Slide Scanning: Before And After Scans

You know, it's all too easy to talk about "quality".

Let our work speak for itself.  Here's a short video comparing normal slide scans vs. scans edited by me and my team at ScanCanada.ca:



Slide Scanning: Compare Before And After Slide Scans

Slide Scanner Software: What Scanning Software Works Best To Get Quality Digital Images

In this article you’ll learn that the software that came with your scanner is probably why you’re not getting quality slide or negative film scans.  If you want to save time and frustration with your home scanning project, here’s the scanner software that worked and DID NOT work for me:

(1) What Scanner Software DID NOT Work:  I’ve been scanning for a while now.  In fact I’ve scanned over 500,000 slides, negative and photos.  Here’s a list of software packages that were the most frustrating to use:

Digital Ice: A lot of scanners use this software / technology.  In my opinion, what you save in time and convenience you will pay with quality.  

Silver Fast:  Very convenient to use but, again, you will pay with quality.

Why do these not work?  Well, these scanning software packages are quick fixes.  They are usually bundled and work with the built-in software that came with your scanner.  And that’s the problem.  You’re trying to use the scanner to do two jobs: scan pixels AND edit those pixels.  

(2) Scanners Were Made To Scan Not Edit Digital Photos:  Here’s a funny story-- I scanned a slide with my $200 Epson and my $3000 Nikon scanner.  What I did was produce a “natural” scan from each scanner.  A natural scan is where I don’t press any of the scan enhance features that came with the scanner, i.e. colour fix, dust / scratch removal.  All I wanted to do is compare pixel to pixel.

And guess what? I could not tell the difference between the two slide scans. When I zoomed all the way to the pixel level, that’s when I could see a difference.  Of course, my Nikon uses technology that is a lot more sensitive and superior to the Epson.  But is it worth the extra $2800 for a difference you can only see when you zoom in?

Scanner manufactures know this-- they know that all scanning machines can pretty much do the same thing.  So to compete, they offer you one-button solutions called Digital Ice or Silver Fast.  But often these quick fixes are just marketing to get you to buy their scanner.

(3) What Scanning Software Works:  How I scan my slides and negatives is I do a natural scan and edit the digital photos in software designed for editing.  Remember, I skip all the scan enhancement features that came with the scanner.  I just want my scanner to pick up pixels, and do nothing to them.  Then I use either these three software packages to edit scans:

GIMP: Do you want to use FREE software that is far superior to Digital Ice or Silver Fast?  GIMP is an image editing software tool that has all the same features of Photoshop.  The best part is, it’s open source, meaning it is totally FREE.

Photoshop Elements:  If you don’t want to break the bank on image editing software, I suggest using PS Elements.  It’s not quite as powerful as Photoshop or GIMP, but it is easy to use.  And it still can give you better quality slide and film scans than what came with your scanner.

Photoshop: I use Photoshop CS5 to edit my scans only because I do this for a living.  If you’re a big digital image geek like me, I’d really suggest you use CS5 to edit scans.  But if you’re just doing some home scanning, and want quality digital images, GIMP will work just fine.

How To Use Software To Edit Slide, Negative, Film Scans

My name is Konrad Michnieiwicz, and I invite you to discover how to edit your family scans using GIMP, Elements, or Photoshop.  Go to http://HowToScan.ca, and you’ll find a FREE step-by-step guide on how to scan your family’s originals like a pro. 

Scan tips brought to you by the dedicated team at http://ScanCanada.ca: Slide, Negative Film, Scanning Services Toronto

Slide Scanning Services: What You’ll Miss Out On If You Don’t Scan Your Dads’ Slides Into Digital

These image are from 40 year old slides!  These scans come from Tess O’Neal’s collection of family slides.  

Slide Scan From 1951, Tess' Mom

Slide Scan 1951, Baby Tess And Her Mom

Slide Scan 1953, Tess, Sister Angela, And Mom

Slide Scan 1957, Tess' Sister Marge

Slide Scan 1957, Tess' Sister Marge And Mom

Slide Scan 1958, Tess, Angela, Marge, Mom, Grandpa -- Don't Forget Dad Taking The Picture

Do these remind you of your own collection of slides, negative film or photos?  Is there any reason you’re NOT willing to convert your family originals to digital that you can save forever?  The more they sit in your closet, the better the chance they will degrade. So do something about your Dad’s or Mom’s collection of family memories right NOW.

