Thursday, September 22, 2011
Colour or Mono Scanning?
Busy week in the world of photo scanning, so I've spent all day feeding photos into our s1220. Today's job has been a mix of colour and black and white photos. Some are quite recent, and well cared for, many are old and poorly. Such a chunk of photos poses a bit of a dilemma.
As a photo scanning service we want to give a clients the best service, and one of our most popular features is image recovery, the ability to boost faded colours. Now, if you follow the details of the Kodak operating manual you'll be aware that monochrome images can be scanned either as a single channel, or as RGB three channel colour images (albeit the 'colour' being monochrome).
If you scan B&W as greyscales you'll save some space, and maybe even scan a bit quicker (but from the evidence of today any speed gain is marginal). However you can't do much to boost the image once its scanned. I don't know the low level details of how the scanner treats greyscales but it does seem to do something to improve contrast as it scans. You can hit the boost button after scanning but it doesn't do much, if anything.
The results of my subjective experience today is that its much better to scan everything as colour. Then you can apply the colour restore, and get a kick out of how much better the post scanning images look.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Track Marks - As "Tracks of My Tears"
If you own a Kodak s1220 or near relative you'll know what I mean - those horrid single pixel tracks that ruin scans? Yes, the remains of debris attached to photos which latch onto the scanner glass. Typically from non-drying adhesive such as Blutack or Pritt Stick here in the UK. Not cleaned from the back of one photo, rubs off onto the front of the next and from there to my beautiful scanner. As a photo scanning service owner I now twitch at the thought.
But we are over it. Frequent thorough cleaning before and during each run, plus eyes and fingers fine tuned to spot tell-tale adhesive scraps. It's a thing of the past. OK, that's the back story.
Last week I was in a rush. We were within a few hundred scans of August (traditionally a very quiet month) being our busiest month ever. I know its petty and I'm the only one it affects but breaking that record, in August of all months, really got me going. When a big box of photos arrived I jumped on it (not literally). A big step to beating the record. Off I went. Couple of hours later, check the results.
You guessed, about 20 scans in, three images with those telltale streaks, and another couple at the back. Scrap it, start again, clean offending prints, eat dinner, resume after (it's twilight now), finally finish up early evening. Next morning, check, same problem. Sift through the box which held just over 1,100 photos to find the miscreants. Clean them with one of our micro fibre (that's micro fiber to many of our readers) dusters. Clean scanner, clean hands, clean up language. Re-scan 15 photos as a single batch to make sure I was getting them right.
This time, despite my thoroughness, five images had the damned track marks. But the rest were clear. Why? It was a simple explanation and without the scarring experience those years ago with the glue I would have found it quicker. All the duff scans were monochromes, same size and similar subject material so safe to deduce from the same original photo shoot. And the photos were themselves scratched. Yes, each print had three distinct fine scratches running along the face. Not deep enough to affect the surface where the chemical printing action took place and on most only visible if you knew what you were looking for. My guess was that as they went through the scanner the gouges were refracting the massively bright light from the scanner causing imperfections.
Correction - check with the good scans which orientation they needed to go though the scanner for the surface flaws not to be picked up. Half an hour later the batch had been cleaned of the original bad scans and the proper images inserted. We're a big step toward breaking the record. Thanks (again) Kodak.
But we are over it. Frequent thorough cleaning before and during each run, plus eyes and fingers fine tuned to spot tell-tale adhesive scraps. It's a thing of the past. OK, that's the back story.
Last week I was in a rush. We were within a few hundred scans of August (traditionally a very quiet month) being our busiest month ever. I know its petty and I'm the only one it affects but breaking that record, in August of all months, really got me going. When a big box of photos arrived I jumped on it (not literally). A big step to beating the record. Off I went. Couple of hours later, check the results.
You guessed, about 20 scans in, three images with those telltale streaks, and another couple at the back. Scrap it, start again, clean offending prints, eat dinner, resume after (it's twilight now), finally finish up early evening. Next morning, check, same problem. Sift through the box which held just over 1,100 photos to find the miscreants. Clean them with one of our micro fibre (that's micro fiber to many of our readers) dusters. Clean scanner, clean hands, clean up language. Re-scan 15 photos as a single batch to make sure I was getting them right.
