We offer premium scanning services for old photos, negatives, and slides. As image scientists, we understand the fundamental principles behind digital image formation and we developed our scanning services to ensure that your photos are digitized in the best way possible. 

Preservation

Preservation captures all the meaningful details in your media in a future-proof format.  Request preservation when you're either unsure of the content of your photos, or would like to take on the task of enhancing the images yourself.

• Slides and negatives are dusted by hand.
• Photos/slides/negatives are digitized by hand on our professional grade imaging equipment.
• Photos are scanned at 600 pixels per inch (PPI) and 35mm slides/negatives are imaged at 5200 PPI (up to 10000 PPI).  Both the front and back of photographs are scanned at no extra cost.
• Digitized photos/slides/negatives are delivered in their native raw format as well as TIFF, an essentially future-proof format ideal for beginning photo restoration or conversion to other image formats such as JPEG.

Preservation rates for some specific photo and film sizes are below.  Please contact us if you do not see your photo, film, or plate glass format below -- often we can accommodate it!

Organization

Keeping a collection of memories organized can make it easier to remember when and where events happened.  Messages written on the backs of photos, development dates printed on the frames of slides, and exposure indexes in the borders of negatives can help with this process.  If you would like us to record this information and use it to chronologically order the collection as much as possible before scanning, we will do that at a flat rate of $0.10 per image.

Enhancement

Our team performs basic photo restoration by hand on each scanned photo, including contrast adjustment, color cast, and artistic cropping at a flat rate of $1.00 per image.  Choose this optional add-on service for the scans you'd like to print or share with others.  We deliver TIFF (PNG if the image is larger than 4GB) and JPEG files for all edited images in addition to the raw images.

Restoration

We can perform additional minor to extreme restoration on your scans on a case-by-case basis.  See our Old Photo Restoration page for a price list.  Most customers choose this route when they have a few really special images that they'd like to have restored or enlarged.

How to Order

1.) Get a free photo scanning estimate: Contact us via email so that we can discuss the particulars of your scanning needs and get you an accurate cost estimate.  We ask that you remove all photos from albums and place them into groups (or an explicit order) that you would like them scanned.  Slides can be left in carousels or removed and group into a particular order for scanning.  To best protect your photos, place them in a photo box or grouped into plastic baggies to minimize dust and debris collecting on them.

2.) When you are ready to proceed:  We can arrange to pick up your photos (within the Dayton, OH area) or for you to drop them off at our studio.  Note: While we focus our scanning service locally within the Southwest region of Ohio, we are open to taking mail orders. Please contact us if you are interested!

3.) Proofing: Once scanning is completed, we can upload your scanned and enhanced photos to a private proofing gallery (with protective watermarks) where you are free to view and share your photos.  At that point you can approve each photo or request additional improvements (some may require an additional advanced restoration cost).  We continue this process until you approve ALL edited photos.

4.) Delivery:  Once you are satisfied with your photo scans, upon payment of the remaining balance of your order, we then deliver your restored photos (without any watermarks) on a USB hard drive or thumb drive that you either provide or purchase from us.  We always supply the original TIFF files and the restored versions in both JPEG and TIFF format.

5.) Printing Options: Printing options are offered directly in your online proofing gallery for your convenience.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.) How much does this usually cost?

We suggest that most customers initially order the preservation service for their photos, slides, or negatives.  This gives you the option of determining which images are worthy of the enhancement or restoration services.

For example, the minimum total order amount is $25.  This would allow us to preserve 20 4x6 photos at $0.50 per image.  Alternatively, it would cover preservation and enhancement for those same images ($0.50 scan + $1.00 enhancement = $1.50 per image).

Please e-mail us for an estimate.

2.) But other services seem to be cheaper, why is that?

Our prices are set to both produce archival quality results and leverage 30 years worth of local experience that other services do not explicitly provide.  The processes we use on your photos are the same we use on our own, and we don't like doing things more than once!

3.) How are the scans delivered?

We place the scans on a hard drive or thumb drive that you provide to us or purchase from us.  The required size is determined by what is scanned.  For example, a 35mm slide will yield a TIFF image that is roughly 120-220MB in size.  A 125-slide preservation and enhancement minimum order would require at least a 32GB thumb drive.  Larger orders would likely require external USB hard drives with more capacity.