Scanning resolution for small images

[Phil]

I am scanning a number of old family photos to publish in a book. A lot of these photos require only a small portion of a 4x6 print - often an area only about 1"x2". What resolution should use to scan that small area so that I can use it in a 2- or 4-picture/page layout? I don't intend to use these scans for full bleed.

Thanks for getting back to me right away. I am working on my first book and have a deadline only a month away.

[Cruiser]

I scan pictures directly into Photoshop at 600 dpi. I do all my corrections and then save the pictures at 300 dpi. The 600 dpi gives me more detail and a larger picture to work with.

In scanning negatives or slides, I use my Epson V700 photo scanner. It does a good job and I scan directly into Photoshop at 2400 dpi. The picture is actually 1.307" x 0.873" at 2400 dpi but the resolution is 3337 x 2095 and ends up around 4.04 mb per picture.

I recently scanned some slides from a 1978 Yugoslavia trip I took. By scanning directly into Photoshop, I could enhance the colors and my scanner did a good job of color restoration. I printed a book and the pictures printed beautifully. Since the book was not through MyPublisher, I won't post a link here. However, if you want to see the book, send me a PM and I will send you a link. Here is an example of one of the pictures:

http://worldcrzr.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p631610299-4.jpg