photo scanning: Not sure if this belongs here but I keep getting requests for photo scanning jobs, not sure why but thought it might be something to look into. These are people looking...

uniqueharm Loc: New Jersey

Not sure if this belongs here but I keep getting requests for photo scanning jobs, not sure why but thought it might be something to look into. These are people looking for 500 to 1000 photos to be scanned and possibly organized.
Does anyone have any info as to what is involved with this, what kind of equipment is needed, what to charge?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Old Timer Loc: Greenfield, In.

Good luck but most I have wanted some similar service do want to pay for what is worth. For me the job is too time consuming to try to make a business doing it as there are service that will do it if you can afford the cost. Unless you do charge much for you time I do not believe it is worth it.

Kuzano

$25 PER SLIDE no, nodecimal there. Time/labor only.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

It's a very labor intensive, time consuming task unless you have the specialized equipment needed to do it mechanically. You can use a fairly inexpensive Epson scanner and scan 5 or so at a time. The software will separate them into individual files and save the files in the PC. If the slides are good and you don't have to name them individually you can move to the next batch. A conservative estimate puts 5 files at about 6 minutes. If you need to do any PS work then it could be an estimate of 10 minutes or more, per slide. Compared to the commercial copying operations there is just no way to make a buck doing this yourself.

Robert Bailey Loc: Canada

I agree with previous posters- this is time consuming work,
but the average customer wants to pay about 2.5 cents per image
not 25 dollars per image as suggested above.

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

I have done this for many o of my old photo. Most printers do a good job. Need to keep glass clean, and dust photo before scanning. My Epson would scan several photos at the same time and separated as individual jpeg files. Most need some image enhancement. I used me photo gallery in a batch mode for this. If some wanted me to do it for them I would tell them they could not afford me. Unless they were picture of my grandparent or great grandparents. What resolution to you want three pictures, what format jpeg tiff.
Good luck

mcarchia Loc: Windham, NH

I am a retired engineer and do photography services on the side just to keep busy. I don't charge much and have scanned slides, made albums, videos out of pictures, etc. For 500 slides I charged $149. This included scanning and editing the files. Yes, it took a while but I learned a lot. Slides MUST be dust free or you get specs all over them. You might need an air gun/blaster and I bought a 4 slide scanner for a reasonable price. I have a web site if you're interested in looking but send them my way and I can do it. Since I am retired I have time to put into something like this. Most photographers don't want to deal with such things because it "boring" and time consuming. I don't look at it this way and I really am not doing it for the money. Anyway, just thought I would put this on. My web site is mikesphotolibrary.com if you are interested. Ok, that's my take on this subject.
Mike

Kiriakos

mcarchia wrote:

I am a retired engineer and do photography services on the side just to keep busy. I don't charge much and have scanned slides, made albums, videos out of pictures, etc. For 500 slides I charged $149. This included scanning and editing the files. Yes, it took a while but I learned a lot. Slides MUST be dust free or you get specs all over them. You might need an air gun/blaster and I bought a 4 slide scanner for a reasonable price.
Mike

What specific scanning equipment you use and what is your opinion of those recent scanners duplicators like Wolverine, Digitnow etc?

leftj Loc: Texas

uniqueharm wrote:

Not sure if this belongs here but I keep getting requests for photo scanning jobs, not sure why but thought it might be something to look into. These are people looking for 500 to 1000 photos to be scanned and possibly organized.
Does anyone have any info as to what is involved with this, what kind of equipment is needed, what to charge?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

If you have to ask you're not ready to be in that business.

Kiriakos

leftj wrote:

If you have to ask you're not ready to be in that business.

Sir, Yes Sir, sorry Sir.

ps. I am only an amateur, I am sorry I didn't realize that this site is for professionals only and I didn't see the sign
'' Trespassers in this blog will be prosecuted!"

leftj Loc: Texas

Kiriakos wrote:

Sir, Yes Sir, sorry Sir.

ps. I am only an amateur, I am sorry I didn't realize that this site is for professionals only and I didn't see the sign
'' Trespassers in this blog will be prosecuted!"

Now Now. Calm down. Don't be so sensitive.

uniqueharm Loc: New Jersey

Thanks everyone for your input. As I originally stated I have been getting requests for photo scanning and was not sure what was involved.

JennT Loc: South Central PA

Teach the person how to do it--

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Kiriakos wrote:

Sir, Yes Sir, sorry Sir.

ps. I am only an amateur, I am sorry I didn't realize that this site is for professionals only and I didn't see the sign
'' Trespassers in this blog will be prosecuted!"

Skiextreme2 Loc: Northwest MA

A good Epson photo scanner would do the job. If you have a scanner, scan 10 photos at 300 DPI or better and time how long it takes to do that, including swapping photos and anything else you have to do. Then, figure how much your time is worth for the amount of time it takes to scan 10 photos and decide if it's worth it to do 500-1000 photos. Doing it by hand will take a long time, be sure of that.