Slide Scanning - FotoBridge Review

Got the goods, but first I must remind you that I am not being paid, nor was I asked to do this review. I am just really happy with my customer experience with FotoBridge and wanted to tell you about them. I did receive a discount for my first order.

Tonight I popped the FotoBridge CD into my computer. Two folders were available:

As I suspected it contained the JPEG and web ready images. The JPEG folder was 1.8 GB and the Web Images folder was 88.7 MB. 

Plugging in the hard drive, I found the TIFF Images folder, which contained 9.06 GB of data:

FotoBridge scanned a group of five slides at the three different dpi options they offer; 2000, 3000 and 4000 so that I could compare them here on The Scrappy Genealogist.

2000 dpi

3000 dpi

4000 dpi

This picture of me is one that I don't remember seeing before now, but it is significantly even cosmically sentimental to me. I started to tell you the story about this tree on the first day of my blog, but now I have photographic evidence that I got a few of those details wrong. More on that another day.

Here are closeups of each photo, cropped with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, to make the comparison a bit easier:

2000 dpi

3000 dpi

4000 dpi

All three scans are crisp and clean with great color. I blew them all way up on my computer screen and you can even see my freckles. The only difference I can really find between them is that I think it would be possible to make larger prints from the larger files. That said, you can print a good 8 by 10 from the 2000 dpi file. As I mentioned here, I ordered the 3000 dpi version and I am satisfied with that, but next time I would probably go with the 2000 dpi. It looks sufficient to me and FotoBridge says as much on their website. What do you think?

These 500 new images are going to keep me busy for a while. I want to get them filed, show them to my kids and my husband, send some to my sister and cousins and share some of them with all of you too! Meanwhile, I am already thinking about which other slides I want to get scanned. Plus, I will be filing the slides that have come back in storage sleeves. I am just not ready to purge them yet. 

Hope this review was helpful.

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Tech Tuesday - Slide Scanning - Got the Goods

The package of scanned slides from FotoBridge is in my hands. They were quick! Just about three weeks. Here is what I sent them: 

Here is what they sent me:

All of my careful slide groupings came back intact. I did NOT expect an external hard drive. This must have the TIFF format images on it. Perhaps the CD has the JPG and web ready images. 

What? Scrappy Gen, you haven't looked at the slide scans yet? Yes and no. I have had a sneak peak online at SmugMug where FotoBridge uploaded lower resolution versions of the scans, but I have not looked at the CD or external hard drive they sent. While I trust FotoBridge, any new item you add to your computer could carry a virus. It is good to be cautious and make sure you have a recent backup in place prior to making any additions or changes.

Luckily today is the first of the month and I received a reminder that it is Data Backup Day, courtesy of Geneabloggers. Before I load the new images onto my computer, I am off to perform my backups and do a little computer housekeeping. 

Later today I will let you know whether or not I am satisfied with the quality of the images from the scanned slides. From what I have seen so far, it looks like my review will be positive.

Happy Tuesday!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Tech Tuesday: Organizing and Packing Slides for Shipment - FotoBridge

This is an informative blogpost from FotoBridge about how to sort, label and pack your slides for shipping. If your slides are already organized or labeled, it would certainly make sense to send that labeling along with your order. FotoBridge will then label your digital files accordingly.

The slides I sent were in separate groups according to decade, but if I had known FotoBridge would provide this level of organization, I would have included a bit more description to each group. Read this blogpost for more detail and don't forget that FotoBridge is offering readers of The Scrappy Genealogist a ten percent discount. Just use the code "scrappy10" when you place your order.

Organizing and Packing Slides for Shipment FotoBridge Blog

Happy Tuesday!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Slide Scanning - FotoBridge - Getting them ready!

Do you feel like you are swimming in 35mm slides? Depending on how many you have, it can feel like drowning. Or it may just be that you have no idea what to do with them. Here is what M.J. brought back for me the other night: 

Not too overwhelming. This is just a tiny fraction of Bubba's slides, so if you are dealing with boxes and boxes, I feel your pain. My sister and I spent a long weekend viewing and sorting most of roughly 10,000 slides. These are the slides that were sorted into the 'pictures of Scrappy Gen' pile. There is also a baggie labeled 'Garden', which includes slides of Bubba and Grandma's magical, mystical backyard. Today I am packing all of these up to send to FotoBridge for scanning.

Packaging slides is a relatively easy process. The most difficult part was the counting. :) For each group of slides I counted them, counted them again and secured them in stacks with elastic bands. Fifty was the max I felt comfortable putting in one stack. Here are some of my stacks ready to be put in baggies and boxed: 

Because the slides were already sorted by year, I chose to package each year individually. FotoBridge will send them back in their original groupings if you indicate that you would like this done in the notes section of your order. 

