Scanning Photos and Exposure

Over the years we have worked with many people taking their historic images and moving those into the digital era. Pretty much all of those have taken up digital cameras for their current work. Lately we've seen a few photographers who have taken up traditional photography having secured a grounding in the digital method. So we have received photo scanning orders for negatives and slides taken in the last days and weeks, some on almost antique 35mm or medium format cameras.

It's been a very different experience. Mostly it's gone pretty well but for two clients negative scanning and slide scanning has thrown up issues in their technique. In essence they are questions over exposure. I've found myself scratching my head trying to remember what I used to do to get a reasonable image. One problematic negative prompted a memory of me, in student days, standing one winter morning by the side of the river in Lancaster, taking shots of the sun rising over the town. A keen photographer cycled past and with a cheery wave shouted "Don't forget to allow for the sun!"

Sage words, but allow what? More light? Less light? How much either way? We have a large format negative sent in taken in similar circumstances. A broad expanse of beach with a brilliant texture, against a sun low in the sky. So we scanned it as it was shot. No adjustment in the scanner, just matching the scanner range to what was on the original. Immediately you could see rather than a smooth tapering of values at the far right of the histogram there was a truncated effect. The original was over exposed. To cut a long story short the photographer was disappointed, so we did further scans and I think we now have an image which better captures what he wanted.

The loop of getting what the client wanted has raised a couple of important points. First, if a client sends and over or under exposed image the scan will be as accurately as we can, reflect that. We can't tell whether that was the effect the photographer wanted or not. If we're told otherwise we can do something but our standard approach is to scan what is on the original as faithfully as possible.

Second, with any camera to get an optimal result you need to know how the system (lens, camera, film or digital file) works together to create an image. The two key variables are shutter speed and aperture. In a modern camera that can safely be left on auto and for most images you'll never feel let down. But if you're trying to capture a challenging scene an adjustment to a setting will give you a much better result.

Photo Scanning and Grand Central Station

Scanning prints - easy, scanning negatives and scanning slides it's a problem. Simply, which way round does the source material go?

Does it make a difference? Technically no but clients will obviously be disappointed if text is inverted or clocks have the wrong numbers. If the scan is wrong programs such as Aperture or Photoshop have simple tools to flip the image the right way up. Oh, and it's further complicated for us because or slide scanning and negative scanning hardware (Nikon and Epson) have different ideas about which way "up" slides and negatives should go.

Time takes its toll, I think the older film is the harder it is to tell which side is the emulsion side, that being the key to which way is "up". So I was amused to watch a video on the New York Times website which covered Grand Central Station and a few lesser know facts. The ceiling is painted with the stars and their constellations. If you've ever been to Grand Central you'll appreciate what a task that must have been. Well an astronomer provided the basic star chart from which the painters worked, but he made an assumption about which way up they'd hold his original. He or they got it wrong, so the stars are on the ceiling with a view you'd get if you were standing far above the universe looking down.

I sympathise with their problem, it's an easy mistake to make.

35mm Slide & Negative Scanning - New Price for Professional Service

Today we are dropping our prices for the Professional Service scanning 35mm slides and negatives, the old price was £1-30 and today we're dropping the price to just 95p. OK, why?

Originally there were two differences between Home and Professional - the dpi level (originally 2000 dpi and 4000 dpi) and file format (jpg & TIFF). Then we decided to scan everything at 4000 dpi because the quality difference is staggering and we don't want to ship sub-standard products. That left just the file format as the difference.

In the last few months more people have been asking about the Professional level service but frankly they've been put off by the extra 60p we had been charging. So, we've decided to make the bigger files much more affordable. You'll get great quality uncompressed files that you can edit to your hearts content, then save either as TIFF or jpg files. We think an extra few pence for the Professional service is definitely worthwhile. We look forward to doing even more Professional scans from your 35mm slides and negatives.

Slide / Negative Scanner Amnesty

It's been busy this week with several enquiries about slide scanning and our Slide Scanner Amnesty.

Yes, the scheme is still in operation and each week we get one or two scanners to add to our junk pile. This week we've got devices from Plustek and Agfa, one of my particular hates. Although this is simply a unit badged up for Agfa it is built on a singularly tacky camera unit and a very poor light source. It's a marriage made in hell and Agfa should have known better. Anyway we're able to rescue a couple of people from rather poor purchasing experiences.

I'm not sure how much longer we'll continue with the Amnesty. It has been very popular and generates much publicity for us, along with a steady stream of calls saying are you still doing this? Yes, and we will do for the coming weeks. Probably.

Photo Scanning - Crossing the Borders

Some years ago I was asked by Kodak if there were any enhancements I could suggest for their photo scanning software. One of my suggestions was to find a way to automatically remove the white borders that appear on many prints. Sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line, I guess there's hard maths behind that. Anyway, that feature has yet to appear.

When we scan slides we typically crop inside the frame, so the client sees a "borderless" image, same with negative scanning. the only exception is with professional photographers who typically don't trust us to get the crop right so want every last bit of data.

Recently we've added a slideshow building facility and I'm pleased to say it's being well received. We off three options and ask clients to express their preference. Each slideshow has it's attractions but none is outrageous so I expected preferences to fall pretty evenly across each style. Much to my surprise one is an out front leader, and guess what? It automatically adds a white border to all the images in the slideshow.