We offer a service of creating a slideshow from the photos we scan. As a photo scanning service we want to add other services and slideshows from scanned photos is one.
However we can also create a slideshow from a mix of photos we scan and those already in a digital format.
All you need do is send in the digital images (on CD, DVD or USB stick) along with the photo prints. We'll scan the prints, slot in your digital images, then create the slideshow.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
What colour is monochrome?
Visiting the Ansel Adams exhibition on Wednesday set me thinking. One thought, given the brilliance of his images, is why we bother with colour. His photos eclipse mine by a long way even though me best shots comprise a palette of thousands of colours and his are just, well, just variations in one tone. But what colour is his tone?
I noticed in an video clip of him making a photo he talks to his assistant (he operated a huge old fashioned plate camera, you'd need help lugging that around) about his Zone System exposure guide and placing black at certain values. So I think at the back of his mind he would say his images are in tones of black through to white. Except when you look at some and they have either no soot black and / or no snow whites. Beyond that, well, they don't look completely black rather than tones of gold or a mellow hue. Yes, some are obviously black - white, all are monotones, but some seem based on a tone other than simply 8 bit greyscale.
So that's what I've been thinking about as yesterday I scanned a batch of monotone prints. As a photo scanning service we want to get the best results and for a while I've believed the advice I was given when being trained to operate our first film scanner - that if the image isn't a colour negative or slide, it's black and white. The next step is to calibrate the scanner to capture all that it sees as digital values between total black and total white. Now this does add "pop" to an old image, and many clearly are b&w, but equally many have a tone, an element of blue, or gold, that suggests they may not have been intended to be variations of black.
Scanning these as b&w forces them down an avenue that may never have been intended. Scanning as colour captures the tones and gives a tech savvy client the option to render those as b&w should they wish. I'm more inclined to think we should scan all photos as colour even if they are obviously monotones.
I noticed in an video clip of him making a photo he talks to his assistant (he operated a huge old fashioned plate camera, you'd need help lugging that around) about his Zone System exposure guide and placing black at certain values. So I think at the back of his mind he would say his images are in tones of black through to white. Except when you look at some and they have either no soot black and / or no snow whites. Beyond that, well, they don't look completely black rather than tones of gold or a mellow hue. Yes, some are obviously black - white, all are monotones, but some seem based on a tone other than simply 8 bit greyscale.
So that's what I've been thinking about as yesterday I scanned a batch of monotone prints. As a photo scanning service we want to get the best results and for a while I've believed the advice I was given when being trained to operate our first film scanner - that if the image isn't a colour negative or slide, it's black and white. The next step is to calibrate the scanner to capture all that it sees as digital values between total black and total white. Now this does add "pop" to an old image, and many clearly are b&w, but equally many have a tone, an element of blue, or gold, that suggests they may not have been intended to be variations of black.
Scanning these as b&w forces them down an avenue that may never have been intended. Scanning as colour captures the tones and gives a tech savvy client the option to render those as b&w should they wish. I'm more inclined to think we should scan all photos as colour even if they are obviously monotones.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Ansel Adams & Photo Scanning
Yesterday I took some time out and tripped over to Greenwich to see the exhibition of Ansel Adams photo prints. Brilliant, just brilliant.
Adams came in just after the beginning or modern photography and pretty much defined the style from which vast amount of modern snappery is derived. No Adams and I guess we'd all be trying to replicate Constable and Gainsborough. The prints are fantastic (apart from one or two I thought rather run of the mill for an exhibition) and a great way to spend two or three hours.
One of the highlights was a rolling film show covering his life and times, including an interview with the great man in his later years. He mentions he has come across a digital photo scanner and is impressed by the possibilities such a device would open up for his stock of negatives. I don't know if he ever invested in a scanner but that comment brought a smile to my face, I might lob it in the direction of those of my acquaintance who think photography belongs only in the analogue realm.
Another smile moment was the mention of Adams starting his photographic career with a Kodak Box Brownie. Yet again the conjunction of Kodak and image making; not printers or document scanners, no Kodak = photography. Earlier in the day I'd been to the funeral procession for Margaret Thatcher and seen a mass of people snapping away with the cameras on their smartphones. Each one a prime opportunity for Kodak.
Adams came in just after the beginning or modern photography and pretty much defined the style from which vast amount of modern snappery is derived. No Adams and I guess we'd all be trying to replicate Constable and Gainsborough. The prints are fantastic (apart from one or two I thought rather run of the mill for an exhibition) and a great way to spend two or three hours.