This is exactly what my team and I do here at ScanCanada.ca.  We convert slides, negative film, and photos into quality digital images.  We consider ourselves professional graphic designers, only because we have 10 years experience editing digital photos.  So we know exactly how to convert a 40 year film and make it look new.  

Of course you have heard of Digital Ice.  Digital Ice is great if you’re in a hurry to zip through scans.  But we’re not, that’s not what we do.  Our focus is quality, not speed.  So that’s why we NEVER use Digital ICE, and edit all scans by “hand” in Photo shop.  

What was the point for Tess to scan her Dad’s slides, if they turned out looking worse than the originals?  And remember-- these are not just slides, they’re memories, they’re family stories.  Why would you hire just anybody to quickly zip through them?  Get them scanned right, the first time by a small team of graphic designers.

Get FREE Scans Before You Decide On Scanning ALL Your Slides, Negative Film and Photos

Let our work speak for itself.  I’m confident in our work, so that’s why I invite you to ship or drop off, say, 25 - 50 slides, photos, or negatives.  

I’ll scan them, at no cost.  If you’re completely happy with the quality, send the rest and my team and I will be glad for the opportunity to scan your family’s originals.  

Also, I guarantee all scans.  If you’re not happy with the quality, no problem-- I’ll either re-scan, re-edit, or not charge you for them.

To start your FREE Test Run, please visit: ScanCanada.ca: Slide, Film, Photo Scanning Services Toronto

Thanks!
Konrad M.

Read This Before You Choose A Scanning Company To Convert Your Film To DVD

5 Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing A Scanning Company -- And Recommendations To Make Sure You Get Quality Slide, Film, Photo Scans

Learn how the scanning industry works so that you can make a better decision when choosing a company to scan your family’s only copy of slides, negative film, or photos.

Mistake #1: Are Your Dad’s Slides A Commodity, Or Are They Memories?

The biggest mistake is choosing a scanning service that works like an assembly line. What I mean is, their focus is to scan as many slides, film, and photos as fast as they can. Time is money, and if they can just squeeze a few more scans per hour, then that means more profits.

Listen, I have no issues with efficiency. But in my 6 years experience in scanning, I know that you can’t scan 50 negatives in an hour, and get digital images that are worth keeping. What I make up in speed, I lose in quality.

Time is money with these guys. And here’s some ways they cut corners:

(a) Reduce the resolution / DPI so the scans go faster.

(b) Don’t clean the slides, negative and photos before you load them in the scanner.

(c) Use scan enhancements like Digital ICE that “promise” quality results, but are just short-cuts.

(d) Not editing your final scans in photo editing software like Photo shop.

There’s a lot of tricks companies will use to speed through your scans. But what you gain in speed, you lose in quality.

Mistake #2: Choosing A Scanning Service Based On Price

I just talked about how some scan companies rather focus on speed than quality. And the lower their price, the better chance that they are cutting a lot of corners. Be careful with the ones that offer low prices-- I bet they are setup to zip through your scans, rather than provide you with quality scans that aren’t useless.

And anyway, if you’re that concerned on price, why not do it yourself?! I know, maybe you’ve tried and that’s why you’re looking for somebody else to do it. But if you need some tips on how to convert film into digital, check out HowToScan.ca.

If you pick the cheap, low-price scanning providers, you’ll end up with useless scans. Better to pay the extra coin, or do it yourself.

Mistake #3: Picking Some Guy With A Scanner

Scanning is pretty close to photography. Say you hire a professional photographer for your wedding. She can produce compositions, moods, colours in one single picture. Or you can hire a buddy, with a camera. Anybody can shoot photography. And a lot of amateurs are pretty good. But when you compare a professional with your buddies photos, you can tell right away who’s are better.

It’s the same with scanning-- anybody can buy a scanner, put up a website, and offer scanning services. Just like anybody can can buy an expensive camera and take pictures. But it doesn’t guarantee quality.

Why would you want quality scans? Well, what’s the point of digitally converting your film, slides, and photos if they turn out worse than your originals?

Mistake #4: Falling For “Digital ICE” And The Promise Of Beautiful Scans

I use a Nikon 9000 film scanner. When I bought it cost me $6000. It can scan up to 4000 DPI. And guess what? so can a $200 scanner. Why was it so expensive? I’ve learned that I mostly paid for what they call Digital ICE.