This time, despite my thoroughness, five images had the damned track marks. But the rest were clear. Why? It was a simple explanation and without the scarring experience those years ago with the glue I would have found it quicker. All the duff scans were monochromes, same size and similar subject material so safe to deduce from the same original photo shoot. And the photos were themselves scratched. Yes, each print had three distinct fine scratches running along the face. Not deep enough to affect the surface where the chemical printing action took place and on most only visible if you knew what you were looking for. My guess was that as they went through the scanner the gouges were refracting the massively bright light from the scanner causing imperfections.
Correction - check with the good scans which orientation they needed to go though the scanner for the surface flaws not to be picked up. Half an hour later the batch had been cleaned of the original bad scans and the proper images inserted. We're a big step toward breaking the record. Thanks (again) Kodak.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The Customer is Always Right ....
From time to time I have to repeat this, helps calm me down. I had to say it quite a few times this morning.
Last week a chap rang, he'd got back from holiday to find his basement flat had been flooded. Thankfully his landlord lived in an upper floor so most of the water had been mopped up but many of his possessions had been damaged, including his photos. He described them as wrinkled and eaten away at the edges but they had been dried. Could we scan them? Trying to be helpful I said we'd try.
So a couple of days later just over 800 photos arrived in a box. They were certainly crinkled and around the edges the coloured material of the photo seemed to have come away from the glossy surface. Some had chunks of paper missing, but most were in reasonable condition. I fired up our scanner and crossed my fingers. The Kodak s1220 has an amazing feed mechanism (improved in later models) and the prints could be fed in quite easily, albeit one-by-one, and some hours later the photo scanning exercise was complete.
Today we got an email from the client. He was not happy, well, half not happy. He pointed to some defects in our service. Many of the images, particularly those which should have had a smooth blue sky, showed unacceptable hard lines. Clearly the scanner sees alternative shades of blue as the print surface wrinkles closer and further from the scanner glass. Then the colour restore function in effect hardens a line that shouldn't be present.
No, no thought for what we had achieved - in double quick time he had fixed these images against more decay; that at least half had been properly scanned despite the physical damage to the original.
The client suggested the photos would be better if scanned on a flatbed scanner. I said I thought this ought to be the case as the wrinkling might be reduced. I declined the request that we should reduce our flatbed charge (50p per image) to that of our bulk scanning service (10p). We part on a little less than great terms. You can't win them all, but you can tell yourself the customer is always right.
Last week a chap rang, he'd got back from holiday to find his basement flat had been flooded. Thankfully his landlord lived in an upper floor so most of the water had been mopped up but many of his possessions had been damaged, including his photos. He described them as wrinkled and eaten away at the edges but they had been dried. Could we scan them? Trying to be helpful I said we'd try.
So a couple of days later just over 800 photos arrived in a box. They were certainly crinkled and around the edges the coloured material of the photo seemed to have come away from the glossy surface. Some had chunks of paper missing, but most were in reasonable condition. I fired up our scanner and crossed my fingers. The Kodak s1220 has an amazing feed mechanism (improved in later models) and the prints could be fed in quite easily, albeit one-by-one, and some hours later the photo scanning exercise was complete.
Today we got an email from the client. He was not happy, well, half not happy. He pointed to some defects in our service. Many of the images, particularly those which should have had a smooth blue sky, showed unacceptable hard lines. Clearly the scanner sees alternative shades of blue as the print surface wrinkles closer and further from the scanner glass. Then the colour restore function in effect hardens a line that shouldn't be present.
No, no thought for what we had achieved - in double quick time he had fixed these images against more decay; that at least half had been properly scanned despite the physical damage to the original.
The client suggested the photos would be better if scanned on a flatbed scanner. I said I thought this ought to be the case as the wrinkling might be reduced. I declined the request that we should reduce our flatbed charge (50p per image) to that of our bulk scanning service (10p). We part on a little less than great terms. You can't win them all, but you can tell yourself the customer is always right.
Friday, July 22, 2011
What Colour is Snow?
This week we've been grinding our way through a set of images supplied by a long-standing client. He's very organised and every so often we get a chunk of his family photos. This week we got the holiday photos. A mixture of prints, slides and negatives.
