Scan photo quality?

grandmaR · October 11, 2012

I read the first post sticky and I conclude that this is the right place for this question.

I am having some prints scanned by a bulk scanning service. I have some prints that I have in various sizes - 8x10 and 3x5 and wallet for instance all of the same photo.

Logically it seems that I will get a better quality from scanning the larger photo, so I should include the 8x10 and definitely not send the wallet size. (The wallet size is too small anyway and they won't scan them)

Will that be the case?

Is there going to be a lot of difference between 8x10 and 5x7 or 5x7 and 3x5?

Is there any reason other than quality to pick the larger photo? The smaller one will be easier to package.

ziggy53 · October 12, 2012

8" x 10" and 3 1/2" x 5" are different aspect ratios and will have slightly different content, but the 8x10 will be (potentially) much, much better quality. This is especially true for prints other than glossy, where the print surface will interfere with image detail during the scan process. (In other words, glossy prints will scan with the greatest detail. Other print surfaces and treatments will have less detail at the same size print and scan.)

Do remember that there is some risk in sending prints and negatives to be scanned, relating to both complete loss and physical damage. Local scanning is safer, where you hand-deliver the items, but scanning yourself is the only guarantee that your treasured images will be treated the way you wish them to be treated.

basflt · October 12, 2012

+ 1 for the do it yourself bit
if you have the original negatives / slides , use those instead of the prints

grandmaR · October 12, 2012

Thank you for the reply - especially for the information about glossy prints which I had no idea that would be the case. I can see that it would now that you have pointed it out.

I realize that there is a risk, but many of these photos are ones that I have two or more prints of. There are far too many of them for me to do myself - it would take me years and years. I'm old - I don't have that many years. Just figuring out which ones to send can take a week or more.

So far I've had over 4,500 prints scanned and I'm about ready to send in two more boxes of 1500 each. These are photos taken over several lifetimes - my mother and my mother's family's photos back past 1909 when she was born, my dad's pictures (although most of them were slides), and my photos.

Slides and large format negatives are another category altogether - so far I've had at least 5,600 slides done and I'm only maybe half way through.

Scan photo quality?

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