Top 5 Mistakes To Avoid When Converting Slides, Negatives, And Photos Into Digital -- And What To Do About It

Here Are 5 Reasons Why You Are Not Getting Quality Slide, Negative, Photo Scans -- And How To Make Sure You Get Great Looking Digital Images Every Time

- by Konrad M., owner of “ScanCanada.ca”

Mistake #1: Thinking You Need The Best Equipment

Does Eric Clapton need the best, most expensive guitar to sound like Eric Clapton? Or do you think that even if he picked up some old junk guitar from a pawn shop, would he still sound like Eric Clapton?

Maybe you have an expensive film or photo scanner. It has all the fancy features that promise to fix your scans and make them look new. Fancy sounding names like Digital Ice, ROC, Color Fix, etc., all promising you a short-cut to quality scans.

Have you noticed that even with all this fancy equipment you are still not getting the results you expected?

Why is that?

The fact is, your scanner is great at picking up a lot of pixels. Almost any scanner on the market can give you 4000 DPI. That is A LOT of pixels. You can print your scans at billboard size with all of those pixels.

But scanners were made to scan, not edit. If you rely on your scanner to edit your slide, negative, photo scans, you will be disappointed. There is no such thing as a quick fix. It would be great to press a few buttons on your scanner and get quality digital photos every time. But that is not how it works.

Until you accept the fact that there are no short-cuts, that you cannot rely on your scanner to edit your digital photos, you will continue getting useless slide, negative, photo scans.

Mistake #2: Thinking You Need A Lot Of Resolution To Get HD Scans

What resolution do you think most people want to scan their originals at?

Right! They want the highest resolution possible. They use as many DPI (dots per inch) their scanner allows. And they get HUGE digital image, that still look bad. More DPI did not help the quality at all.

Just because you are using 4000 DPI for slides and negatives, or 1200 DPI for photos, does not mean you will get better looking digital images. What you are actually doing is picking up minute detail such as dust and scratches, that you do not need.

Scanning at a high resolution will never work to get you better looking scans.

Mistake #3: Not Doing The Simple Things Like Cleaning Your Originals Before You Scan Them

How do you get rid of 90% of the dust off your slide or negative? This simple little act of cleaning your slides and negatives before you scan them, will get rid almost all the dust.

But this step is so simple most people ignore it. They also skip this step because they are in such a hurry to scan their family’s originals that to them this step just slows them down.

What about scanning the wrong side? If you scan the wrong side you are going to get a digital image that is backwards. Do you take the time to figure out what side you should scan?

Again, another simple step, but most people skip it. They just load their negative and hope that is the right side.

When you rush your scanning project, do not expect miraculous results. Scanning is a big job, and you may as well take your time and get it done right the first time.

Why?

Remember, these are your only originals. If you are going to convert them to digital, they may as well be at least the same quality as the originals. Otherwise you are just wasting every one's time. Trust me. I scanned my parent’s photos using 72 DPI because it was faster. I scanned over 3000 photos. Then a few months later I had to re-scan them because 72 DPI was too small for HDTV.

Mistake #4: Thinking You Need To Be In Graphic Design To Learn How Edit Digital Photos

Earlier I mentioned that you should not rely on your scanner to edit your slide, negative, or photo scans. So then what are you suppose to do? Edit them yourself!?

Yes. But do not think you need expensive software or take a course on digital photography. I will show you later how you can do this.

The only way to get quality slide, negative, photo scans is to use software designed specifically for the job. Like I said before, using your scanner editing software is tempting because all you have to do is press a few buttons. But if you ever tried, you know that it does not work that way.

You will need to edit your scans a different way.

Mistake #5: Not Finding The Right Help With Your Home Scanning Project

This is the biggest mistake. Let me tell you a bit on how I figured out how to get quality scans using an inexpensive scanner.

In 2004 after scanning my parents photos I became fed up with the quality of the scans. So I bought an even more expensive scanner, and re-did the scans.

The most frustrating part was that the expensive scanner did not give me any better quality than my cheap scanner.

I have been using Photoshop since 2000, so I knew something about digital photo editing. So instead of pressing all the scan enhance buttons that came with my scanner, I did a “natural” scan. I got a digital image that had NO edits done from my scanner.

I opened up the natural scan in Photoshop and finally with a lot of trial and error, I figured out the best way to remove dust, fix any color fading, exposure levels-- basically, make the image look brand new.

It took me a few months to learn this technique. Then a co-worker at the time told me, too, that he had issues with scanning his family slides. So I told him how I did it. But instead he asked me to scan them instead. So I did. A few months later I put up a web site in 2005. Fast-forward to today, I have scanned over 500,000 slides, negatives and photos using this method of editing scans by “hand”.

I Have A FREE Scanning Tutorial Showing You How I Scan And Edit My Customers Slides, Negatives, And Photos

The great news is, I have a side project showing you how you can get the same results I do. If you are the DIY type, I invite you to check out...

How To Scan Slides, Negatives, Photos: Free Scanning Tutorial from ScanCanada.ca

Oh, one more thing. Do your family and friends a favor-- once you learn these scanning tips, show them how you did it. It can be the biggest gift you can give them-- permanently saving your family story into digital.

Good luck with your home scanning project!
Thanks,

Konrad M.
ScanCanada.ca, Professional Slide, Negative, Photo Scanning Services Toronto