Scanning Photos

Quality scanning is a very important first step in any photo restoration or enhancement. The best way to ensure this is to send the photos to us and let us do the scanning on our high resolution equipment.

But if you don't want to do this then you can:

      • Use your own scanning equipment.
Obviously, make sure the glass is clean before scanning.

or
      • Use a high street copying/scanning shop.
Most photocopying shops will be able to scan and then save the images onto a CD/DVD or a USB memory stick. You can then take that back to your pc and email the images to us.


The following principles apply, however you get the scans done:

  • If you're scanning a photo that you do not need to enlarge, then scan at 300 dpi or higher. 
  • If you are going to have the photo enlarged after restoration, then scan at 600 dpi or higher.
  • Do not have any adjustments made (eg for contrast or colour) in the scanning. Leave that to us.
      • Save as a TIFF file rather than a JPEG, if you can. If you have to save as a JPEG, make sure it is saved or emailed at the highest quality level. (JPEG files lose some resolution at each stage.)
      • If the original photo is large, you may end up with a large file which may be difficult to email. (Some email services will not accept files larger than 10mb, say.) If so, you might like to use the service at www.bonpoo.com which enables you to send large files free of charge. We at PhotoValet can accommodate as large a file as you are likely to create.