scan photos at this setting, occasionally at 600 dpi for small photos.  While flatbeds take much more space than the "feed through" scanners (I'm sure they have an official name), you don't run the risk of damaging a photo by running it through the motorized rollers (and the feed-through type would not be able to handle glass or metal).

A digital camera - This is handy for things which can't be reproduced on the scanner.   We have a nikon coolpix 950 - a 2 mega-pixel camera with very nice macro capabilities.  I'm told this is also helpful on the road, e.g. when going to an archive and you don't want to take a laptop computer and a flatbed scanner with you.

A copy stand - shown below.  We couldn't use a scanner to reproduce photos in albums without physically damaging the albums, so we got a copy stand to provide a stable camera mount and even lighting.  Not shown is the Nikon 950, which was used to take the photo.  This stand has 4 - 150W bulbs for lighting (also not shown is the pair of sunglasses I wear while using the stand!).

The album shown on the stand contains the image used in the following tutorial.   The mount on the vertical bar is set for the camera to shoot the album pages.   I use the maximum zoom on the camera (35mm equivalent of a 110mm lens) to minimize distortion from a "wide angle" effect.  I shoot uncompressed TIFF files for restoration work - which produces a 5.6 MB file for each image (5 images per 32M compact flash card).  The Nikon 950 does not have a cable release mechanism (though you can get 3rd party devices which will let you do it), we get around this by using the self-timer to shoot the photos.

Software: