PHOTO
SERVICES
Jerry
Nelson
McLean,
VA
email
USING
COMMERCIAL
SERVICES
TO HOLD DOWN COSTS
You
can't
get top quality without working one-on-one with a talented craftsman.
But once you have a stunning image that others would enjoy,
you
can turn to commercial services to copy it.
PRINTING AT KINKOS for $1/SHEET
Kinkos and FedEx have
merged.
You can find a Kinkos near you here
(use your browser's BACK button to return):
http://fedex.kinkos.com/locations/
All stores have
excellent plain-paper
color copying (about $1/sheet)
from my prints, and most have large-format poster printing from my
files on CD.
At this time, I am printing
large panoramas on multiple sheets, and the seams are visible
under harsh lighting. Commercial poster-size prints on single
sheets are
around $100 (expect prices of $15 per square foot).
All
those "just a little" changes (just a little brighter here,
darker there) will be up to you (the printing services just print).
SCANNING to CD for UNDER $1 per IMAGE
Scanning
many slides can be done by beginners advertising on eBay at 8
cents/slide. I can only imagine using such services to get
positive images of color negatives that are impossible
to "read"
or identify. Once the quick and dirty positives lead you to
truly
desirable images, you will have
to rescan with a better service. Costco and Wal-Mart will
scan to
disk for under 30 cents/image. So fifteen 24-exposure rolls
cost
$100. To find other services, go to eBay or
Google and search on "scan to CD".
Here are two services
that try harder
to please:
1. Canaan Technologies
Slides and prints are
first
scanned, then cleaned, sharpened, and
color corrected. CD might be in JPG, GIF, BMP formats, your selection.
$0.99 each slide or
photo
scanned. Prints: $0.99 for 4x6"
Canaan Technologies
31 Purcell Road East
Bridgewater, NJ
08807-5630
(908)253-8937
info@canaantechs.com
Contents book too:
Get a printed Thumbnail
Album with
your order that will show you all of
the images on your disc or discs along with their file names and disc
number. The Thumbnail Album makes it easier to find just the
images you're looking for.
Resolution:
One slide at
2000 dpi is 1800 x
2600 pix for 4.68 Mpix.
They compress to about
3MB jpeg, you
get about 216 sides/CD max.
Don't throw away the
originals --
this poor resolution is "just for a peek" on a search-and-find mission.
2. Dig My Pics
DigMyPics!
pricing includes
rotating, Image Color and Exposure
Correction and their free software (a viewing program on each
disk, which
could get in your way when you just want to copy a file onto a CD for
Kinkos.
$0.59/slide at 2000 dpi
(add 10 cents
for 3000 dpi). If you get
3000 dpi, you can throw the slides away, provided several children have
copies of the same disks.
$0.02/slide additional
for thumbnails.
DigMyPics!
2820 E University Dr #
116
Mesa, AZ 85213
Sales: 1-866-364-5952 or
(480) 422-9707
Fax: (480)
422-9708
Scanning by itself solves nothing. A pile of optical disks
that
require complex technology to view is no more accessible than a pile of
slides that require a projector. Please read my
Strategy
of Attack: How to Deal with the Family Photo Collection".
--jerry
Rev 4/06
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