The mix of holidays covers annual summer holidays, mainly to sunny beach locations plus many winter skiing trips. Final count was nearly 4,000 images. We had to use our Kodak s1220 for the print scanning, the Nikon 35mm slide scanner and our Epson V700 flatbed.
For the majority of images we got great results from all the material. The summer shots were pretty good, lots of deep blue sea and sandy beaches. The ski shots were much more difficult, and after a while we began to be fascinated by the variation in colour that we could see in snow. The Nikon scanner got the snow white the majority of times, on slides and negatives. Similarly the Epson was spot on, in no small measure due to the special snow scene setting in Silverfast.
But look at the prints - many of which were derived from the negatives we'd scanned. If the source was white right, I assume at one point the prints were too. Maybe it was poor washing or chemicals in processing, maybe it was the ravages of time (although the prints had been kept in their original paper wallets), but snow ranged from a light shade of grey through to a very mucky grey. Hardly any white snow.
If you've ever done any scanning you'll know this is a major problem. Sure, the correction is simple, you can normally rely on those one-click correct functions in iPhoto or Photoshop. The real problem is the variation in greys and the absolute volume of the task - we're talking hundreds of images to be corrected. It is in most circumstances a massive task.
Thankfully Kodak have a Retouch function, a one-click fix for any number of colour issues. Just hit the button and away goes the s1220 software busily bringing all the whites into line. So when the full project was finished and the files merged together as the client wanted we could see what colour snow really is, and it doesn't matter if the image came via negative, slide or print. Snow is white.
The mix of holidays covers annual summer holidays, mainly to sunny beach locations plus many winter skiing trips. Final count was nearly 4,000 images. We had to use our Kodak s1220 for the print scanning, the Nikon 35mm slide scanner and our Epson V700 flatbed.
For the majority of images we got great results from all the material. The summer shots were pretty good, lots of deep blue sea and sandy beaches. The ski shots were much more difficult, and after a while we began to be fascinated by the variation in colour that we could see in snow. The Nikon scanner got the snow white the majority of times, on slides and negatives. Similarly the Epson was spot on, in no small measure due to the special snow scene setting in Silverfast.
But look at the prints - many of which were derived from the negatives we'd scanned. If the source was white right, I assume at one point the prints were too. Maybe it was poor washing or chemicals in processing, maybe it was the ravages of time (although the prints had been kept in their original paper wallets), but snow ranged from a light shade of grey through to a very mucky grey. Hardly any white snow.
If you've ever done any scanning you'll know this is a major problem. Sure, the correction is simple, you can normally rely on those one-click correct functions in iPhoto or Photoshop. The real problem is the variation in greys and the absolute volume of the task - we're talking hundreds of images to be corrected. It is in most circumstances a massive task.
Thankfully Kodak have a Retouch function, a one-click fix for any number of colour issues. Just hit the button and away goes the s1220 software busily bringing all the whites into line. So when the full project was finished and the files merged together as the client wanted we could see what colour snow really is, and it doesn't matter if the image came via negative, slide or print. Snow is white.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Where in the world is s1220?
During the dull bits, for example while the s1220 is doing its thing to restore colour to a batch of photos, I amuse myself by thinking where I'd try to sell photo scanners if I were Kodak rather than a humble photo scanning service in the UK.
This week I read a tip about using website statistics to identify a target market. So I've just done a bit of digging into who actually reads these posts, and who I assume have an interest in Kodak, s1220 or photo scanning. So if I were Mr Kodak Intergalactic this is where I'd be heading.
USA. Ok, not much of a trip for people based in New York State but US interest outweighs the rest of the world put together so maybe your biggest market is on your doorstep. Or maybe the good folk of Rochester indulge odd moments of boredom thinking "where in the world would I open a photo scanning business".
Next, with very similar stats, come Japan, Germany, Turkey and the UK. The big surprise for me in there is Turkey. On a par with Japan and Germany - wow.
Then, another fair step behind, come an odd couple - China and Iran. China I can sort of understand as I know for many years even the poorest Chinese citizens have cherished photos so maybe they've been writing ad copy for Kodak in their duller moments, But Iran? Really? That is one place I'd love to visit and maybe there's market potential there to justify First Class air.
Finally there are the guys letting the side down. At less than 1% of the interest shown by Uncle Sam come the triplets of Canada, Netherlands and Australia. Frankly, we think you should be doing better. I'd justify my trips there by telling Kodak Inc board that the population there need a good talking to and Bondi Beach is the best place to shout.
