Photo Scanning

Photo Scanning Process

Photos are first cleaned with compressed air. This removes any extra dust from the photos. All images are scanned numerically by folder marking (ie: FarmHouse_001.jpg).

When scanning we only use the highest grade flat-bed photo scanners. We absolutely do not scan your memories using document scanners as many companies will do. Document scanners are the super-cheap method of scanning photos, but the quality is lacking in many ways.

After all the scanning is finished we go through each image one-by-one and make sure that it is oriented properly (people are standing upright) and not flipped (words appearing mirrored).

Once all the photos have been scanned and inspected, they will be burned to our special 100 year archival DVDs (unless otherwise specified by the customer). These disks are regarded as the best medium for long-term storage.

Manual Color Correction Service vs. Image Restoration Service

Manual color correction is described in the Pricing and Basic Info section and mainly is used to fix problems with color. For example if the photo has a red cast to it, in many cases we can neutralize that color and bring back the original colors. We will check for the whitest pixel in the important viewable area of the image and reset that to the 100% white value, and do the same for black. No software program can do this because we are evaluating the image based on the important data and disregarding things like backlighting from windows and such. If your images has a color cast to them or are too dark, just ask our image scanning technician to employ the manual color correction service. We can even enhance one or two images so that you can see how beautiful your photos can be.

The Image Restoration Service will digitally repair photos. If your photos have, folds, scratches, color blots, fungus or any number of imperfections, ask our image scanning technician for a quote for your photo(s). Even if the image has a piece missing it may be possible to reproduce this missing section based on another photo or other data inside the same photo. It is amazing what can be done with Adobe Photoshop, some extra plug-ins, know-how and experience. And don’t worry, all the original data will be saved.

Create Slideshows From Your Photos

After your photo scanning order has been completed, you have the option of creating a DVD slideshow movie from your scanned photos! Choose one of our basic, or ideal slideshow packages, or sit down with our in-house editor and be the director of your next project. Using your own images in your slideshow production adds a personal touch which makes for a great presentation, especially for families!

Contact Sheets

To make browsing through your photo collection easier, we can create contact sheets for all of your images. Contact sheets serve as a visual index which displays 100 thumbnail-sized images right there on the page. Contact sheets are great for larger photo scanning orders as it allows you to easily reference to a specific image, and find it quickly on your DVD or hard drive.

Beware of Cheap Scanning

Why We Don’t Use Document Scanners To Scan Photos

The quick answer is: because scanning photos on document scanners is not to our quality standards.

History of Document Scanners To Scan Photos: Document scanners have only recently been used for photo scanning purposes. Document scanners were originally intended to help businesses save time, money and file cabinet space by quickly scanning and cateloging large amounts of documents. Many entrepreneuers saw the potential with this service and new scanning companies started to pop up around the country looking for new ways to attract business. As more and more people started to realize the benefit of scanning and digitizing their photo collections, someone had the bright idea to use them for photo scanning and the era of cheap “shoebox” photo scanning had begun.

DVD Your Memories also thought this was a great idea, thinking we could scan so many more images in the same amount of time. It would be so profitable! We then bought our first machine (Kodak Photo Scanning System s1220), tested it out, and looked at the results. We very soon realized that the resulting image quality was not up to our standards at all and could not be considered archival quality.

Flatbed Scanners vs. Document Scanners

Take a look at some of the samples below to see the noticeable differences between flatbed photo scanning and document scanning. The images on the left side were scanned using a dedicated flatbed scanner, while the images on the right side were fed through a document scanner.

The most noticeable disparity between flatbed scanning and document scanning is the red, green and blue (RGB) streaking that happens with all document scanning due to the fact that the image is mechanically pulled through the scanner, rather than being stationary. What happens is, the glass in which the document is moved across will pick up tiny dust particles left on the photograph. This happens on flatbed scanners as well, but since the photos are stationary while the image sensor moves, there is no streaking. However, with document scanners there will be a big red vertical line going up and down your grandmother’s body. This is not what we consider archiving.

The second problem lies in the darker colored areas of photos. When viewing these images On a higher-end monitor, and of course when printing, you will see a crisscross pattern of white all throughout the dark areas. When the image is being pulled through the sensor at a rapid rate, the sensor only has a fraction of the time second to scan 24 square inches of a photo, resulting in lost color and image data.

The third problem is that since a document scanner is a machine with moving parts that must be fed images, there is a chance that one of your images could get caught in the scanner during the feeding process, and mangle or destroy your image before it could be scanned into the computer.

Companies That Still Use Document Scanners

If you manage to find 5¢ photo scanning and you found a company that will do it, then they are either using a document scanner or they are sending your precious memories out of the country.

We’ve found that some companies are still using these types of document scanners rather than flatbed scanners for photo scanning orders!

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