A question we get asked a lot is why can’t I take a picture with my iPhone camera and use that as a scan? The answer is you can take a picture on your iPhone, crop it with the photo editing software and then adjust the colour. The reason why you wouldn’t do this is the results, although may look OK on your phone screen, in reality, aren’t even close to a professionally scanned image.
There are many reasons for the quality differences between both techniques, but we will start with the most basic reasons – quality and sharpness. When your photograph is scanned, it is placed face down onto a glass frame with a white background pushing this down tight onto the glass. This ensures that the photograph does not move while being scanned, as any movement will result in a blurry image that will not be like the original. When you try to take a photo from your phone, not only will the photograph not be secured to the surface, but your hand movement from holding the phone will also be slightly moving. Due to the distance of the photograph from your phone, the effect will be multiplied and although the results may look OK on your phone’s screen, any reprints or enlargements will be heavily affected. To find out more about our photograph scanning services please click here.
Photograph Colour
– our scanners are designed to scan photographs, not take pictures. Our scanners are regularly calibrated with colour checker targets, ensuring that all the photographs come out with consistent colour like the original. Mobile phone cameras are calibrated to enhance colours, to make sure that when you take a picture with your phone, it comes out bright and colourful, this again looks great on your phone screen as this is what this has been designed for. Our operators also make any colour corrections needed to replicate the original, however subtle they may be. To find out more about our photograph colour corrections services please click here.
Photograph Resolution
– Our scanners scan photographs at a resolution that can be used for reprints and enlargements. The resolution generated by our scanners is generally a lot higher than the resolution generated by a mobile phone camera. Although some cameras now have over 100MP cameras, these are designed for zooming onto a subject from a distance without the use of a zoom lens which you would find with an SLR camera.
Photograph Restoration
– Many old photographs do need restoration whether it be a little or a lot, but having a badly photographed (or scanned) photograph creates much more work from the start and will often wield inferior results and take much more time to achieve a great result. Find out about our photo restoration services here.
Time – To achieve a good result from a phone would take a lot of time and effort, to achieve not an overall great result. The Scan Studio can scan your photographs the day they arrive with us and have digital copies back to you the next day, a lot quicker and easier than messing around trying to get a result yourself.
Peace of Mind – As our digital files of your images are high resolution, this allows them to be used for reprints, enlargements and sharing with family and friends which ensures that your photographs are kept safe for people to see for generations to come. This also allows you to have multiple copies of the same image along with a digital backup, allowing you to keep the original print safely stored away from any possible damage.
To find out more about our photograph scanning services please click here.