Preserve Your Cherished Memories
Have you ever wanted to use an old photo for a family card, or wanted to send a copy to someone who shares your memories? But when you try to take a picture of the photo or copy it using a scanner or photocopier, the image is washed out and reflections off the glossy surface obscure the details.
Or you try to scan a color slide, and the image just looks wrong.
We do high-resolution digital conversions of prints, up to 11″X14″ and color slides up to 4″X5″.
Our professional copy services use cross-polarized lighting for illumination and high-resolution photography to give you the best possible digital reproduction of your cherished pictures and art. Items larger than 11″ X 14″ require special handling and will be quoted as required.
Color slides are illuminated using high-CLI (full spectrum) daylight-balanced light sources, and the slide/film is held in special carriers to keep the film flat, and to prevent light spillage past the edge of the image.
All of your originals are handled using cotton gloves, and dust removal is limited to jets of air. We do not wipe any surfaces, as this can damage the images. All handling is archival.
Preparation
Prints must be removed from frames or albums and delivered flat. We recommend the photos be separated by pieces of paper. Clean printer paper or a piece of kitchen parchment paper will suffice. Use protective packaging with stiffeners to prevent damage to the prints.
We accept slides as filmstrips, in glassine carriers, as mounted slides in boxes, as delivered from the lab, or in Carrousel trays or Kodak projector trays. We will NOT risk damaging the slide by removing it from a glass mount. If your slides are mounted under glass, that is how we will copy them. The reduction in quality shooting through the glass mount will have to be accepted. Slides in vinyl binder pages will be accepted but we will assess an additional $0.25 per slide for the difficulty in removing and replacing the slides in the page.
General Provisions (IMPORTANT)
- You MUST include a prepaid return shipping label with your package of originals. Please include insurance for the shipment.
- Your originals will be returned to you in the packaging you used to send them to us, using the prepaid return shipping label.
- We use every means at our disposal to preserve the integrity of your originals. Our archival handling includes the use of lint-free cotton gloves, dust removal using a gentle manual air blower, etc. We do not wipe the surface of your film or prints.
- Color pigments and dyes oxidize and fade over time, particularly if they have been exposed to high temperatures or UV light. Indeed this is one of the most-quoted reasons for digital conversion of older/archived originals. The digital files can be used for image restoration. We can only photograph what we receive. If your photos are faded, the copy will be faded. However, we can recommend several restorers who can work wonders with digital files.
- Digital images are returned as high-resolution jpeg files unless RAW (.dng) files are requested.
- Your images will be returned on one or more USB Sticks. Either you may provide us with memory sticks of sufficient capacity, or we will provide our own at cost.
We will inform you when your digital images are ready to ship. Shipping will occur as soon as your payment is received.