Slide, Negative Film, Photo Scanning: FREE Scanning Tips, Tricks, and Secrets

Digital ICE can’t give you consistent quality scans like you can in Photoshop.

Here’s a quick video of how I scan my client’s slides, negatives, and photos in Photoshop:

About ScanCanada.ca

We’re a small team of graphic designers, dedicated to slide, negative, photo scanning services. Located in three locations: Toronto, Calgary, and London.

Before you a scanning company, be sure you’re 100% comfortable with somebody else handle your only copy. At ScanCanada.ca, you’re invited to scan a small batch before you decide to commit all your scans.  This is a free service from ScanCanada.ca, and you’re under no obligation.

Please visit, ScanCanada.ca for more info.

Trouble Scanning Your Own Slides, Negatives, Photos? Here Are 3 Tips That Can  You Get Better Looking Scans

I have been scanning since 2005, and scanned over 500,000 slides, negatives and photos.  Here are three core things I have learned to get me better quality scans.

1) What Does Digital Ice Do To A Photo, Slide, Negative Scan

My first tip is not to use Digital Ice.  Your scanner may have all these fancy scan enhancement features, like Digital Ice, Color Fix, Dust / Scratch Removal, etc.  Do not be tempted to use them.

I know, scanning your family’s originals is a big project, and it is going to take a long time.  And it is very tempting to think your scanner has a quick fix for getting quality scans in a short time.

The fact is, you might save some time, but you will pay in another way.  Check out what Digital Ice did to this negative film scan….

The negative scan on the left has detail missing because Digital Ice thought some of the white in the lettering was dust.

The whole point of digitally archiving your family’s slides, negatives, and photos is so they are AT LEAST the same quality as the originals.  If your scans look lousy, then what is the point of converting them?  Even if you save some time using Digital Ice, you still end up with digital photos that are not worth keeping.

2) How Can You Get Better Scans Using The Scanner You Already Have

I can use a $200 scanner, and get great high quality scans everytime.  How?  First, I do not use the scan enhancement software that came with the scanner.  What I do is, I try to get a “raw” or “natural” scan.  No Digital Ice, no DEE, no Color Fix, none of those fancy sounding features.

Once I get a natural scan, I edit the digital photo in software MADE to edit digital photos.  I know, I know… this may seem like a lot of work.  It is just easier to press the Digital Ice button, and let the scanner do all the work.  But you do want quality scans, right?  And if you want the job done right, you may as well take some time to learn some quick editing tips.

I have a side project called HowToScan.ca.  This is a free scanning tutorial, showing you exactly how I scan my customer’s slides, negatives and photos.

Even if you do not know anything about Photoshop or GIMP (a free photo editing program that dose exactly what Photoshop does), that is ok.  In my scanning tutorial I will show you, step-by-step, how to scan and edit your family’s slides, negatives, and photos.

Check out…

A Non Technical Scanning Guide: HowToScan.ca

And here’s the table of contents….

HowToScan.ca: Free Scanning Guide, Table Of Contents

3) What Resolution Should You Scan Your Slides, Negatives, and Photos

Here is the quick answer– if you want all your digital images to be at least HD quality, here is the resolution I use….

4” x 6” Photos: 300 DPI
35mm Slide scans: 1500 DPI
35 Negative Film scans: 1500 DPI

When you scan your photos at 300 DPI, you will get a digital image that is 1200 x 1800.  This number means that your digital photo will fit perfectly on your 52”, 1080p HDTV.  How? Well, your HDTV has a screen size of 1080 x 1920.  And your 300 DPI photo scan is 1200 x 1800. In other words, your digital photo has a larger resolution than your HDTV.

Also, if you scan your film and slides at 1500 DPI you will get a digital image that is around 1275 x 1950– which is also bigger than your 1080p HDTV.

I personally use 900 DPI for photo scans, and 4000 DPI for slide, negative scans.  Even though it takes longer, and it may be a bit over-kill, I rather have too many pixels then too little.  I never know what sort of technology they will come out with in the future.

Did These Scanning Tips Help?

If you want to go deeper, and learn how to properly scan your family’s slides, negatives, and photos, I invite you to check out my  free scanning guide, HowToScan.ca.

Thanks for reading!

Konrad M.
ScanCanada.ca

Here Are 3 Big Problems I Have With Relying On Digital Ice To Improve My Scans

What is the most frustrating part trying to scan your family slides, negatives and photos?Are you wasting time trying to figure out all the scan enhancement features,  only to get lousy scans?

Digital Ice or other scan enhancement software is a great idea. What is better to press a few buttons and get consistent results. Except if you have tried scanning your own slides or photos, you know that it is not that easy.

Here is 3 reasons why Digital Ice will not get you the results you expect…

1) Faded Colours Usually Come Out Looking “Plastic”

I find that whenever I try fix colour, it never comes out like I want. Green grass comes out blue. Red comes out bright orange. Most of the time the colours are so saturated that they look “plastic”.