One of the highlights was a rolling film show covering his life and times, including an interview with the great man in his later years. He mentions he has come across a digital photo scanner and is impressed by the possibilities such a device would open up for his stock of negatives. I don't know if he ever invested in a scanner but that comment brought a smile to my face, I might lob it in the direction of those of my acquaintance who think photography belongs only in the analogue realm.
Another smile moment was the mention of Adams starting his photographic career with a Kodak Box Brownie. Yet again the conjunction of Kodak and image making; not printers or document scanners, no Kodak = photography. Earlier in the day I'd been to the funeral procession for Margaret Thatcher and seen a mass of people snapping away with the cameras on their smartphones. Each one a prime opportunity for Kodak.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Brother's at Kodak
Over the last five or six years we've become very close to Kodak as they enabled us to take photo scanning into a new dimension. Their Kodak s1220 was the foundation of our bulk photo scanning service. Over the years we've had the privilege of helping them by testing new scanners as they became available.
Of course most of us became familiar with Kodak as kids, because Kodak own imaging. Our family has owned Kodak cameras and the majority of our photos and slides were taken on Kodak material. I felt immensely sorry when Kodak ran into trouble, not half as much trouble as I felt they'd gather when their CEO decided to reinvent Kodak as a printer company. Lately they've been in a financial harbour, waiting for a combination of patent sell-offs and restructuring to allow them to join the market once more.
But what about our friends in the Kodak imaging business? I'm sure they hear rumours but I've no idea who will take them under their wing, except today there's been an announcement that Brother of Japan seem to be making a bid for the document scanning arm of Kodak (which might I'm guessing include photo scanning).
So let's be clear about this, a successful printer company is offering to buy the scanning division of a company with a proud heritage in photo systems, to fund it turning itself into (yet another) printer company. And the CEO of Kodak hasn't drawn the obvious conclusion?
Of course most of us became familiar with Kodak as kids, because Kodak own imaging. Our family has owned Kodak cameras and the majority of our photos and slides were taken on Kodak material. I felt immensely sorry when Kodak ran into trouble, not half as much trouble as I felt they'd gather when their CEO decided to reinvent Kodak as a printer company. Lately they've been in a financial harbour, waiting for a combination of patent sell-offs and restructuring to allow them to join the market once more.
But what about our friends in the Kodak imaging business? I'm sure they hear rumours but I've no idea who will take them under their wing, except today there's been an announcement that Brother of Japan seem to be making a bid for the document scanning arm of Kodak (which might I'm guessing include photo scanning).
So let's be clear about this, a successful printer company is offering to buy the scanning division of a company with a proud heritage in photo systems, to fund it turning itself into (yet another) printer company. And the CEO of Kodak hasn't drawn the obvious conclusion?
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Photo Scanning and Software
It's tempting to think of photo scanning as being the same as digital photography, after all you end up with a jpg file of a person, an event or a scene. Just like you do with your digital camera or phone.
Except it's not. First, you've got to think about the controls of the scanner being similar to those of your digital camera and I'm afraid scanners aren't great when it comes to exposure, colour balance etc. Second, even if you get a faithful scan of that photo, the original may have been badly exposed or composed in the first place, leaving you with post scanning work to do.
Hence the need for some decent software to accompany the scanning process. My first mention then is for decent scanner software. As a photo scanning service it's worth our while to invest on that - we use Silverfast for our Epsons and an honourable mention must go to Kodak's brilliant scanner code particularly in its ability to automatically restore faded colours.
Most of the post scanning image adjustment work I do, including to my own photos, is done on Mac computers using Apple's Aperture program. I think it's great and it does all I need of it. However I am concerned that Apple seem to be neglecting this part of their empire (maybe they're all worrying about iPhone 6) so I have to accept the case for using Adobe's Lightroom product grows stronger by the day.
Except it's not. First, you've got to think about the controls of the scanner being similar to those of your digital camera and I'm afraid scanners aren't great when it comes to exposure, colour balance etc. Second, even if you get a faithful scan of that photo, the original may have been badly exposed or composed in the first place, leaving you with post scanning work to do.
Hence the need for some decent software to accompany the scanning process. My first mention then is for decent scanner software. As a photo scanning service it's worth our while to invest on that - we use Silverfast for our Epsons and an honourable mention must go to Kodak's brilliant scanner code particularly in its ability to automatically restore faded colours.
Most of the post scanning image adjustment work I do, including to my own photos, is done on Mac computers using Apple's Aperture program. I think it's great and it does all I need of it. However I am concerned that Apple seem to be neglecting this part of their empire (maybe they're all worrying about iPhone 6) so I have to accept the case for using Adobe's Lightroom product grows stronger by the day.
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