Archive for the ‘Hobbies’ Category

Mild, Moderate, and Severe Photo Retouching

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Many professionals who are experts in photo retouching and repair classify the work that needs to be done into categories, and they also determine the extent of the damage to the photographs that they work on. Many determine pricing for their services based on what damage needs repairing and what methods and techniques they will need to use to correct it all.

Minor photo retouching usually is for those pictures that have no tears, rips, or cracks that compromise the picture. Repairing minor cracks and creases along with damaged edges are all pretty minor fixes. Other repairs that may fall into this minor category include removing dust, scratches, and light stains, removing red eye, repairing slight fading and discoloration, and fixing any minor color shift that has taken place.

The moderate category for photo retouching involves a little bit more effort and work than what the tasks in the minor category require. Some of these moderate fixes include things like repairing moderate water damage, creases, and partially torn pictures, restoring pictures that had been written on, repairing missing edges, removing or modifying the background of pictures, restoring moderate fading and discolorations, and removing moderate scratches and rips. It is important to note that photos that are torn may fall into this category only if the pieces that are torn are not missing.

Next up we have the severe photo restoration tasks that take the most time to complete and are the most difficult (but not impossible) to accomplish. These tasks are the ones that not only cost the most but also take the longest time to finish. However, keep in mind that even though this is the most costly category, neither the price nor the time involved is ever excessively high. Some of the tasks that would fall into this severe category of photo restoration include reconstructing facial damage, re creating missing pieces, repairing creases, stains, and multiple tears, fixing severe fading and discoloring, dramatically changing, adding, or removing a complicated background, removing people and objects entirely from photos and re creating that part of the picture, and more. You may be very surprised at all of the things that can be done by the professionals that have experience with photo retouching, and if you are curious about any special requests for a picture of yours, be sure to ask them about it.

For more information on Photo Retouching, please visit our website.

A Good Photo Scan Vs. a Good Negative Scan

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Many people are not aware of the differences between the quality of scanning a negative and a photo scan. The main point that people need to keep in mind is that scanning color prints do not yield more detail when they are scanned using a resolution of more than 300 dpi (dots per inch), but using a negative can produce a high quality image up to much higher resolutions. Many people wrongly assume that the higher the resolution, the better the detail will be. However, they are often disappointed and waste a lot of time and energy trying before they finally give up.

It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, because a photo print is nothing more than a lesser copy of the original film, the negative. Any copy is never as high quality as the original. However, most people think of the printed picture as the original. The original negatives have superior resolution and can give you better results than a photo scan will.

What doesnt help is the fact that printer paper, even that which is specially designed for pictures, is the evil arch enemy of picture quality. Enlarging an image by 4 or 10 times will diminish the resolution quality of that image equally as much. The paper that is used for pictures is very much inferior to the film (negative). Unfortunately, you can use high grade film that resolves detail at 3000 dpi, but print paper comes nowhere near that high resolution quality. The cause is hopeless when you are trying to increase the resolution from a photo scan from a print, and even worse when you print that scan out on paper.

A photo scan from 35 mm film is an entirely different story, however, and using a good film scanner is the recommended way to go. There are three main parts to a photo scan: the medium used (a printed photo, slide, or negative), the machine that will do the scanning, and the paper that is used. Although we cannot do too much about the paper (as explained above), we can influence our results with the first two components, the medium that is scanned and the machine we use to do it.

Getting a good photo scan using negatives and a special negative scanner will always yield much higher detail and resolution than using a flatbed scanner to digitize a printed picture, so if you are determined to get a good photo scan from a color print and a flatbed scanner above 300 dpi, you may be wasting your time.

For more information on Photo Scan , please visit our website.

The Undiscovered Advantage of Using a Negative Scanning Service

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

This little article discusses the benefits of using a negative scanning service over a photo scanner. Picture yourself sitting with a shoe box full of film negatives and color printed pictures. You decide that you really do need to get them uploaded to a computer to make back up discs for them in case something ever happens to the shoe box (very good idea). At this point, most people would gather the color prints, leaving the negatives deserted in the box, and would send them to a photo scanning service to get those digital images onto a disc. Unfortunately, those people just made a wrong decision. Why? They should have sent their negatives to a negative scanning service and left the pictures in the shoe box.

And now we are all wondering what on Earth I am talking about and why people would do that. The answer is simple. Printed photos are merely enlarged copies of the truly original picture that was taken, which is found on the film, or the negative. Everyone has heard that a copy of anything is never as good as the original, no matter how much effort goes in to the attempt. The same holds true for film.

