A lot of us have slides and other film pictures at home that we can’t really look at anymore. Our new digital world has made it difficult to deal with older, analog images. The good news is that slide scanning services can help us take those slides out of storage and put them on disk for us to enjoy again. Here’s what you should know about using slide scanning services, and how to get the best out of yours without spending too much.
A good service will offer conversion to many different formats, and will offer high resolutions. Ideally, you should be able to receive good quality files on a CD or DVD, ready to be viewed on your computer. Remember to let the service know if you want images for display online, for use in print media, or any other purpose – it’ll affect how quality slide scanning service treat your images. You should also provide the best film you can. Make sure it’s as clean as you can get it without causing damage, and try to send the best quality images possible. That’ll result in better digitization.
Most services will also do more than just slides. You can expect many digitizers to be willing to give you files of negatives, scanned paper photos, film, and many other media. Since many companies also do digital restoration, those old photos and slides with fading or scratches can be repaired. The worse the damage, the lower quality the final image, of course, but many slides and photos have been saved by a good scanning service. The end result is more convenient, easy to view slides and other images that you might have thought were lost.
Never shop for the cheapest slide scanning services – choose one that’s willing to offer the services and quality that you need. After all, if something seems too cheap to be true, it usually is. Using extremely inexpensive services (different from just getting a good deal) could result in poor quality images and the loss of your film!
When you want to preserve your memories from old slides and photographs, you need to consider the advantages that slide scanning services can provide. For one thing, scanning can take a variety of formats and convert them into easy viewing media like DVDs from your VHS, VHS-C, Hi8 and 8mm digital tapes or Super 8 and 16mm movie films. This can make it easy to hold onto the old memories that can never be replaced should these more destructible media sources become old and worn out.
You have to consider that scanning is usually a once in a lifetime expenditure, once you decide to make this conversion. Your original VHS and Super 8 movies are perfectly safe and you don’t have to worry about the return of your original photos, negatives or slides, assuming you choose a reputable company for your slide scanning services. There are professional companies that have been providing scanning services for a number of years.
You want to be sure to pick a reputable company that processes your memories in the United States, stores your originals in a fireproof vault and offers a simplified online way for you to organize your slides, negatives and photos. These benefits are helpful because this keeps originals intact and helps you organize what you want or don’t want in your finished product.
If you want to make sure you’re getting good results, take a little time to check out any slide scanning services you’re thinking of working with. Be willing to ask plenty of questions and expect good, well explained answers. That includes talking about fees. You should understand what kind of fees you’re expected to pay, and where they come from. The result will be high quality images of pictures and slides you might have thought were unsuable forever. Preserve those happy memories – get your pictures digitized! It’s worth it in the long run.