Myths About Slide Scanning and Negative Scanning: Scanning is the hard part

Myth: Scanning is the hard part

Our experience tells us that the scanning of slides and negatives and the post-scan processing of the resulting digital images can be a long and difficult experience for many people. However, we also see that, particularly for bigger projects like scanning family photo collections, there is a great deal of work that comes before and after the scanning.

Prior to scanning, this work includes gathering film to scan, organizing it, and determining which films should be scanned. Generally speaking, the more effort that is spent before scanning, the better. Already organized film makes for easier to deal with digital images.

After scanning, the fun begins. Creating slide shows, burning copies of images to CD/DVD for friends and family, printing selected images, creating DVD slide shows, organizing and annotating the digital images, and assuring a good backup strategy are in place are only a few of the activities that come after scanning.

This work before and after scanning is difficult or impossible to hire out. Only you (or members of your organization or family) know the material on your film. Hence only you can serve to organize, annotate and use the resulting scanned images. This is the place to put your time and energy rather than into the technical and time-consuming scanning process.

The actual scanning process, however, does not require this in-depth knowledge of the subject of your images. It is an ideal part of the overall effort to hire out. You will probably save money in the process compared to doing the work yourself and it will almost certainly be done more quickly. Additionally, you will not need to develop expertise in the scanning process.

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