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

If you’re going to trust a scanning company with thousands of your slides, negatives, and photos, here’s four tips:

Tip 1:  Get Samples Scans As A Test-Run

It’s better to lose $10 than $1000.  So before you commit all your thousands of slides, negatives, and photos, send ten.  And ten of your worst ones.

Put the scanning company to the test.

What’s the quality like?  Is it worth paying 99 cents for a scan that is worse than the original?  Do they scan them as-is?  Or do they try to improve the quality?

Get a feel of how their process works.  Do they want payment upfront?  Do they care how they handle your slides or photos?  Do they return your slides in the same condition when they left your home?

Again, It’s better to test 10 slides, negatives, photos and lose $10 than send all of them, and find out you paid too much.

And hey, if they try their best with a such a small order, then they will do the same if you come back with thousands.

2.  Ask If Your Slides Are Scanned Overseas

There’s nothing wrong hiring a scanning company, where they ship your slides, say to India.  You’ll get the same quality scans, and prices far lower than they can charge in Canada.

But be sure you are aware of this fact!  Some scanning companies that charge as low as 25 cents per scan hide this fact.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with outsourcing your scans.  But make sure you’re ok with that fact.  And if you’re NOT ok with it, and you’re unsure, one red flag is the price.  If a scanning company advertises as low as 25 cents per scan, and they’re advertising highest quality scans, then they may be outsourcing your scans.

3.  Get A Quote And A 100% Scan Guarantee

The truth is, anybody can buy a scanner, put up a website, and offer slide scanning services.  That’s easy.  What’s not easy, is getting quality scans.

And if you’ve ever tried scanning yourself, you know exactly how much time and effort it takes to get scans that look at least as the original.

A quality scanning company will have no issues giving you a full 100% scan guarantee.  It’s the guys that buy a scanner, put a up a site, and offer cheap scanning that won’t back up their work.

4.  Ask Yourself: “Do I Want Convenient Scans Or Quality Scans”?

This last tip is probably the most important.

Say you’ve tried scanning, and it’s taking too much time.  If you rather have somebody else do this for you, and not not concerned about quality, then I suggest a “bulk” scanning company.

These scanning companies are ofter fast and cheap.  And if you rather save on price and pay in quality, then there’s nothing wrong hiring a “bulk” scanning company..

If you rather have quality scans then look for scanning companies that focus on quality not speed.  They often take longer and are more expensive.   But they will be glad to give you samples of your scans before you commit all of them; they’ll be happy to offer a full 100% scan guarantee; and they’ll treat your family’s originals as if they were their own.

Remember, these are the only copy of your originals.  And if you like to pass on quality scans to the next generation, then find a scanning company that focuses on quality, and not speed or bulk scans.

About The Author

Hey, my name is Konrad.  Thanks for reading.  I’m a digital designer, and I’ve been scanning since 2005.  I’ve also been using Photo shop since it came out.

So, if you like my team and I to scan your family’s slides, negatives, or photos, please visit: http://ScanCanada.ca

When Should You Save Your Slide, Negative, or Photos as TIFF or JPEG

If you’re a commercial artist, magazine, museum, then NEVER scan your slides, negatives, or photos as JPEGs.  Saving your scans as TIFFs will give you file size of around 100 MB. At best, you’ll get around 12 MB from a JPEG scan.

Does 100 MBs mean you have a better quality digital scan?

No.  Don’t confuse file size with the quality of your scan.  The only reason you’d want a 100 MB digital photo is because you have more data to work with.  So if you’re doing any commercial editing, it’s better to have as much digital data as you can.

Also, at 100 MB, you can print your scans at billboard size.

Saving Your Scans As JPEGs Is Safe

JPEG images are great if you have a home scanning project.  And just because you have a JPEG and not a TIFF, does NOT mean the quality of your scans will be worse.

Basically, a JPEG is a compressed version of a TIFF (technically a RAW file).  Instead of a 100 MB file, you can have the same looking image, but at 12 MB or less.  The math involved in the compression “knows” what data it can get rid of and what data it can keep– and you end up with the same looking image, but at a smaller file size.

How To Make Sure Your JPEG Compression Is NOT Too High

There’s one small catch.  Most scanner’s default compression level is a bit too high for my liking.  Sure, at a higher compression level you get a smaller file size.  But at the cost of quality.

Here’s how to change the compression level when you’re saving your cans as JPEGs.

I’ll be using a simple Epson home scanner.  Your scanner might be a bit different.  But you still can follow along because this stuff is bascailly the same, no matter what scanner you have.s

Anyway, here’s a screen shot of my scanner’s settings:

1. Look for something called “File Saving Options”.  My Epson scanner has an icon for this option.

2. Another window will open up.  This is where I choose if I want to scan JPEG, TIFF, etc.

3. Once I choose JPEG, there’s another option just for JPEG format.  Again, your scanner might be different.  And you might have to fiddle and look around to find these options on your scanner– but they’re there.

4. Now I have the JPEG options window open.  This is where I choose what compression level I want my scans saved as.  If I have 0 compression, that means I have the highest quality JPEG I can get. But these means I’m going to get a bigger file size.  At 100 compression, you basically won’t see any detail form your image.  But you will have a very small file size.

So the balance is high quality vs. a reasonable file size.  My Epson’s default is around 10 compression.  Which is way too high for me.  My sweet spot is around 3 or 4.  This gives me a 5 MB digital image.  At 0 compression, I get a 12 MB file.   But sometimes 12 MB is too clunky– say for email or uploading.

Do You Have A DIY Home Scanning Project?

Hi, Konrad here. I’m the owner of ScanCanada.ca and been scanning since 2005.  I’ve scanned over 500, 000 slides, negatives, and photos.  If you have a home scanning project, and you’re not getting the results you expected, then you’re welcome to check out my How To Scan guide.  I’ll show you exactly how I scan my customers slides, film, and pictures.  And I try to be as non-technical as I can.  Check it out here…

How To Scan Slides, Negatives, Photos: http//HowToScan.ca

Or if you like a small team of professionals to convert your slides, negatives, photo into digital, please visit:

Scanning Services: http://ScanCanada.ca

Thanks!

It’s easy to talk about quality.  Here’s a quick video of a comparison between normal scans vs. slide scans edited by ScanCanada.ca:

Slide Scanning: Compare Normal Scan Vs. Edited Scan By ScanCanada.ca

I want to share a simple story with you.

Tess, a customer from Toronto, found some old slides that belonged to her Father.  Here’s a quick video of her story:

Slide, Film, Negative Scanning: Slide Show of 60 Year Old Slide Scans