It must be remembered that a color print is nothing more than an enlarged, inferior copy of the original the film. Since the print is in fact a copy, it is by default not as good. When you add to that the fact that it has already been enlarged to make that print, the quality of the image is drastically reduced again. This is precisely why people find out that the work done by a negative scanning service always yields higher quality images than scanning color prints does. When you scan a print, you are obtaining a copy of a copy. When you do the same with the original film, you are obtaining a copy of an original. Makes sense, doesnt it?

So all of the years that you took your 35 mm film in for processing to have it returned to you with prints has a whole new meaning to you. People who didnt know any better for decades have not understood the benefit of having the negatives returned to them with their prints, except that they could use the negatives at a later time to get more crummy prints! Now we see that if we want more prints, the negatives are ultimately important in the quality and resolution of the finished product.

The point is that hopefully all these years you have held on to those original film strips along with the paper prints, and if you are thinking of getting copies made of your pictures, dont send in your paper prints to be copied, send in your original, true blue film to the lifesavers who work for your friendly neighborhood negative scanning service instead.

For more information on Negative Scanning Service , please visit our website.

35mm Slide Scanning for High Quality Images

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

If you had to choose to use color prints or 35mm slides for scanning, which would you choose? Most people would probably use their color prints to obtain copies or digital images, but actually 35mm slide scanning is the better option whenever it is possible. If you think about it, the reasons why this is true make perfect sense. Slides and negatives are the originals of a picture, while paper color prints are just copies of that original. It is common knowledge that originals are always better quality than copies. When people get prints from their negatives, it is nothing more than a copy, and a poor one at that.

If that wasnt bad enough, the paper that the photos are printed on contribute heavily to the diminished poor quality, too. Enlarging the images to be made into color prints diminishes the resolution many times automatically. Any kind of paper will do this. The best solution for the problem of low quality images is 35mm slide scanning as opposed to the print scanning.

What doesnt help is the fact that printer paper, even that which is specially designed for pictures, is the evil arch enemy of picture quality. Enlarging an image by 4 or 10 times will diminish the resolution quality of that image equally as much. The paper that is used for pictures is very much inferior to the film (negative). Unfortunately, you can use high grade film that resolves detail at 3000 dpi, but print paper comes nowhere near that high resolution quality. The cause is hopeless when you are trying to increase the resolution from a photo scan from a print, and even worse when you print that scan out on paper.

Scanning 35mm film is an entirely different story, however, and using a good film scanner is the recommended way to go. When you have negatives, a scanner, and the paper to work with, you can influence the quality of your final images only by using a good scanner, using slides or negatives instead of prints, and using photo paper instead of regular printer paper. Even though the photo paper will not yield perfect images, it will do a much better job than regular paper. If you are determined to get a good photo scan from a color print and a flatbed scanner above 300 dpi, you may be wasting your time. Dont try to enlarge a photo too much from 35mm slide scanning, because again, each time you enlarge it you will lose a lot of quality and resolution.

For more information on 35mm slide scanning , please visit our website.

Managing A 50 Gallon Fish Tank

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

If you are planning to acquire a 50 gallon fish tank there are a few things you should know before hand in order to get yourself prepared for the work ahead. It is true that the larger the fish tank the better it looks but it also implies more work in the process.

Accessories For A 50 Gallon Fish Tank

The first and most important accessory you must purchase at the same time with the fish tank will have to be the stand on which you will place it. The recommended stands are cabinets, which are built strong to hold a 50 gallon fish tank without any difficulty or risk, after all you don’t want your fish tank smash to pieces killing your precious fish along with it just because you did not place it in the right stand.

Fish tank filter is the next thing you should be investing in for keeping the water clean and oxygenated at all times. The larger the fish tank the more powerful your filter should be, in fact you can find filter specific to the size of your tank in specialized stores or online as well.

Lights and other decorative accessories - depending on where you are going to place the 50 gallon fish tank you can make out of it quiet a decoration piece, by adding adequate light and decor you can match it to your style or use it when needed as night light. Usually blue lights are most common as they are smoothing for both you and the fish as well.

Other Necessary Items For A 50 Gallon Fish Tank

Even if you have automated cleaning system for your 50 gallon fish tank you still may want to invest in manual cleaning accessories such as a cleaning sponge specially made for fish tanks and special detergent which is not harmful to your fish.

A 50 gallon fish tank can easily hold 15 - 20 small fish or 10 larger ones depending on what you have in mind. Remember not to over crowd them by adding to many fish or with extra accessories and furniture.

Fish tank screen is also something you may want to invest in if the tank is kept in a place that is brightly lighted at all times as the fish too need their peace and quiet time just as you do. This fish tank screen will cover the tank and protect it from strong light while allowing air the infiltrate normally.

Eddie Lamb publishes an abundance of information on a range of topical subjects. This article Managing A 50 Gallon Fish Tank, is just one of a host of useful articles about Fish Tanks listed on our site map at Fish Tank Special.