The Digital Insider

If you were to start exploring the process of getting your images scanned into a digital format you would quickly see that most often the price to scan your photos is lower than the price to scan your slides and negatives. You are probably thinking, “Great! I will just send in my photos to be scanned and hold onto my negatives for safe-keeping.” Unfortunately for a small savings you would be keeping yourself from receiving the highest possible quality.

When scanning a print you are not working from the original material (negative) so essentially it is similar to making a copy of a copy. No matter how much we can do to adjust an image and while the results are often great, the results from scanning negatives or scanning slides almost always allows for a higher quality digital image. Because of how the slides and negatives are chemically processed it allows for a color quality that cannot be met on a standard photographic print.

Many consumers assume that because of the larger size of the prints they would create better digital images but with the high quality slide and negative scanners available that is just not the case. At ScanDigital we use Nikon scanners specifically designed for 35mm negative scanning and 35mm slide scanning. They are designed to scan at a very high dpi (we offer both 2000 dpi and 4000 dpi) with Digital Ice technology that automatically fixes very small scratches and any small dust particles that didn’t get completely removed during the slide and negative cleaning.

Slide scanning is a particularly important thing to do as the life of these slides is short-lived. Ektachrome slides for example can start deteriorating rapidly after just thirty years. Many customers express concern over shipping their irreplaceable slides across the country, believing that they are safer tucked away in the closet. Unfortunately by not preserving them digitally they are suffering irreparable damage as time goes on. ScanDigital is integrated with UPS for safe, secure and trackable shipping so don’t wait, save your precious memories by sending in your slides today!

Going Digital – The Holy Grail of Photography, Film and Video is a 4 part consumer education series by ScanDigital’s President, Anderson Schoenrock. The purpose of the series is to help educate customers on the process of transferring their photos, slides, negatives and film to digital.

If your family is anything like mine, we have boxes upon boxes of precious family photos sitting in a closet in a spare bedroom. We have everything organized into shoeboxes or small plastic containers. Years and years of memories, roll after roll lined up on a set of shelves.

I have been so busy building this business that it was only recently that I finally got around to organizing my own materials to be converted into digital. A few months ago I pulled everything out of the closet and decided what was worth preserving and what I didn’t need. A common question at this stage: do I send in my photos or negatives? In most cases, the answer is the negatives. Assuming the negatives have been kept in a dark box somewhere these will provide the best digital image. Because the prints were taken from the negatives, scanning those is similar to taking a copy of a copy. We can still obtain a great digital photo from prints, but well preserved negatives are the way to go if available.

Next I went through everything. Decided which photos I wanted to keep and which I didn’t care about. Not surprisingly, I wanted to keep most of it. Except a few obviously poor shots, everything else I wanted to keep.

I labeled my envelopes and put everything back in a box to bring into the office. The process was pretty straightforward and didn’t take to much time.

Next up were my old home videos. This was even easier, I just pulled out all my old VHS tapes to bring in and a handful of 8 mm reels from my early years. Again, I just wanted everything converted.

I did not give myself special treatment in our queue, but just put the order in as our customers do. About a week later I had all my photos in digital and within 2 weeks had all of my video transferred into digital format.

On thing that I really liked was our hard drive option. I now have everything on a neat little USB drive. Storage prices continue to come down while storage space is becoming even smaller. I now have 160 GB worth of photos, video and music on something that can fit in my pocket and requires no more power than what can be supplied from my Macbook.

Transferring my old materials brings numerous benefits, not to mention it freed up a ton of space in my closet. It is time to say goodbye to those old shoeboxes and slide carousels in your basement! My materials are no longer trapped in these out of date formats, they’re now in digital where they can be shared, enjoyed and preserved forever!

Next Up: Part 2 – The Dangers of Leaving Your Materials In Out of Date Formats

Having lived away from home for almost 12 years now, I rarely have the opportunity to spend Mother’s Day with my mom. With one son on the West Coast and another on the East Coast, my mom usually receives something in the mail from us. Lucky for my brother and I, our parents encouraged us to move away from home and expand our horizons. They’re proud of what we’re doing now and never sweat us being away for Mother’s Day, birthdays…etc. (We do all typically spend Christmas and Thanksgiving together).

