FotoBridge | Digitizing Photos Blog

When you start to scan pictures, there are several characteristics of your photo that you should be concerned with while scanning. One of these characteristics that can affect the quality of your photo is bit depth. Besides being proficient in scanning pictures for you, we at FotoBridge also enjoy being a resource that provides you with valuable information! We took this opportunity to take a closer look into how bit depth affects your scanned photos.

Don’t let the sheer volume of your photo collection keep you from digitizing the images. Scanning photos is a wonderful way to preserve family memories and with a little know-how, can be an enjoyable process. Think of it as an opportunity to walk down memory lane! With the right technical skills, you won’t take the wrong turn. There are a few common mistakes that everyone makes when scanning photos and one is related to picture resolution. High resolution doesn’t necessarily make a better photo.

There are many advantages to scanning photos. With a digitized image, you now have a file that you can easily manipulate. This ability allows you to fix problems that otherwise may have lasted a lifetime. But when you convert photos to digital images, you may find that an issue which didn’t exist before is now causing your picture to look odd. Luckily, most problems that occur during the scanning process can be fixed - you just have to know what the problem is. Do you know how to spot channel registration?

Many times, we take color for granted. The vibrant green leaves of the trees and the bright blue sky are a daily occurrence for most of us. Although we don’t do it enough, occasionally we take a moment to savor the colors of our world, and are compelled to take a picture of it.

Not all photo scans are created equal and knowing the difference can mean the getting better results for your photo scanning efforts. Digitized photos that look great onscreen may be look less sharp in print, for example, if not scanned to sufficient quality.

You don’t have to be a professional photographer to possess professional looking digital photos. The beauty of scanning images yourself or using a photo scanning service is that you have the ability to manipulate the digital photo quality. But to fix a photo, you first need to understand the problem. Have you ever seen a photo that seemed to fall a little flat but couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason? That ‘flatness’ you saw was likely inaccurate tone reproduction, one of the most common imaging problems. Whether it occurs in the original picture or as a result of a scanning mistake, it’s easily fixed.

When embarking on a scanning job, it’s best to use the highest quality of original available. In the case of slides, the slide itself is the highest quality available and, in the case of prints, it’s the film negative. Both slide and film negatives are essentially the same material and can be handled the same way.

These days it is not surprising to see family collections of 10,000 or more photos. Can you imagine how long it would take you to scan all those photos yourself? Think of all the things you could be doing during that time – seeing your family, going on vacation, gardening, reading...

Whether your cleaning has been delayed or you’re preparing for a celebration, like a graduation or wedding, converting photos to digital images is always a good idea. Not only do you create a back-up of the original photo for safe keeping but you can improve the quality.