Digital editing vs. CD

[stumpfoot]

I have a film camera. If I get my pictures developed on cd will I be able to edit in a photo editing program? I'm sure to some extent I can but am I limited even thought they would be downloaded into my computer from a cd as opposed to a digital? what of quality, would I have "less to work with" because of the cd rather than digital?

 

[darich]

Editing will be as easy as any digital image, however youwon't be able to edit on the cd. You'll need to copy the images to your hard drive and edit them from there. You can then burn the edited versions to a different disc.

As for resolution - again there shouldn't be any difference from a decent digital file but it depends on the scanning resolution and how clean the print and scanner glass were at the time of scanning.

 

[Aquarium Dreams]

Different places scan the negatives at different resolutions. I think at one time I figured that the scans I was getting from the drugstore had as many pixels as jpegs from a 3 megapixel camera, while the ones from film I mailed to York were the equivelant of a 1.5 megapixel camera. Don't be mislead by the pixel count, though, because there's more detail in a negative scan from an slr camera than in an image from a 1.5 or 3 megapixel digital camera. The scans you get from most places will print nicely to at least 4x6. The scans were good enough for sharing online and for making 4x6 prints, but when I made larger prints, I brought my negatives to a lab. They might have printed fine at larger sizes, but I never took the chance.

Here's more information about what you can expect:

http://www.tedfelix.com/PhotoCD/PCDLabs.html

You might get subpar scans at one place, but be able to drive across town and get decent scans somewhere else.

 

[Big Mike]

Before I went digital, I had all of my images put onto CD so that I could edit them. As mentioned, most places will give you a file that has enough resolution to make a nice 4x6 or 5x7 print. I have made 8x10 prints as well...but you start to notice a loss of quality.

I also noticed that I got a lot of dirt/dust/specs etc. in the images. Whether is was from the film or just dirty equipment at the lab...it meant a lot of clean-up work for me.

Once I got a good digital camera, the files were much cleaner than the scans.

 

[stumpfoot]

So if I check into some local labs for cd development are there questions I can ask to get a better scan?

 

[EOS_JD]

Ask for the highest resolution scan they have (without interpolation).

This should give a reasonable sized print.

once the photo is scanned it's then a digital image the same as any other. The difference will be small things like dust/hairs etc that may need to be removed.