Once your slides are packed, it's time to place your order. Be sure to take a look at the packages before you start choosing and packing your slides. Packages range from 250 to 10,000 slides.

My first order has 500 slides. I am upgrading to the 'Gold' package, slides scanned at 3000dpi instead of 2000, and am adding the TIFF files. Even with the TIFF option added, the service is still reasonable when you consider how much time I will save by not having to tinker with each slide. My package will then arrive with three formats; jpg, tiff and web ready, perfect for uploading to The Scrappy Genealogist. :) 

Time to go to the post office and send these babies off. 

Happy Sunny Thursday! 


Scrappy Gen
Let's Remember!

not so Wordless Wednesday - Mystery Slide

Do you need more motivation to get those slides scanned?

How about this mystery slide?*

Found with Bubba's Slides - January 2011

Let's say my sister and I never went through Bubba's slides. Pretend you are one of my great grandchildren and you find this slide. What would you think? Any clues?

Happy Snowy Wednesday from NH! 

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

*Slide was not scanned by FotoBridge.

Bubba's Slides - Part 1 - Elephant in My Closet

That's right, there is an elephant in my closet. I keep pushing him back in and he keeps bulging back out.

Two weekends ago, I spent the long weekend viewing and sorting Bubba's slides with my sister. I had long anticipated this event  because I love old pictures, the possibility of finding a treasure and time spent with Mary. Plus, she had whetted my appetite for this task even further by sending a selection of 250 slides to be digitized in December as I mentioned here. 

Here's the thing, I should have listened to my little sister. She said we couldn't go through all of them in one weekend, and she was right. Even for two photo junkies, like us, trying to go through almost 10,000 slides in one weekend was too big of an undertaking. Believe it or not, we did almost finish, but we ended the weekend with frayed nerves, started off the next week exhausted, burnt out and not wanting to EVER look at another slide again. I went back to New Hampshire with my tail between my legs and a big lesson learned.

We have roughly 10 carousels of 160 slides each left to view. This is an amount doable in a weekend. I have some advice from this experience to share with you over the next week, plus an exciting offer to share from FotoBridge, the company that my sister used. Stay tuned. 

Happy Saturday!

Scrappy Gen

Tech Tuesday - Scanning Slides

"Eat That Frog" says Brian Tracy. "Get a grip and just do it" says Elyse Doerflinger here. I have finally done it; I have eaten the frog, I have gotten a grip and I have taught myself how to scan slides with my trusty old Espon 4490 scanner.  Just don't ask me how long I have owned this technology. I have always loved it, but now I love it even more!

This picture was developed in slide format in October 1967: 

Here are the settings I used to scan it today:

Settings in Epson Scan 
Professional Mode:

Document Type: Film 

Film Type: Positive

Image Type: 24-bit color 

Scanning Quality: Best 

Resolution: 800 dpi 

Document Size: This is the actual size of the slide. 

Target Size: 11x17 is the closest dimension to that of the slide and is also the largest size I would most likely print it. 

Unsharp Mask: Level: Medium

Then I rescanned it with Digital Ice checked off at the bottom and it removed most of the markings on the film. 

Here I must make a confession. It is 2:31 in the afternoon. Time elapsed since I scanned this image is about four hours. Except for a quick grocery trip (when I got really frustrated) and lunch, I have been trying to figure out how in the world to get this image to upload to Blogger. 
                                 
Problem #1: The image was huge - 342 MB!

Problem#2: No matter how small I made the image, Blogger kept rejecting it. 

Solution (after much angst and pulling of hair): Opened the image in Photoshop Elements 8 and chose Image, Resize Image. See settings below:

Now I am headed back to the drawing board. Although I love the quality of my scanned image, it is far bigger than necessary and the process has slowed my computer down to a snail’s pace. With some more tweaking of settings I should be able to find the magic formula for creating a good printable image that won’t create a humungous file. Humungous my computer does NOT like!

Let me know if you have any formula suggestions.

Happy Scanning!

Scrappy Gen

Wordless Wednesday - Frozen Lake - Grandma, Bubba and Champ

Tech Tuesday - Scanning Slides

This was part of one of the best presents I ever received:

Grandma Smith and Me January 1968

One of my biggest goals for 2011 is scanning, archiving and sharing with my cousins the thousands of slides taken by Bubba. My husband even gave me the Slides 2 PC scanner