Scanning photos

[tdg]

I'm a total noob at scanning, and just picked up a Epson Expression 1680 scanner from work, and now need some tips and advice on scanning old family photos. I've been toying with it, and looking for suggestions on how to get the best quality reproductions, at a decent file size. I heard that 300 dpi is generally recommended for photos, and saving as tiff for lossless files.

Here's what I get...

I scanned one pic (4x6 in.) at 600 dpi @ 48 bit, saved it as a tiff, looks awesome but 30 MB file.
Rescanned at 600 dpi @ 24 bit, saved as jpg with 12 quality in PS CS 2, looks nearly identical to first good scan, just slighter "brighter" in some areas. 6 MB file size is much more reasonable.
Rescanned at 300 dpi @ 24 bit, saved as jpg with same quality, shows up/exagerates some artifacts.

So now you pro's tell me, whats the best setup for scanning/saving photos. 600 dpi @ 24 bit saved as high quality jpg seems to work the best so far, but is there a better config? Also any tips on restoring dark, grainy, or just old photos in general?

 

[EGGO]

Of the choices, I choose 600 dpi (would it be ppi in this case?) TIFF file. If you also plan to touch that up with a photo editing program, still save as TIFF. I've been taught that's what we use for graphic design. I'm sure you may not have the capability, but I'm trying to see the quality difference between JPEG2000 and TIFF and I think JPEG2000 will be better.