Each year my brother and I coordinate our gift for Mom. We’ve exhausted the flower option and there really is not much my Mom wants / needs. This creates our annual Mother’s Day Dilemma… What to send home for Mother’s Day?

Usually we’re both so busy that the holiday creeps up and then we have a Thursday before Mother’s Day scramble, but this year we’re on top of it. My brother called me on Sunday afternoon with a gameplan. I quickly explained that I had also been thinking about Mother’s Day a lot this year because we were receiving Mother’s Day orders at ScanDigital and were even running some Mother’s Day Specials. (Spoiler ALERT: Mom, if you’re reading this before Sunday, please stop and come back later!) I then went on to explain my plan: Let’s take all of our family photos and pre-load them onto one of the new ScanDigital Photo Frames. My brother quickly agreed this was an excellent plan and so it was decided.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been working on pulling together a bunch of family photos to load on the frame. It has been a great time and a great reason to enjoy all those family vacation memories. I think Mom is going to love the frame and I am thrilled that earlier this year she sent in a bunch of our family photos to be scanned. We scanned some negatives and slides from our trip to Europe in 1991 that turned out to be real winners. My Mom is still in the process of organizing a new batch dating back to the 1980s to be scanned. I can’t wait to see those. It will be fun to load these onto the frame as the family’s collection is archived and preserved digitally. I’m excited for the first time in a few years to be able to give my Mom a gift that is new and hip. This is sure to top the casserole dish we gave her last year! Here are some of my favorites for the frame:

How we ever convinced Mom to touch this pigeon, I’ll never know
(St. Mark’s Square, Venice, Italy)

Mom is usually fairly calm, but couldn’t help being nervous while I rode on the back of a motorcycle on the Autobahn at 12 years old
(Aufham, Germany)

EuroDisney was a much needed break from all the historical sites
(EuroDisney outside Paris, France)

All that site seeing was pretty exhausting.
(Backseat of our rental car on the way to
another Western European town)

At ScanDigital we have been very pleased with the great response we have had to our new film and video digitization services. We are proud to match our unrivaled quality in photo, slide and negative scanning with great video and film transfer. All video and film is transferred onto DVD which is easy to play in any standard player. The quality is excellent and it brings to life old memories that have been sitting in the back of your closet for years.

But what if you are looking for something more than just a DVD copy of your film or video? ScanDigital is happy to place your film and video avi files onto a hard drive. Once you have the full avi files you have the ability to do so much with your old film. There are a number of programs available to edit your home movies ranging from very basic programs like iMovie to professional level programs such as Final Cut Pro. From transitions and effects to adding music and chapter points, you are given the ability to personally customize your precious memories.

Special Events can be a great way to use your newly digitized film. Seamlessly integrate stills and video together for that big slide show, everyone will love what you have created for the big anniversary, rehearsal dinner, birthday etc. Also, you can now post your videos on the web. This will allow you to share your video with friends and family members all over the country, even all over the world. We have already heard stories of our customers sharing great moments with family members as they watch their old films and videos. And that is really what our process is all about, restoring precious memories so that it can bring family and friends together, no matter how far apart they are.

It is that time of year again. The time of year when the weather starts taking a turn for the better and we all realize how much stuff we’ve been packing into little closets and cabinets throughout the house. If you’re like most people, your closet looks like this photo.

Well this year let ScanDigital help with your Spring Cleaning efforts! Some of you may have seen our Spring Cleaning Special email on Tuesday, but for everyone else I am excited to announce our ScanDigital Spring Cleaning Special here on the Digital Insider. This promotion will help our customers save dramatically on the conversion of their photos, slides and negatives to digital. Through the Spring Cleaning promotion our customers can receive more than 25% of select photo scanning services and 22% off our negative scanning service.

Here are the details:

Spring Cleaning Pricing:
Photos scanned at 300 dpi: $0.35 (27% discount)
Negatives scanned at 2000 dpi: $0.45 (22% discount)
Photos scanned at 600 dpi: $0.55 (19% discount)
Slides scanned at 2000 dpi: $0.65 (5% discount)

To participate, simply place an order at www.scandigital.com and use the following coupon code:

Spring Cleaning Coupon Code: “SpringClean24″
Valid for all order PLACED by April 30, 2008

Even through the special we still honor our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and the following standards of our service:

• Highly Secure: All Materials Fully Tracked at All Times
• Fastest Turnaround Time
• No Organization or Pre-sorting Required
• Your Memories Preserved for Future Generations
• All Work Performed in the USA
• 100% Satisfaction Guarantee

We hope you take advantage of these prices which make us the highest quality and LOWEST priced scanning service that process in the USA

Happy Cleaning

There are certain images that are forever remembered and perfectly encapsulate the total emotion and circumstance of an event, time or place. Sport has always been a classic example of such moments captured on celluloid.

