1. Hand scanners are bad.

2. Removing the photos from the album is good. Because:

2a. Scanning through the plastic would be bad. The focal plane for the scanner assumes the photo emulsion is touching the glass. Scanning without removing photos from the album will result in more blur than if you just did it correctly to begin with.

2b. Removing the photos from the album will allow you to make an attempt at blowing dust off the photos, as opposed to scanning whatever dust happens to be trapped under the plastic sheet.

2c. Processing time for each photo, and file sizes, will be smaller and more manageable if you remove the photos from the albums and do them individually.

2d. Each individual photo will need different amounts of tonal correction. Might as well start them off as separate files instead of having to split them up anyway.

3. Plugins are good. Favorite one: "Focus Magic". Look it up. Also, Ulead Smart Saver is very good at interactively controlling your JPG quality level when saving.

4. This is a huge pain in the ass job. If grammy isn't paying you, tell her to take the photo albums to a shop that specializes in that sort of thing.

5. Someone please link the thread where we were image-correcting someone's old scans. That was cool.