Scanning service for photos: what to look for

Scanning services — services that will scan your photos for you — are not as popular as they used to be. We're all digital these days. Many people still have shoeboxes full of photo prints, slides and negatives. And art photographers who are old enough to have learned about film emulsions usually have a library full of carefully conserved slides and negatives. To digitize those, a scanner is all it takes; or will a scanning service do? Three issues you should consider before entrusting a scanner service with your photos. Which scanner does the service use? If they use a flatbed scanner for prints, that's OK, but for your prints to be digitized to the highest standard, only high-end scanners will do. An Epson Perfection V700 Photo is a great scanner, but it's not the high-end. A scanner service should use a device that once was used to scan photos for art books, which leads you to Creo models or Heidelberg scanners like the Tango. For slides, most services use a film scanner such as a Nikon CoolScan. That's fine, as long as you keep in mind that such film scanners aren't capable of very high resolutions (read: very big prints). If you want those, get a service that works with a Hasselblad Flextight X1 or X5 scanner. How far will they go to 'correct' your digitized images? If a scanner service retouches your prints, the digitized results are worthless from an archival point of view. A print, negative or slide should be kept as 'clean' as possible if your aim is to create a digital archive. If a service offers an archival file format, it probably works with SilverFast software and you should get a 24-bit TIFF with an infrared channel. This ensures you can edit the image yourself afterwards using LaserSoft Imaging's specialist app. Retouching photos is only acceptable for family snapshots. Finally this: a good scanning service will not come cheap because scanning photos for the highest quality is a time consuming process. The question then is if you shouldn't just buy a scanner. If you have a large library that needs digitizing, an investment in a Hasselblad Flextight X1 or X5 — currently about the only high-end scanner left in the market — may make more sense than using a service.

Scanning services — services that will scan your photos for you — are not as popular as they used to be. We’re all digital these days. Many people still have shoeboxes full of photo prints, slides and negatives. And art photographers who are old enough to have learned about film emulsions usually have a library full of carefully conserved slides and negatives. To digitize those, a scanner is all it takes; or will a scanning service do? Three issues you should consider before entrusting a scanner service with your photos.

1. Which scanner does the service use? If they use a flatbed scanner for prints, that’s OK, but for your prints to be digitized to the highest standard, only high-end scanners will do. An Epson Perfection V700 Photo is a great scanner, but it’s not the high-end. A scanner service should use a device that once was used to scan photos for art books, which leads you to Creo models or Heidelberg scanners like the Tango.
2. For slides, most services use a film scanner such as a Nikon CoolScan. That’s fine, as long as you keep in mind that such film scanners aren’t capable of very high resolutions (read: very big prints). If you want those, get a service that works with a Hasselblad Flextight X1 or X5 scanner.
3. How far will they go to ‘correct’ your digitized images? If a scanner service retouches your prints, the digitized results are worthless from an archival point of view. A print, negative or slide should be kept as ‘clean’ as possible if your aim is to create a digital archive. If a service offers an archival file format, it probably works with SilverFast software and you should get a 24-bit TIFF with an infrared channel. This ensures you can edit the image yourself afterwards using LaserSoft Imaging’s specialist app. Retouching photos is only acceptable for family snapshots.

Finally this: a good scanning service will not come cheap because scanning photos for the highest quality is a time consuming process. The question then is if you shouldn’t just buy a scanner. If you have a large library that needs digitizing, an investment in a Hasselblad Flextight X1 or X5 — currently about the only high-end scanner left in the market — may make more sense than using a service.