Sure, I have tried tweaking the colour saturation so it is not so bright. But once I think I have the settings right, there will be a slide or negative that will come out wrong?

Why?

Well, one photo was probably taken in bright or dark light. While another was taken indoors. Not all slides or negatives are shot in the same spot. That means you cannot apply the same colour fix setting for ALL of them.

So maybe you do what I did– compromise. Instead of tweaking the setting for every scan, I found a good medium and scanned them with the same settings. I saved some time, but the results were not consistent.

2) Digital Ice Removes Dust And Scratches, What Else Does It Take Away?

The biggest issue with Digital Ice is it takes away detail– important detail. Sometimes I would get scans with the eyeballs gone! Digital Ice assumed the whites of the eyes were a big dust ball, I suppose.

Actually, the overall digital photo looks a bit blurry. When I compare a natural scan (no Digital Ice) with one where Digital Ice was applied, I notice a lot of blurred edges and smooth textures. Not good if you want to keep as much detail as you can. For example, the date on a license plate might not be legible. Sometimes small things like that are useful to identify a photo.

3) You Will Pay For A Better Versions Of Digital Ice

Digital Ice is owned by Kodak. They designed the technology. And what they do is they license this technology out to scanner manufactures.

So if you have an inexpensive scanner, you are most likely using a light version of Digital Ice. A more expensive scanner will have a better version of Digital Ice with more features.

My Nikon 9000 came with Digital Ice 4. At the time, this scanner cost me $6000. Do not get me wrong. This scanner has great technology at picking up pixels. The pixels are crisp, sharp, and hold a of digital data. But once I press that Digital Ice button, all those nice pixels get ruined.

How To Get Quality Scans WITHOUT Digital Ice

If you like to see how Digital Ice works and how you can get quality scans without using it, check out…

How Digital Ice Works And Why You Should Not Rely On It

This is a free, non-technical guide to help you with your scanning.

Good luck with your scanning project!

Konrad

Here Is The Story– I Used Digital Ice To Edit Scans Until One Customer Complained About Horrible Scans

I have been fixing, editing, restoring images in Photoshop since 2000. It is a tedious process. To fix one photo sometimes takes 8 hours.

I also did a lot of scanning work.  And back in the day when scanners did not have all the bells and whistles like today, I had to edit scans in Photoshop.

Then in 2005 I found a scanner with something called Digital Ice 4.  Digital Ice was around for a while, but I read version 4 was a huge improvement.  So I went ahead and bought a Nikon 9000.  And when I tried a scanner with Digital Ice 4, I was impressed. All I had to do was press a few buttons, and in about 4 minutes out came a great looking scan.

So I thought.

I scanned about 100 of my parents slides as a test run. They looked great, so I went full steam ahead and scanned about 2000 more slides and negatives. Then going through digital images after scanning, I started to see a few things I did not like.

Sometimes detail was missing– detail from faces, colour was not right, etc. Digital Ice was OVER correcting things. So I scanned some of the bad images again. I tried playing with all the setting, and they still came out wrong. That is the thing– you cannot rely on a machine. It was better to do a “natural” scan and fix the image in Photoshop.

Out of 2000 scans, about 1000 came out looking good using Digital Ice. That is a 50% success rate. Not good since I paid $6000 for that scanner back then.

But I figured that I continue using Digital Ice, and if any needed fixing I would just open them up in Photoshop.  I used this method for my scanning business.  Things were going fine, I did not have one complaint.  Not until 2 years later.

I guess what happens is when you do something over and over, you get lazy.  And I admit, I got lazy.  My quality assurance went down over time.  I stopped looking over the images and fixing them in Photoshop.  Then I a few complaints started to trickle in.  Then I scanned about 3000 scans for one customer.  After she got her scans, she refused to pay.  At first I blamed her for taking advantage of my hassle free guarantee.  But when I looked over the scans, I new I was wrong.  They looked pretty bad.  And that is because I relied too much on the machine rather then on my skills.

Today I scan all my customer’s slides, negatives, and photos using high-end scanners, but NEVER touch the scan enhance buttons like Digital Ice. I create a “natural” scan, and edit every scan by “hand” in Photoshop. It is the only way I can guarantee my work.  And keeps me on my toes not to get lazy.

Like To Learn EXACTLY How To Scan Like A Professional?

If you like to learn how I edit my scans, check out my FREE guide.  I will show you how using Photoshop and Gimp.  What is Gimp? It does the same thing as Photoshop, but it is free.  Click the link below to get the tutorial…

How To Edit Your Slide, Negative, Photo Scans: Free Step By Step Guide

This is Konrad,
Professional Slide, Negative, Photo Scanning Services

Hi, Konrad here. I have been using Photoshop for 10 years. And I have scanned over 300,000 slides, negative, and photos with my business.

This is how my team and I turn bad scans into great looking digital photos.

Three misconceptions that cost you time and money

Read the rest of this entry »

What’s going on here?  You’ve heard of Digital ICE and how it performs miracles.  So how come your Digital ICE isn’t giving you the images you expected?

Read the rest of this entry »