How can I save money?

It’s not the question we’re asked most often but it does come up from time to time, most often in relation to slide scanning. It goes like this, “I’ve got 5,000 slides, what’s the cheapest you can do?”
Here’s the answer. Any number we quote, when multiplied by a very large number, results in a shockingly large number. The most effective way to reduce the bill is simply to go though your stack, with a lightbox and loupe, and mercilessly cull the poor images. The number you need is probably only 10-20% of the total.
Negatives? Think about getting negatives printed and then get the prints scanned. Cheaper and quicker, and if you really have any great negs then you can have those scanned on our top flight negative scanners.
Prints? Take the same route as with slides, invest your time in deciding which images you actually really, really need scanned.
The answer is not to try to get a poorer quality scanning job done. You’ll be disappointed and might even have to have the whole lot done again.

Photobox Offer

Since we teamed up with Photobox to deliver photo books for us we’ve had a lot of positive feedback about the service. Not simply the quality of their prints but also their customer service and value for money.
Just received an email to say their current discount offer is being extended for another week. The offer is here.
This is what they’re offering. When you sign up for an account with them you’ll get 40 prints free. Then, whatever you buy (including photobooks) you’ll get a discount of at least 10%. If you spend more you’ll get an ever bigger discount - 20% if you spend over £20, and if you spend over £30 you’ll get 30% off normal prices.
It’s a great summer offer, don’t hesitate.

Polaroid Photo Scanning

We can boost faded colours, it’s a major part of what we do, and it’s important with slide scanning and photo scanning. These types of original images are most prone to fading and we can do a lot to recover the original saturation and brightness that may have been lost over time.
What about Polaroid? Should we use our software to recover colours?
If we apply these features we instantly see a result, whites snap in place and other colours are clearer. But should we? If you look at an unfaded Polaroid original you’ll see the colour isn’t quite accurate, Polaroids have a distinct colour balance which gives softer, warmer colours. It’s an attractive type of colour and one that’s valued by lovers of Polaroid photography. My feeling is we should leave scans as the closest we can to the colours we see. Unless you’d particularly like us to adjust your Polaroids when we scan them.

All in a day ...

Every so often, the phone rings, and today it rang quite a few times. A frequent question is what are you doing? Often in a roundabout way, normally to ask if we can squeeze in an urgent job. Today’s urgent tasks are slide scanning for a professional photographer, photo print scanning for a last minute photo album plus a couple of video surveillance tapes for a legal firm in York.
In between gaps in the calls it was heads down to get through a normal days work - today the focus was on two major jobs. The first is a slide scanning project, just over 1,000 slides for a family archive. It’s turning out to be a fiddly job. Most people who shot slides used the same film, in the same camera, with a pretty reliable exposure system. Kodachrome dominates too. This job is different, the photographer has chopped and changed from one film to another and he’s been tough in sifting out substandard slides. So you scan 5,10 or 15 slides, then adjust the set up and off you go with the next set. Still, the variation makes life interesting.
The second job is less demanding, scanning photos is intrinsically easier. They’re all just photos and they chug through our scanner quite happily. This job has a single challenge - volume. This afternoon we crossed the 8,000 mark completing the seventh of eight boxes. So far the results look good and I’m hopeful that we’ll finish this part of the project early Thursday or maybe even late Wednesday. Then we’re into the final leg which is reducing the 300+ folders the images have been scanned into. The aim is to get them all into folders for the various trips and family events specified by the client. We’ve been given a master list of around 75 master folders. Although that sounds like a major task in itself it shouldn’t take too long.
So tomorrow it will be full steam ahead from first thing in the morning until about 11:00 when the postman arrives. Then we’ll break off and hit the urgent jobs that we’ve been promised were mailed today. That will keep us busy until mid afternoon when its back to our two major tasks.
Just a normal day in the office.

iPad and Online Albums

For clients with photos we scan them and then create an online photo album. This is great for sharing images and we know from stats that friends and family from all over the world (including China, India, Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia and many more) enjoy access to these albums.
One feature of the albums is the ability to download digital copies of each photo. This facility has been used many, many times over the last 18 months. Unfortunately we have run into a glitch with the iPad. While users can use the iPad to view images, because Apple iOS on the iPad doesn’t support Flash, you can’t download directly from the web to an iPad.
The way round this is to download images to your PC then copy the photos across as part of the sync process.

Travel and Landscape Photography

School reunion at the weekend, too many years since we last met up, all too many years since we were young, keen and innocent. Amazed and impressed by what many of my school friends have achieved in particular one your lady, Marion Bull.
She’s become an acclaimed travel and landscape photographer with work published all over the world. When I got back I took a look at her website. There are some great images - take a look - Marion Bull - creative & editorial photography.

Snow

Can’t remember the last time we had snow before Christmas, but this year we’re making up for earlier mild years. The snow hit us on Tuesday and at varying rates its been falling since then with no sign of a thaw. Today (Thursday) we have about a foot of snow between the house and the hutch.
Post has been delayed, although we’ve had a couple of deliveries today and yesterday its been nothing like normal volumes. Parcel post and courier deliveries have disappeared which is probably just as well as between here and the nearest main road we’ve got a lot of snow. Judging by past experience we won’t be gritted here until tomorrow at the earliest.
We have been able to get through a lot of work, but not as much as in normal days. Might sound wimp but its just been so cold even though the heating has been going full blast. We are hopeful that we’ll be back to full production from tomorrow.