One of the great pleasures I have had personal experience with is doing sports photography and I am pleasantly surprised by the volume of slide scanning and negative scanning that we do at ScanDigital. Now that we are offering film and video transfer services it has been great to see the amount of sports material that has been coming in. From amateur home movies to collegiate game film, the importance of these materials to the owners is clear.

Sports have become as emotional and as big a part of our lives as holidays and other gatherings with friends and families. They have a unique way of uniting people of all different backgrounds with a shared experience. Sometimes a sports photo resonates so greatly because of this connection.

Whether it’s Michael Jordan hugging the championship trophy and weeping after the death of his father to Brett Favre running around with his helmet off celebrating with all the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old, these images stir up memories and emotions within all of us.

Such great moments were on display again this month, with March Madness captivating the nations’ attention. From the baby-faced Stephon Curry and the Goliath-slaying DAVIDson Wildcats bursting upon the scene and becoming the Cinderellas of the tournament to the uber-athletic Memphis Tigers, there was no shortage of storylines or indelible images from the last three weeks of the college basketball season.

An amazing season that culminated with the most telling image of all and on the cover of Sports Illustrated no less; Mario Chalmers firing the improbable game-tying three in the championship game to cap-off what seemed to be an impossible comeback. The shot proved to be a game-winner as Kansas rode the emotion into an overtime win, capturing the first national title for the Big XII since it became a conference as well as becoming only the second school ever to win both a national title in basketball and a BCS bowl game in the same year. The joy they brought to the great people of the Midwest was unmistakable but with that joy also brought hope for many fans and players of other Big XII schools like Missouri, who hope to one day match the amazing, magical and historic year by the University of Kansas.

Rock Chalk. Jayhawk. KU!

President’s Note: In addition to serving as ScanDigital’s VP, Operations, Matt Stone is our resident sports expert. For nearly a year, he has successfully managed ScanDigital’s Operations while managing multiple fantasy sports teams and reading nearly every article written on the Los Angeles Lakers. As a long time Kansas fan, my influence is apparently wearing off as Matt enjoyed the KU Victory almost as much as I did. All ScanDigital employees were greeted Tuesday morning by a newly modified admin console which looked like this:

As some of you may know based on my bio at ScanDigital, I was a history major at Dartmouth and spent a number of years working in commercial real estate investment banking. So when the City of Pasadena called us to bid on a large historical architecture preservation project, I was particularly excited and honored. From a business perspective, this was obviously the type of call we love to receive. From a personal perspective, this type of project is particularly interesting to me. In my free time, I enjoy reading about architecture, both old and new.

For those of you who may not live in Southern California, Pasadena has one of the most active historic preservation societies in the country and the City is home to numerous famous residential and commercial properties. The bid process involved scanning a small group of slides and about a month ago ScanDigital was pleased to learn that we were awarded the project.

Our team recently begun scanning slides that document many of the historic properties in Pasadena. In addition to the slide scanning work we are performing, we will optimize the images digitally and, perhaps most importantly, we will be tagging the images with metadata in order to create a searchable database of images. The conversion of these slides to digital, to me, represents a new trend in historical preservation and archiving. Prior to our work scanning the slides they sat relatively useless in the basement of Pasadena’s permit office. Once the project is complete, residents of the city will be able to enjoy an easily search-able and usable version of these historic slides. It will be a great way for residents, old and new, to gain better access to their City’s history.

We look forward to working on projects like this as more and more cities across the country seek to move into the digital age, clear their offices of old materials and preserve this historic material for future generations. In times past, discovering historical information involved a lot of digging and searching, with new digital capabilities the future of history will be far more manageable and accessible. I am truly proud to be working on the Pasadena project and excited to see the end result of photographic database we will help them create.