But finally, finally, are those who don't appear. Mainland Africa? South and Central America? Middle East? Far East?
Clearly this is too much for even Kodak Rochester to handle. Next week we have a few big jobs on, lots of photo restores, so it must be down to me to fill in to help out Kodak. Just send me the plane tickets and hotel vouchers - I'll hit Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. My address is on the 1Scan.co.uk website.
This week I read a tip about using website statistics to identify a target market. So I've just done a bit of digging into who actually reads these posts, and who I assume have an interest in Kodak, s1220 or photo scanning. So if I were Mr Kodak Intergalactic this is where I'd be heading.
USA. Ok, not much of a trip for people based in New York State but US interest outweighs the rest of the world put together so maybe your biggest market is on your doorstep. Or maybe the good folk of Rochester indulge odd moments of boredom thinking "where in the world would I open a photo scanning business".
Next, with very similar stats, come Japan, Germany, Turkey and the UK. The big surprise for me in there is Turkey. On a par with Japan and Germany - wow.
Then, another fair step behind, come an odd couple - China and Iran. China I can sort of understand as I know for many years even the poorest Chinese citizens have cherished photos so maybe they've been writing ad copy for Kodak in their duller moments, But Iran? Really? That is one place I'd love to visit and maybe there's market potential there to justify First Class air.
Finally there are the guys letting the side down. At less than 1% of the interest shown by Uncle Sam come the triplets of Canada, Netherlands and Australia. Frankly, we think you should be doing better. I'd justify my trips there by telling Kodak Inc board that the population there need a good talking to and Bondi Beach is the best place to shout.
But finally, finally, are those who don't appear. Mainland Africa? South and Central America? Middle East? Far East?
Clearly this is too much for even Kodak Rochester to handle. Next week we have a few big jobs on, lots of photo restores, so it must be down to me to fill in to help out Kodak. Just send me the plane tickets and hotel vouchers - I'll hit Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. My address is on the 1Scan.co.uk website.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Bored? Nous?
"You must be bored to death by these" said the young lady as we were loading her photos into the back of my car. Around 10,000 prints, all in wallets, each one carefully named with a Post-it note.
Wedding, art college, h-moon, b'day - and so on. Yes, we get loads of those. Then the holidays, this couple have been everywhere; not just the obvious European or North African tour resorts but all over the world. South America, Australia, Hong Kong (might have been a work assignment, lot of social gatherings), Thailand, Antarctica, New Zealand. This week we've been round the world a couple of times. Bored, no.
Then we had a batch of brilliant photos sent in by a major motor cycle racer. Fantastic shots of colourful bikes in a range of impossible positions. They zipped through our s1220 in no time and I though I'd have a bit of fun with the auto rotate function. You may know our photo scanning service returns print scans correctly oriented, could the computer sort these out?
No, sorry Kodak you failed on that one, but it's hardly surprising. A racing 500cc bike goes round corners on its side. It's only one of the laws of physics that stops the rider falling off. In some of the photos the rider is just inches from the tarmac. Then we add in a number of shots of airborne bikes popping over the brow of a hill and you have a massive mix. Hardly any of a normal bike and rider pose.
I wasn't surprised to find the s1220 thinks there's no difference between a bike on its side and one flying through the air. And sometimes a bike in the air above bleached concrete gets turned up side down. Boring, certainly not.
I've been musing about what it takes to close business. In the case of the large order I was loading into my car it was offering to collect them from the client. sadly too few people trust the mail these days and bundling up thousands of prints for mailing is a real chore. In another case it was mentioning our parallel CD ripping service, so we got 179 photos plus three CDs so our client could make a slideshow with favourite music as a soundtrack.
So all together its been a far from boring week. Thanks Kodak, thanks s1220, and thanks to our clients. Much love.
Wedding, art college, h-moon, b'day - and so on. Yes, we get loads of those. Then the holidays, this couple have been everywhere; not just the obvious European or North African tour resorts but all over the world. South America, Australia, Hong Kong (might have been a work assignment, lot of social gatherings), Thailand, Antarctica, New Zealand. This week we've been round the world a couple of times. Bored, no.
