Spending a few minutes looking at reviews of photo scanning services for pictures and slides will show you that scanning procedures vary, as do the types of color correcting and amount of time involved. Thus, it is smart to compare the methods and services of a few firms prior to committing.

A Photo Scanning Service Will Do a Better Job

For starters, let's agree you have better things to do than scan 1000+ pictures by hand. The appeal of shipping your stuff off to a scanning service is that it frees you from having to do all the monotonous work yourself. Simply pack up all the slides and prints and mail them to the scanning service. Just about all providers will take pictures in albums and slide sleeves or trays (although it may cost a bit more) and it will be returned in the exact order.

Nevertheless, to avoid surprises it is critical to review the scanning service to be sure of pricing, how they will be scanned and types of images they can deal with.

Dust and Scratch Removal and Color Enhancement

A fast review of photo scanning services shows that a majority of providers offer dust and smudge removal. Yet there are variations in levels of image enhancements.Some companies will do scanning, cropping, rotation, color correction and red-eye removal using automated batch corrections. The top providers do the scanning manually and make color enhancements manually with Photoshop, delivering far better images.

What is the Turnaround Time

Some companies take longer than others. Several very good companies have turnarounds of 4 weeks because all images are sent overseas for scanning, with close monitoring. Many do their scanning in the United States yet still take 2-4 weeks and provide detailed tracking. While comparing turnaround times and shipping outside the U.S. vs domestic, I found that the major companies had excellent tracking procedures and claim they have never lost an order. The takeaway here is that top quality scanning and enhancing is going to take a while.

Getting Your Digitized Pictures

Just as before, a review of photo scanning services reveals that companies offering more basic service just send a DVD, while full service companies give you a link to a web gallery where you may look at your images and organize them first. Some give you, in addition to a DVD, an online gallery with an archive of your digitized images so you can share pictures with family and friends. This also gives you extra protection against unforeseen disasters.

If done right, scanning your pictures and slides will maintain your old photos for many years and breathe new life into them so your children and grandchildren can enjoy them for years to come. Yet take the time and assess the various scanning services before parting with your precious pics.