As a photography hobbyist and former semi-pro I have had quite a bit of experience in the arena of sports photography. For me sports photography was a natural fit as I am an avid sports fan and love the excitement of trying to snap that great shot right when the moment happens.

For me, none of this would have been possible without digital photography. By being able to immediately review my images on my laptop I am able to make all the adjustments I need on the fly. So when that breakaway goal is scored late in the second half I have had a chance to adjust and re-adjust my camera so I can capture the moment perfectly.

As a photographer, athletes are coming at you very quickly and the focus points can be tricky. I find along with that the lighting varies in different spots and angles on an indoor court and when outdoors you need to always take into consideration where the sun is overhead and the changing cloud conditions.
While I would like to take a perfect shot every time, I am just not that good nor will I ever be. That is why I never miss an opportunity to review the images I have taken. The instant feedback of being able to view my own work has been every bit as valuable as any instruction I have received. Knowing what angles are working best with the lighting and how to adjust my equipment gives me an edge I would not have without the digital format.

Many of my best shots can be considered lucky by others and that I just happened to be in the right place in the right time. But most all of them were later in the game when I have had a chance to make adjustments and put myself in a position to be successful. It’s amazing how lucky one can get when they put in the work to get there.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

Getty Images, the leading provider of stock photography and video, agreed to a buyout offer today from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.  At ScanDigital, we continue to work closely with professional photographers wishing to digitize their life work and monetize the image through the sale of stock photography.  The move today by Hellman & Friedman supports our belief that this segment of the market will continue to grow.  Getty Images owns iStockphoto.com, a site that provides royalty free images.  This cost structure has proven itself to be particularly attractive for many web developers and companies seeking images for their website.

iStockphoto as well as other web based companies that sell stock photography continue to be a great source of ongoing income for professional photographers and are an invaluable resource for web designers and graphic artists.  Images that once could have cost hundreds of dollars now cost only a few dollars which has increased overall volume.  The stock photography industry has also grown as meta-tagging and search capabilities have been improved allowing users to more readily find and access images matching the user’s specifications.

It will be quite interesting to watch how Getty grows and changes as a company under Hellman & Friedman’s management.  It will also be interesting to see if other private equity firms make a run at Getty’s competitors, such as Corbis.  At ScanDigital we continue to be excited about our ability to assist photographers to bridge the gap from analog to digital.  It is an all around winning situation: professional photographers are able to increase their income through the sale of the images, the stock photography sites enjoy a larger library, we have additional digital conversion work and, perhaps most importantly, the end user has access to better images in a larger library at a lower cost.

I was very excited when I recently learned that the DigiPac shipping option was added to ScanDigital’s artillery of high performance parts. DigiPac, the only way to ship your precious memories, eliminates the hassle of printing out a mailing label and locating appropriate packing materials for your treasured photos.

All ScanDigital customers have the convenience of registering online for the service. The process is really so easy from start to finish: gather your photos, create an account, request a DigiPac and for only ten dollars you will receive a box, pre-paid shipping label, bubble wrap and small plastic bags by mail within two to five days. All packing materials are recyclable and reusable. Then you just drop your photos in the box and about 10 days later the same box returns with your materials, a disc and instructions on how to access your photos online.

I was personally excited when I heard we were about to launch the DigiPac. It was one of those things that I knew immediately would help our customers because let me tell you, there have been so many times where I want to ship something that I end up in a mad scramble to put together a makeshift box only to realize that I do not have all the proper shipping materials. DigiPac eliminates the hassle of going to the UPS store or if you’re like me, creating a box practically from scratch.

Some of the most respected companies in the world use the pre-paid packaging method, the vision at ScanDigital was to model this while maintaining the highest customer service rating among our clients. I’m sure many of you for one reason or another have had to send a laptop or computer back for repair. When the packaging from, lets say Apple in this case arrives, you are instantly put at ease with the contents of the shipping package. A sturdy box, extra cushioning, and a label. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

The ScanDigital DigiPac…helping everyone sleep better.

About Brian Samuelson: ScanDigital welcomes Brian Samuelson, the newest member of the ScanDigital PR team. Brian comes from a variety of backgrounds within the of public relations, marketing, and event planning fields. Outside of the office, Brian enjoys photography, surf, and travel.