What’s Digital ICE? It’s basically scanning software that looks at your scans and removes dust and scratches, fixes faded colours, and improves the exposure. That’s what the marketing claims, anyway.

Digital ICE is good if you have NO idea how to improve a digital image. You press a few buttons, and the machine does the rest. But after years of using Digital ICE, I’ve found myself going back to Photo shop, and fixing the scans by “hand”. Unfortunately, there is no short-cut to quality scans. I wish I can press the scan enhance button, and get amazing scans. But there is no substitute for the human eye-- and I will always edit scans using Photo shop, and never touch Digital Ice.

So, look out for scanning companies that market “Digital ICE”. It’s just another way to zip through your scans.

Mistake #5: Paying For The Highest DPI / Resolution

Most people have no idea what a good DPI is for a digital image. Do you even know what DPI’s are?

Here’s the thing-- you don’t need to get the highest DPI scans to get true HD quality digital images. For example, if I scan my 4” x 6” photo at 300 DPI, I can put them on my HDTV and it will display it at true HD. How? Not to get too technical, but a 4” x 6” scan has a pixel resolution of 1200 x 1800. And your HDTV has a pixel resolution of 1080 x 1920. You see, your digital image will fit perfectly on your HDTV screen. For slides and negative film, I scan them at 1500 DPI, to give me a digital image that is around 1200 x 1950. You don’t need 4000 DPI for HD.

So if you’re just using your scans for nothing more than HDTV, email, slide shows, then don’t go for the biggest resolution they offer.

At the same time, if truly want to future-proof your family slides, negatives, or photos, I’d suggest 3000 DPI or 4000 DPI for slides and photos; and 600 DPI for photos. Technology will always get better, and maybe your 300 DPI scans will look bad on a 2160p HDTV.

Recommendations On Finding A Professional Scanning Company

Here’s 3 tips to find qualified scanning services, for the best price.

Recommendation #1: Are They In It For Speed Or Quality - Ask These Questions To Find Out

Do you want some guy zipping through your only copy of your Dad’s slides? Probably not. To weed out the bad ones, here’s what to ask:

(a) How do you clean the slides, negatives, photos?

Professional scanning companies know that most of the dust and debris can be removed BEFORE the scan. They will take the time to thoroughly clean the original using lint free cloth or compress air.

(b) How Do You Improve My Scans

If they only use Digital ICE to improve your scans, watch out. Professional scanning companies won’t use the scanner to improve your scans. They will actually use a photo editing program to do this job, such as Photo shop.

Again, you’re looking for the companies that take their time-- they’re not charging you by the hour, but by the quality of scans they can offer you.

Recommendation #2: Does The Scanning Service Offer Free Sample Scans For Your Approval

A HUGE red-flag is if you feel the company is hiding something. Are they more than happy to show you their work? And I’m not talking about other customer scans-- they can just show you the good ones. But, actually show you YOUR scans.

A professional scanning service will scan a batch for you to approve. So before they start scanning ALL of your scans, they will make sure you are completely satisfied by providing you a few samples of your scans.

Even if they don’t offer this, why not send 25 slides to scan for your own test run. If you like the scans, send the rest of your collection. If not, at least you lost $25 and not $250 or more.

Recommendation #3: What Is Their Guarantee

It’s easy to say, “100% money back guarantee”. Everybody does. But, does the scanning service ask for money now? or after the scans are complete?

In this industry, just like photography or web design, the company or person doesn’t get paid unless work is done. Sometimes there’s a down payment, but most of the case they get paid after the work is done.

It’s the same with scanning. It’s a “creative” profession. They are offering “professional creative services” not tire changes.

So if they are asking for money up front, take it as a red-flag. The real professionals, the one that know what they are doing, the ones that are confident in their work will charge you AFTER you get your scans. If there’s any problems with the scans, they’ll be happy to re-scan or re-edit the bad ones, or give you your money back.

Check out their return policy. Get it in writing. Make sure you get a quote, and make sure their guarantee is on the quote.

Still Not Informed?

This small peak into how the scanning industry works was to educate you so that you can make a better decision when picking a scanning company.

I hope I met my goal, but if you like to learn more, please visit:

ScanCanada.ca: Professional Slide, Negative Film, Photo Scanning Services Toronto

Thanks!
Konrad M.

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