Then we had a batch of brilliant photos sent in by a major motor cycle racer. Fantastic shots of colourful bikes in a range of impossible positions. They zipped through our s1220 in no time and I though I'd have a bit of fun with the auto rotate function. You may know our photo scanning service returns print scans correctly oriented, could the computer sort these out?
No, sorry Kodak you failed on that one, but it's hardly surprising. A racing 500cc bike goes round corners on its side. It's only one of the laws of physics that stops the rider falling off. In some of the photos the rider is just inches from the tarmac. Then we add in a number of shots of airborne bikes popping over the brow of a hill and you have a massive mix. Hardly any of a normal bike and rider pose.
I wasn't surprised to find the s1220 thinks there's no difference between a bike on its side and one flying through the air. And sometimes a bike in the air above bleached concrete gets turned up side down. Boring, certainly not.
I've been musing about what it takes to close business. In the case of the large order I was loading into my car it was offering to collect them from the client. sadly too few people trust the mail these days and bundling up thousands of prints for mailing is a real chore. In another case it was mentioning our parallel CD ripping service, so we got 179 photos plus three CDs so our client could make a slideshow with favourite music as a soundtrack.
So all together its been a far from boring week. Thanks Kodak, thanks s1220, and thanks to our clients. Much love.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Taking Our Scanner for Granted
I know this is tempting fate, but ...
As the owner of a photo scanning service I rely heavily on my Kodak s1220. If you've read other posts you'll see we've been through the wars together. New versions of the operating program, a few usability issues, plus the odd stripy scan. But ...
Well, I was going to run this post last week but I thought I wouldn't tempt fate. I've held off for a week, and last week was pretty busy, we did a few thousand prints. I've given it a second week and see no reason for holding off any longer. Here goes.
Nothing to report.
The wonderful Kodak s1220 has worked faultlessly, happily chugging through all sorts of photos without problem, fuss or drama. We've now put in place an automatic system that asks clients for their feedback when they pay their bill. They continue to love what, thanks to Kodak, we can continue to deliver. A snappy turnround, great quality scans, snapped up faded colours, correct orientation - all at a reasonable price.
So, nothing to report and much to appreciate. Not much of a post really, except in the world of IT based services where not every item of hardware does exactly what it says on the box without hysterics.
To stop you feeling entirely cheated I'll add something I've noticed from our marketing efforts. We've targeted 1Scan.co.uk very much at people who know they don't want to scan. Our clients have been people who wouldn't even know how to switch on a scanner or at the other end, those who know a lot about scanning and know they don't want to be bothered (typically businesses and photo professionals). Increasingly I'm noticing business from people who have a scanner, know how to use it, and have done some scanning. They've been happy with their results - yet they come to us for one simple reason. They have worked out how long it will take them to scan 300+ family photos and they just can't face the grind of doing that one by one.
As the owner of a photo scanning service I rely heavily on my Kodak s1220. If you've read other posts you'll see we've been through the wars together. New versions of the operating program, a few usability issues, plus the odd stripy scan. But ...
Well, I was going to run this post last week but I thought I wouldn't tempt fate. I've held off for a week, and last week was pretty busy, we did a few thousand prints. I've given it a second week and see no reason for holding off any longer. Here goes.
Nothing to report.
The wonderful Kodak s1220 has worked faultlessly, happily chugging through all sorts of photos without problem, fuss or drama. We've now put in place an automatic system that asks clients for their feedback when they pay their bill. They continue to love what, thanks to Kodak, we can continue to deliver. A snappy turnround, great quality scans, snapped up faded colours, correct orientation - all at a reasonable price.
So, nothing to report and much to appreciate. Not much of a post really, except in the world of IT based services where not every item of hardware does exactly what it says on the box without hysterics.
To stop you feeling entirely cheated I'll add something I've noticed from our marketing efforts. We've targeted 1Scan.co.uk very much at people who know they don't want to scan. Our clients have been people who wouldn't even know how to switch on a scanner or at the other end, those who know a lot about scanning and know they don't want to be bothered (typically businesses and photo professionals). Increasingly I'm noticing business from people who have a scanner, know how to use it, and have done some scanning. They've been happy with their results - yet they come to us for one simple reason. They have worked out how long it will take them to scan 300+ family photos and they just can't face the grind of doing that one by one.
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