Know What You Are Getting: Review Photo Scanning Services Before Sending in Your Old Photos

Reviewing the photo scanning services available to scan prints and 35mm slides and negatives will demonstrate that there are different scanning processes as well as different degrees of color correction and different turnaround times, which is why it’s important to shop through and compare the services of various firms before committing.

Why You Should Let a Photo Scanning Service Do the Grunt Work

Let me suggest that you’re more likely to let the photo scanning services do the heavy lifting instead of scanning 1000 or more prints or slides yourself. The first thing to note is that scanning images one at a time takes considerable time. Second, you’ll need to invest substantial money in a top-quality image, 35mm slide, and negative scanners to be able to do the job properly, and thirdly, you’ll also need to purchase high-quality photo editing software like Photoshop to perform the necessary corrections in color. In addition, you won’t be able to cleanse the photos of dirt and fingerprints that accumulate over time.

The benefit of the use of a photo scanning company is the fact that they complete all the laborious jobs for you. All you need to do is to package your slides, photos, and negatives and send them to the scanner service. Many companies will accept images in albums, slides cases, or carousels (some do charge additional) and will then return the items in the exact order that you received the item.

Before you pack everything away, you must examine photo scanning services and then compare them to determine what’s included in their cost in terms of the cost of scanning and image cleaning, as well as the type of touch-ups and color corrections they provide, the types of negatives and slides they can scan, and the time it takes to scan.

Cleaning, Color Correction, and Blemish Removal

A quick glance at scanning services for photographs will reveal that the majority of companies clean your slides, photos, and negatives to eliminate dirt, fingerprints, and smudges. There is more variance in services in the area of “enhancements.” Certain companies can perform scanning, cropping, rotating, and color correction, as well as the removal of red eyes by using computerized batch-correction algorithms. Other companies will do color correction and scan, as well as remove scratches one-by-one manually using Photoshop and Photoshop, giving you the best color enhancement and correction.

How Long Does the Scanning Process Take

If you could scan just 500 slides and photos at home using your personal camera, it would likely take around 40 hours. If you only had only a few hours each week, it would require months of work. I could find better ways to spend my time, or at the very least, entertaining things. If you choose to use a scanner, the time to turnaround can vary. Certain services can take up to a month as they send all photos overseas using door-to-door trackers. Some companies are the U.S. located and will require a few weeks to process orders with door-to-door tracking. In comparing turnaround time and shipping rates outside in the U.S. vs. domestic, I noticed that the most prominent firms had excellent tracking methods and have not ever lost an order. But the truth is that to receive high-quality digital images; you’re unlikely to be able to obtain vast quantities of images that have been enhanced, scanned, and shipped in several days unless you choose to use cheaper bulk scanning that includes auto-correction.

What Do You Get Back From the Scanning Service?

Another time, a look at photo scanning services will reveal that some simply send you the DVD(s) that contain the images that you have digitized. Other services allow you to look over your images on the internet in order to sort, categorize and eliminate unwanted images before they are burned onto DVDs. Some will provide along with the DVD as well as an online gallery with an archive of your digital photos, allowing you to show them off to family members and acquaintances. This gives you additional protection from unforeseen catastrophes. In the event of an earthquake or fire and your DVDs were damaged, and you lost them, you’d have everything safe and secure online.

Scanning your photographs Negatives, 35mm slides, and 35mm slides. If done correctly, it will keep your family’s memories forever and will give them a new life so that you can take them to enjoy and share the images with your children of today. However, you must be careful and evaluate scan services and features prior to you submit your precious memories.