Wal-Mart Scanned Photo CD's

[Soul Rebel]

How do they make these cd's? Are they scanning the photos themselves or is it some other way?

Also, what is a good way to get the photos I take scanned? Is there a program that is better than the rest? Or does it matter which?

 

[AIRIC]

Fuji Frontier printers scan the negs and can make prints and digital files at the same time. Walmart for sure would be scanning from the negs as it would take to much time from the prints.

Eric

 

[Soul Rebel]

Im not too concerned with time. What kind of quality can I expect by scanning from the picture itself?

The photos I scanned were not of the best quality and they looked grainy....it wasnt good. I was just using Adobe PhotoShop Album to scan.

 

[Karalee]

Scans from a negative are almost always better than a print scan.

 

[DestinDave]

Also, scans from a "glossy" print will usually be clearer than scans from a "matte" print. I have my film developed at a local pro shop and get the negs, an index print, and a CD with low-res and high-res images on it. More expensive than Wal-Mart or the 1-hour places but much higher quality. If I have a really good shot I want then I take the neg back and have it printed.

 

[Arch]

Im not too concerned with time. What kind of quality can I expect by scanning from the picture itself?

The photos I scanned were not of the best quality and they looked grainy....it wasnt good. I was just using Adobe PhotoShop Album to scan.

If your planning to do this yourself, i would say the best thing to do is use the software that came with your scanner (or use the import option in ps) to get your images into ps. From there you can make alterations and adjustments to get your images looking better. However, they will only look good from the scan if your scanner has the options to scan at a high dpi, aswell as plenty of other options which effect the scan output. Try different settings to get the best results. I have a few scanners, the one i have at home is an AGFA scantouch.....which is ok but not as clear as my Canon one at work....so the quality of the scanner counts.