PHOTO
SERVICES
Jerry
Nelson
McLean,
VA
email
USING
COMMERCIAL
SERVICES
TO HOLD DOWN COSTS
You
can't reach 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, share it across the family, insure its survival.
PRINTING AT KINKOS for $1/SHEET
Kinkos and FedEx have
merged to make "FedEx Office".
You can find one near you
(use your browser's BACK button to return):
http://www.fedex.com/us/office/index.html
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) are up to you to do before you leave home (the printing services just print).
Wonderful. So how
do I find the images worth saving? Answer: sink time into it.
I can only promise you that scanning reduces the bulk of stuff
you need to save, and it runs the risk of losing everything, but
if you insist, here you go:
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 so that I could look through
them quickly ("read" them) to identify what I want. 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 "photo 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
991 Highway 22 West
Bridgewater, NJ
08807
(908) 218-7929
info@canaanmedia.com
info@canaantechs.com
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.
Canaan Media does many weird audio and video formats, not just
slides.
Contents book too:
Ask if you can 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. Not available? Go to Dig My Pics.
2. Dig My Pics
DigMyPics!
pricing includes
rotating, Image Color and Exposure
Correction and their free software. This viewing
program on each
disk could get in your way when you just want to copy one particular
file onto a CD or thumbdrive to take away and work on.
$0.39/slide at 2500 dpi
(add 10 cents
for 3200 dpi). If you get
3200 dpi, you can throw the slides away, provided several children have
copies of the same disks.
You
do not need 4000 dpi (add 30 cents) except for exceptionally
fine-grained film perfectly shot with a German camera, or a Japanese
lens known to be legendary.
$0.02/slide additional
for thumbnails (recommended); thumbnails enlarged from 30/page to 12/page: double the price.
DigMyPics!
701 North Golden Key Street
Gilbert, AZ 85233
(480) 422-9707
(866) 364-5952 toll free
Fax: (480)
422-9708
sales@digmypics.com
I hate to spoil the party, but:
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 1/2010
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